Radisson Blu Leogrand Hotel

The Leogrand has long been Chișinău's default address for international business, and its Radisson Blu affiliation keeps the standards recognisably European: a marble-clad lobby, conference floors that host much of the capital's diplomatic circuit, and staff accustomed to foreign guests in a city where that remains the exception. The location is the practical heart of town—Mitropolit Varlaam Street, one block from the cathedral park and Stephen the Great Boulevard, with restaurants and the central market within a short walk.

Rooms are classic business-hotel in cut, warm-toned and well insulated, with suites adding sitting rooms; the wellness floor is a bigger asset than most guests expect, running to an indoor pool, saunas and a line-up of treatments at Moldovan prices. Dining covers international standards with Moldovan wines given due prominence. It is not a design statement—the Leogrand's virtues are reliability, position and value—but for first-time visitors to Moldova, or for the growing number combining Chișinău with the Cricova and Purcari wine routes, it remains the city's most dependable full-service base.