🏡 Agrotourism in Moldova: relaxation in an authentic village

Last updated Dec 24, 2024

Spend your holiday in the peace and quiet of summer village life: with mooing cows, fresh warm milk and southern fruits… With all the sounds and smells – hay, wheat, sun – that fill the Moldovan village in abundance. Moldova is not the most popular destination for summer holidays, but believe me: the country’s tourism potential has not yet been tapped.

Many countries are developing ecotourism, but not all have such conditions as Moldova. Fertile soils that do not need chemical fertilizers, a warm climate and, most importantly, people who are ready to work on the land.

Of course, not every Moldovan village is ready to receive tourists during the summer months, but an hour’s drive from Chisinau is the village of Riscova, where guests are always welcome.

The village has become famous thanks to the community of enthusiasts EcoVillage Moldova, whose members promote an environmentally friendly lifestyle. Subsistence farming, careful use of water, energy, wood, and waste reduction are the main tenets of the movement’s activists.

EcoVillage Moldova employees and volunteers were also supported by many local residents. The household plots of these Ryskov residents are completely idyll: natural farming, environmentally friendly fertilizers – fortunately, the cows produce them in sufficient quantities. They also fight garden pests “with their own hands” – no chemical treatment. Colorado beetles, for example, are shaken off the bush into a bucket in the old fashioned way and then destroyed.

Many people in the village keep cows. In the evenings, the main street is filled with the mooing of a herd of white and red cows going home. Have you tried warm homemade milk lately? What about cottage cheese? And the oil?

Have you already wanted to live in this calm, peaceful environment and enjoy the purity of nature?

Then contact the Ecovisio Environmental Education Center. Activists of the initiative opened it in Riskov almost ten years ago. It sets an example of living in unity with nature and has collected the most innovative eco-ideas.

You can relax and retire in the Center either alone or with the whole family. At least for one day, or at least for the whole week. You can take a laptop or notepad with you and work remotely in an equipped office, on a terrace overlooking the forest, or on a bench in the garden. And there are literally hundreds of useful entertainments for children.

What surprises you about the Center literally from the first steps? For example, a toilet… Do you think you know what an eco-toilet should be like? But you don’t know.

An eco-friendly toilet is a regular toilet, but not connected to the sewer system, but with a special container underneath. All remnants of human activity are stored in it.

The filled container should be stored for two years. After this period, its contents will turn into an excellent natural fertilizer. The eco-toilet does not use water – it is too valuable a resource to be wasted so irrationally. After visiting the toilet, you need to carefully sprinkle chopped hay into the toilet.

As Elena Taku, Ecovisio project coordinator, told me, the Center’s premises were built only from natural and environmentally friendly materials. No plastic, no chemical coatings. All work was carried out using technologies that Moldavian peasants have used for centuries.

The walls of the Center's buildings are made of straw – it retains heat well. A layer of clay is applied on top of the straw – both inside and outside. In the house, which is called “Mushroom”, the roof is covered with a material traditional for this area – reeds. There is a layer of soil on the roof of the second building: these kind of “beds” absorb solar heat and keep the room cool. Also, such a “roof” allows you to increase the planting area, Elena said.

By the way, about landings. The Center’s employees and volunteers are ready to use the example of their own garden to show how to get the maximum eco-harvest by harmonizing, and not opposing, their actions to nature.

Have you thought that each type of plant needs to be planted in a separate bed? Well, no. You need to plant partner plants together—those that complement and protect each other, such as garlic and strawberries. Weeds also need to be fought in moderation – they create a microenvironment around the main plants.

And, most importantly, you cannot divide the area into a garden and a vegetable garden – you need to combine them. If you stop growing vegetables after ten years, then only grass will grow in place of the beds for a long time. But if you plant apple and pear trees next to the beds, then trees will remain on the ground.

You can stay on vacation not only in the premises of the Ecovisio Center itself, but also with local residents. They provide tourists with rooms or an entire house for a weekend getaway or long-term stay.

But the hospitality of the owners is not limited to this: you can order breakfast, lunch and dinner from them from local dishes. This will help you immerse yourself even more in the atmosphere of calm and leisurely village life.

Unity with nature, the energy of the warm sun, natural delicious food, the kind attitude of people – all this will give you strength and inspire you to new achievements. All you have to do is come to Riscova!