An explorer was astonished after visiting one of Europe’s unrecognised countries – after discovering just how cheap it is.
The tiny landlocked region of Transnistria offers the cheapest living conditions in Europe – and quite possibly the world. Adventurer Drew visited the breakaway Moldovan state, which has an estimated population size of 450,000, to see how far $10 (about £8) would stretch.
Transnistria exists in a Soviet time warp bubble – it’s filled with relics of the USSR, with giant statues of Lenin and old Red Army tanks decorating public parks and spaces. Gas and electricity there are believed to be the cheapest energy available anywhere. And those bargain-basement prices translate to day-to-day shopping too.
Drew and his wife Deanna visited Transnistria – which is about double the land area of Wales but has a population only around a tenth the size – for a shopping trip that made their jaws drop.
They kicked off their Transnistrian adventure with a visit to a buffet-style restaurant, where “Russian grandmas” served up plates of fresh-cooked food for about £2.50 each. “Now this is a meal,” Drew happily said. “We’ve got borscht soup, chicken, cabbage, eggplant [aubergine], and all this for three dollars.”
Paying for things can be tricky, though, as Transnistria remains unrecognised by most major world governments and so credit cards don’t work there. Instead you have to withdraw cash and exchange it for unique Transnistrian plastic coins that look like board game tokens.
For an additional $0.20, Drew bought a glass of kvass – a fermented tea drink that, he said, tasted a little like beer. Drew’s tour guide, American-born Tim Tiraspol, told him that as long as you have a source of income from outside the country, you can live “very well indeed.”
After splitting from Moldova in the Transnistria is not recognised by any UN member state except Russia. The only other state in the region that remains similarly unrecognised is the Black Sea Republic of Abkhazia – which again is seen as a Russian client state.
The EU also does not recognise the state and reports have suggested it is a sticking point in Moldova joining the organisation.
One mega-corporation, the Sheriff corporation, runs most of the shops and infrastructure but the company – founded by two former KGB members in the early 1990s – is regarded as “pretty benign” by the locals. Sheriff even owns Sheriff Tiraspol football club, the regions’s most successful yteam – but since 2022 the side has been banned by UEFA from playing any games at its home ground in Transnistria.
Certainly the prices in Sheriff’s supermarkets are very affordable. Drew managed to buy himself a litre of powerfully strong vodka for just over a pound, but neither he or Deanna could manage more than a mouthful of the potent spirit.
They went on to try to balance out their dangerous day-drinking with a couple of slices of pizza and a local speciality dessert each, but were still left with change from their original $10.
In all, for less than a tenner, Drew enjoyed a Russian buffet for two, a fermented “beer,” as well as two cups of espresso, a bottle of hair-raisingly strong vodka, two slices of pizza and a couple of puddings.
Despite sharing a border with war-torn Ukraine, Transnistria seemed quiet and peaceful, Drew said, urging viewers to check out Europe’s cheapest holiday destination themselves.
