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 192 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; leu and Romanian leu both circulate, with leu in 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.
It's not a marketing gimmick — it's an engineering decision born from indifference to gimmicks. You can't make a tariff cheaper than no fine-print and no expiry — so we don't.
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