Valery Bradu

I took a tour with local guide Valery Bradu which my hotel (Hotel Plai) organised for me. I was picked up from my hotel by Valery at around 11:30am and shared the trip with two ladies from Lithuania. Valery made sure we were all comfortable in his car and spoke to the ladies in Russian and myself in English and made sure we all had a good day. 

We visited Cricova winery where a guide spoke to the other guests in Russian and Valery gave me a private talk about the winery in English. As part of the trip we drove around underground on a small open bus seeing the caskets and how they make wine & Prosecco, we then took part in wine tasting which was very informative and relaxing in one of the tasting rooms. The tour lasted around 2 hours.

Once we left the winery, Valery drove us for around an hour to the monastery which was in a remote location in the Moldovan countryside/hills which was so peaceful with a quintessential little village. We went to the hidden monastery and again Valery taught us everything we needed to know about the area and how & why the monastery was formed. We stopped for a drink in a local restaurant too & we’re watching locals working the land. 

Valery was a very knowledgeable guide with perfect English & was clearly very passionate about his job & his love for Moldova was clear. Very enjoyable day & would definitely recommend Valery as your guide, he seemed to know everything there was to know about Moldova & it’s history.