Baltics: Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius

Arrive in Tallinn

Tallinn Airport to your hotel by the Old Town

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Tallinn

Soir

Pick-up runs all day; to be in time for the evening briefing, land by about 4 pm, and we confirm the briefing time with your final itinerary. If you arrive early, drop your bags and wander inside the medieval walls, where much of the circuit of towers and gates still stands and the lanes have kept their street plan since the Middle Ages. The Old Town has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1997. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the nine days ahead: how the three capitals are paced, which mornings start early and why, and what the two longer drives look like. Then we walk together to a welcome dinner of Estonian food: dark rye bread, smoked fish, and whatever the season brings. In June the sky barely darkens, so the walk back feels like early evening.

Compris

• Pick-up at Tallinn Airport (TLL)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Tallinn Old Town

Tallinn on foot: Toompea, then the lower town

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Tallinn

Matin

We start at 9 am with a licensed local guide, before the cruise-ship passengers who fill Toompea from mid-morning in summer. First we climb to Toompea, the limestone hill where the bishops and the nobility lived, past the onion domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, completed in 1900, and the pink Baroque front of the parliament building. From the Kohtuotsa and Patkuli viewing platforms you look over red roofs and spires to the harbour. Then we go down Pikk jalg, the steep 'long leg' lane, into the lower town of merchants and guilds: Town Hall Square and its Gothic Town Hall, the old Town Hall Pharmacy, the Holy Spirit Church and the guild halls on Pikk street.

Après-midi

The walk ends around 12:30, and lunch and the afternoon are yours. Your guide can point you to Kadriorg Park and the palace built for Peter the Great, to the old factory buildings of the Telliskivi Creative City, or to the Seaplane Harbour maritime museum.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Guided walk of Tallinn Old Town with a licensed local guide
• Toompea, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Kohtuotsa and Patkuli viewing platforms
• Town Hall Square and the lower town

Activités en option

• St Olaf's Church tower (open in the warmer months)
• Kadriorg Palace art museum
• Tallinn TV Tower

Lahemaa National Park

Tallinn to the Viru Bog, Palmse Manor and Altja, then back to Tallinn

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Tallinn
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

A wooden boardwalk of about 3.5 km crosses the bog between dark pools and stunted pines to a viewing tower, and in the morning it is quiet enough to hear the birds. Next is Palmse Manor, a Baltic German manor house with its park, ponds and outbuildings, restored as a museum of manor life.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at a village tavern near the coast. In the afternoon we walk around Altja, a fishing village of wooden net sheds and farmhouses, and along a shore scattered with boulders, with time for a swim on a warm day.

Soir

We are back in Tallinn by about 5 pm, and the evening is free.

Compris

• Viru Bog boardwalk and viewing tower
• Palmse Manor entry
• Altja fishing village and the Lahemaa coast
• Sit-down lunch in Lahemaa

Pärnu and the coast road to Riga

Tallinn to Pärnu, then Kabli on the Gulf of Riga and on to Riga

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Riga
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Après-midi

A short walk takes in Rüütli street, the 17th-century Tallinn Gate, the wide sandy beach and the Art Nouveau Ammende Villa of 1905, and lunch is a sit-down meal in town. After lunch we follow the Via Baltica down the coast and stop at Kabli, a village by the sea with reed beds and a bird-ringing station that is busy during the autumn migration, to stretch our legs on the shore. There are no checks at the border into Latvia. The road then runs south near the coast through Salacgrīva and Saulkrasti, and we reach Riga at about 5 pm.

Soir

Your hotel is a short walk from the Old Town, and the evening is free.

Compris

• Walk in Pärnu: Rüütli street, the Tallinn Gate, the beach and the Ammende Villa
• Sit-down lunch in Pärnu
• Stop on the Gulf of Riga shore at Kabli

Riga Old Town and Art Nouveau

Riga on foot: the Old Town, the Central Market and the quiet centre

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Riga

Après-midi

Lunch is at the Central Market, set in five former Zeppelin hangars, where your guide orders a spread of smoked fish, rye bread, pickles and Latvian soups to share. In the afternoon we walk past the Freedom Monument to the quiet centre: Alberta iela, where the facades by Mikhail Eisenstein are covered in masks, faces and sphinxes, and the Riga Art Nouveau Centre, a restored apartment from the early 1900s.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Guided walk of Riga Old Town with a licensed local guide
• St Peter's Church tower by lift
• Lunch at the Riga Central Market
• Alberta iela and the Riga Art Nouveau Centre (closed Mondays; see the note below)

Activités en option

• Riga canal and river boat
• Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

Jūrmala by train

Riga to Jūrmala by train and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Riga
• En train

Matin

After breakfast we take the commuter train from Riga Central Station, about half an hour, crossing the Daugava and the Lielupe on the way to Majori. We walk Jomas iela, the pedestrian street, then out through the pine dunes to the beach of pale, fine sand that runs for kilometres in both directions. From there we go on foot through the streets of Majori and Dzintari, lined with wooden summer villas from around 1900, many with carved verandas, towers and lace-like trim.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal near the beach. We are back in Riga by train at about 2:30 pm, and the rest of the day is free: a boat on the city canal, the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, or simply a long coffee. In July and August the beach is lively; in May and September it is quiet.

Compris

• Return train from Riga to Jūrmala
• Walk on Jomas iela, the beach and the wooden villas of Majori and Dzintari
• Sit-down lunch in Jūrmala

Rundāle Palace and on to Vilnius

Riga to Rundāle Palace, then through Panevėžys to Vilnius

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Vilnius
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Après-midi

Today's drive is about 330 km and a little over four hours, broken into two stretches by the palace and lunch. We leave Riga at 8:30 and cross the flat farmland of Zemgale, about an hour and a quarter, to Rundāle Palace, built from 1736 for Ernst Johann von Biron, Duke of Courland, to designs by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the architect of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. We arrive as it opens and walk the state rooms: the Gold Hall, the White Hall with its stucco ceiling, and the Duke's apartments. Then we go out into the French formal garden with its clipped hedges and large rose garden. Lunch is a sit-down meal near the palace. After lunch it is about three hours to Vilnius on the main road through Panevėžys, with a coffee stop on the way; the Lithuanian border has no checks.

Soir

We reach Vilnius at about 5 pm, and your guide takes an evening stroll with anyone who wants one from the hotel to Cathedral Square.

Compris

• Rundāle Palace state rooms and the French garden, entry included
• Sit-down lunch at Rundāle
• Evening orientation walk in Vilnius

Vilnius Old Town and Užupis

Vilnius on foot: the Gate of Dawn to Cathedral Square and Užupis

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Vilnius

Matin

We start at 9 am with a licensed local guide at the Gate of Dawn, the only gate of the old city walls still standing, where a chapel above the arch holds a revered painting of the Virgin Mary. Down Pilies street we reach Vilnius University, founded in 1579, and walk through its arcaded courtyards to the Church of St John. Then comes Cathedral Square, with the white cathedral and its bell tower, and Gediminas Tower on the hill above; its paths have been closed for slope repairs in recent years, so we confirm access. We cross the little Vilnia river into Užupis, the artists' quarter that declared itself a republic on 1 April 1997 and displays its constitution on a wall in dozens of languages.

Après-midi

The walk ends at lunchtime, and the afternoon is free: the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in the former KGB building, the stucco interior of the Church of St Peter and St Paul or the Bernardine Garden by the river Vilnia.

Soir

In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Guided walk of Vilnius Old Town with a licensed local guide
• The Gate of Dawn chapel
• Vilnius University's historic courtyards, entry included
• Cathedral Square and Užupis
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights
• Gediminas Tower, if the hill is open on your dates

Trakai Castle and home

Vilnius to Trakai, then Vilnius Airport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

Check out after breakfast and drive about 30 km west to Trakai, a former capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where a red-brick castle stands on an island in Lake Galvė. It was built in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and rebuilt from ruins in the 20th. We cross the wooden footbridge as the castle museum opens at 10 am and walk the courtyards, the ducal palace and the exhibits on the Grand Duchy before the coaches arrive. Then a short boat ride on the lake, from May to September and weather permitting, and a walk past the wooden houses of the Karaim, a Turkic-speaking community brought here from Crimea at the end of the 14th century.

Après-midi

Lunch is kibinai, their baked pastries filled with meat or vegetables. From Trakai it is about 40 minutes to Vilnius Airport (VNO), where we arrive at about 2:30 pm. Book a flight from Vilnius leaving after about 5 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight before saying goodbye.

Compris

• Trakai Island Castle entry
• Boat ride on Lake Galvė (May to September, weather permitting)
• Kibinai lunch in Trakai
• Drop-off at Vilnius Airport (VNO)