A weekend in Chișinău
You land at KIV at 22:00 on a Friday after a short connection, the city lights are sparser than you'd expect for a capital, and the Bolt driver to the hotel is already pinged to your number. Saturday morning your guide picks you up for the Cricova underground tour — eight stories down through wine corridors with no signal, then back to the surface and a stack of WhatsApp messages from family wondering where you went. Sunday at Orheiul Vechi, a couple of photos uploaded between bites of placintă, and you're at the airport again. The whole weekend used about a gigabyte of data. The eSIM bills you for that gigabyte. Not for a five-gigabyte "tourist pack."
Roamzy charges $4.20 per gigabyte in Moldova, billed at $0.0041 per megabyte in real time. No subscription, no expiry, no minimum bundle. One per-MB rate across 193 countries — the figure on the page is the figure on the invoice.
How much will Roamzy actually cost on this trip?
Realistic usage on a Moldova trip is 0.6–1 GB per day for a city pattern, less if you're spending a day or two underground in the wine cellars. Plan on 0.7 GB/day:
| Trip length | Roamzy ($4.20/GB) | Tourist roaming pass | Local SIM at KIV |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days (long weekend) | $8.82 | $15–35 | $3–10 + passport, store visit |
| 5 days (Chișinău + wine country) | $14.69 | $25–55 | $5–15 + paperwork |
| 1 week (incl. Transnistria day-trip) | $20.57 | $40–90 | $8–20 + 30-day cap |
Competitor prices in columns 3 and 4 are 2025 ranges based on typical offerings; exact figures depend on your home carrier and the airport store you visit. Roamzy's rate in column 2 is our actual published rate from the pricing page.
A local Moldovan SIM is genuinely cheap and registration is short. For a five-day wine-and-cellar trip, the eSIM still wins on simplicity: scan the QR before flying, the Bolt to the hotel arrives before the conveyor belt does.
Where does Roamzy work in this country?
- Chișinău (centre, Botanica, Râșcani, Buiucani) — 4G/5G across the city, dense LTE on the main avenues, working signal in trolleybus and minibus corridors
- Cricova and Mileștii Mici cellars — coverage at the entrance and surface buildings; underground in the wine corridors there's nothing, by definition
- Orheiul Vechi (Old Orhei) — LTE at the visitor centre and main viewpoint, weaker in the rocky outcrops
- Bălți, Cahul, Comrat — LTE in town centres, weaker on inter-town roads
- Transnistria (Tiraspol, Bender) — separate de facto network jurisdiction; coverage in towns is reliable, but expect different operator behaviour
- Soroca and the northern Dniester — LTE in town, weaker on the bluffs and along the river
What will I actually use Roamzy for here?
- Bolt and Yandex Go both work in Chișinău; Bolt has the deeper local presence
- Telegram and WhatsApp both work; tour guides and homestay hosts respond on either
- Card payments are normal in Chișinău and the wine resorts; the Moldovan leu circulates, with cash leading at smaller venues
- Camera-translator handles Moldovan (Romanian-script) and Russian (Cyrillic) signage in the regions
- Photo upload from Cricova or Orheiul Vechi is the largest single consumer
How do I install my Roamzy eSIM?
| Plug type | Voltage | Frequency | iOS | Android |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type C, F | 230 V | 50 Hz | iPhone XS+ | Pixel 3+, Galaxy S20+ |
- Sign in to Roamzy via Telegram or Google
- Top up the eSIM with a minimum of 20 USDT — stablecoins, no cards, no banks, no FX surcharges
- The QR code appears in the dashboard once payment confirms
- Settings → Cellular → Add eSIM → scan QR
- The counter starts when you land at Chișinău International (KIV)
Supported stablecoins, networks, and common iPhone/Android setup errors are in the FAQ.
What are Roamzy's honest limitations?
- No welcome promo that flips on top-up #2. The rate stays $0.0041/MB.
- No fine-print throttling. One rate, billed by the megabyte.
- No auto-renewal you forgot to cancel. Balance runs out, the eSIM stops.
Per-megabyte in Moldova is not a campaign, it's a refusal to write terms we'd have to defend later. Empty fine print is hard to beat on price because there's nothing in it to beat.
What if my trip continues across the region?
- Romania — frequent road extension west, separate country rate
- Ukraine — historically common, conflict-dependent today; check current advice before travel
- If you want the underlying mechanics — how roaming actually gets priced and why it hurts