Poland and the Baltics: Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Warsaw

   Warsaw Chopin Airport to your hotel, then the Royal Route

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Repas du soir
   • Nuit : Warsaw
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW), about 10 km from the centre. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall at whatever time you land and takes you to your hotel near the Old Town. To join the evening walk, land by about 3 pm. If you land later, the driver takes you to the hotel, where your guide leaves a note with the restaurant's address, and we keep your seat at dinner until about 8:30 pm. At about 5 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the ten days: two nights in Warsaw, a night in Białystok after the Białowieża forest, then two nights each in Vilnius and Riga and the last nights in Tallinn. Then we walk the northern end of the Royal Route, Krakowskie Przedmieście, past the university gates, the Presidential Palace and the Church of the Holy Cross, where Chopin's heart is kept in a pillar. The walk ends in Castle Square as the evening light reaches the rebuilt facades. Dinner together follows at a restaurant serving Polish food: soups, pierogi and whatever the season brings.

   Compris

   • Pick-up at Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Evening walk on Krakowskie Przedmieście to Castle Square
   • Welcome dinner

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   Activité : About 2 km on foot, flat.

2. Jour 2 : Warsaw Old Town and the Rising Museum

   Warsaw on foot: the Old Town and the Royal Castle, then the Warsaw Rising Museum

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Warsaw
   Détail du jour 2

   Warsaw's Old Town was almost entirely destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt from paintings, photographs and drawings; UNESCO listed it in 1980 as an example of that reconstruction. We start at 9 am with a licensed local guide, before the day groups: Sigismund's Column, the Market Square with its mermaid statue, the Barbican and the walls. Then the Royal Castle on a timed entry, blown up in 1944 and rebuilt in the 1970s and 1980s, where the Canaletto Room shows the views of the city that helped the rebuilding. Lunch is a sit-down meal near the Old Town. In the afternoon a short drive takes us to the Warsaw Rising Museum, in an old tram power station, which tells the story of the 63 days of fighting in 1944 that led to the city's destruction. The museum is busy and intense, so we give it about two hours and leave the rest of the day free. In summer, the Sunday Chopin concerts by his monument in Łazienki Park are a good use of a free afternoon.

   Compris

   • Guided walk of Warsaw Old Town with a licensed local guide
   • Royal Castle, timed entry included
   • Warsaw Rising Museum, entry included
   • Sit-down lunch in the Old Town

   Activités en option

   • Palace of Culture and Science viewing terrace
   • Chopin Museum
   • Łazienki Park and the Palace on the Isle

   Option plus facile : Skip the Rising Museum and rest at the hotel; the guide brings you back in time for a free evening.

   Option plus active : Walk back from the museum through the Mirów and Muranów districts with your guide, about 3 km.

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 4 km on foot over the day, flat but on cobbles in the Old Town. The Royal Castle and the Rising Museum each close one day a week; we set the order of the days around them.

3. Jour 3 : Białowieża Forest

   Warsaw to Białowieża, then Białystok

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Białystok
   Détail du jour 3

   We leave Warsaw at 8:30 and drive east through farmland to Białowieża, about three hours, with a coffee stop on the way. Białowieża Forest, on the border with Belarus, is one of the last large stands of the old lowland forest that once covered much of Europe, and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We start at the European Bison Show Reserve, where the animals that were saved from extinction here in the last century live in large forest enclosures with elk, tarpans and other native species. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Białowieża village. At 2 pm a licensed park guide, required for every group, walks us into the Strict Reserve through the old gate: oaks, limes and spruces several centuries old, fallen trunks left to rot where they fall, and woodpeckers in the deadwood. The walk is about three hours on flat forest paths. Then we drive about an hour and a quarter to Białystok, arriving at about 6:30 pm. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • European Bison Show Reserve, entry included
   • Guided walk in the Strict Reserve of Białowieża National Park with a licensed park guide, entry included
   • Sit-down lunch in Białowieża

   Option plus facile : Skip the Strict Reserve walk and spend the afternoon in the village park by the old palace ponds, a few minutes from the restaurant; we collect you on the way out.

   Option plus active : Before lunch, walk the Żebra Żubra boardwalk, about 3.5 km, through wet forest near the village.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Białystok

   Activité : About 4.25 hours of driving in three stretches: Warsaw to Białowieża about 3 hours with a coffee stop, Białowieża to Białystok about 1.25 hours. About 5 km on foot on flat forest paths; bring insect repellent from May to August.

4. Jour 4 : Białystok and over the border to Vilnius

   Białystok to Augustów, then over the Lithuanian border to Vilnius

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Vilnius
   Détail du jour 4

   After an early breakfast, at 8:30 we walk the gardens of the Branicki Palace, a Baroque residence built for the hetman Jan Klemens Branicki and often called the Versailles of Podlasie, then the long Kościuszko Market Square around the old town hall. Białystok was a multi-ethnic city before the war, and your guide shows us the traces of its Jewish quarter. We leave at 10 am and drive about an hour and a quarter north to Augustów, a lake town on the 19th-century Augustów Canal, for a walk along the water and a sit-down lunch. After lunch it is about three and a quarter hours to Vilnius, with a coffee stop: past Suwałki, over the open border at Budzisko, where there are no routine checks, and on the motorway through Marijampolė and past Kaunas. Belarus lies between Białystok and Vilnius, so the road goes around it. Clocks go forward one hour in Lithuania, and we reach the hotel at about 6 pm local time. This is the longest drive of the trip, about four and a half hours in all, because Belarus blocks the direct road; the Augustów stop splits it. The evening is free.

   Compris

   • Walk in the Branicki Palace gardens and Kościuszko Market Square, Białystok
   • Walk by the Augustów Canal
   • Sit-down lunch in Augustów

   Temps libre : Evening free in Vilnius

   Activité : About 4.5 hours of driving in two stretches: Białystok to Augustów about 1.25 hours, then Augustów to Vilnius, about 265 km, about 3.25 hours with a coffee stop. Lithuania is one hour ahead of Poland.

5. Jour 5 : Vilnius Old Town and Trakai

   Vilnius on foot, then Trakai Island Castle and back

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Vilnius
   Détail du jour 5

   Vilnius's Old Town, on the UNESCO list since 1994, is a web of Baroque churches, courtyards and crooked lanes. We start at 9 am with a licensed local guide at the Gate of Dawn, the last of the city wall gates, 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. We cross the little Vilnia river into Užupis, the artists' quarter with its constitution on a wall in dozens of languages, and end at Cathedral Square with the white cathedral and its bell tower. At about 12:30 we drive 30 km west to Trakai for a lunch of kibinai, the baked pastries of the Karaim community, then cross the footbridge to the red-brick Island Castle on Lake Galvė. After the castle museum there is a short boat ride on the lake, weather permitting. We are back in Vilnius at about 5:30 pm, and the evening is free.

   Compris

   • Guided walk of Vilnius Old Town with a licensed local guide
   • The Gate of Dawn chapel and Vilnius University's courtyards, entry included
   • Užupis and Cathedral Square
   • Kibinai lunch in Trakai
   • Trakai Island Castle, entry included
   • Boat ride on Lake Galvė (May to September, weather permitting)

   Activités en option

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

   Option plus facile : Stay in Vilnius for the afternoon instead of Trakai; your guide gives you ideas and you rejoin the group for the evening.

   Option plus active : In the free evening, walk up the Hill of Three Crosses for the view over the Old Town roofs, about 20 minutes of steep path; your guide shows you where it starts.

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 4 km on foot in the morning on cobbles with gentle hills, and about 1.5 km at Trakai, with stairs in the castle.

   

6. Jour 6 : The Hill of Crosses and on to Riga

   Vilnius to the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai, then Riga

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Riga
   Détail du jour 6

   Today's drive is about 345 km and a little over four hours, which we break at the Hill of Crosses and lunch. We leave Vilnius at 9 am and drive north-west past Panevėžys, about two and a half hours, to the Hill of Crosses, about 12 km north of Šiauliai. Crosses were first set here after the uprisings against Russian rule in the 19th century; in Soviet times the hill was bulldozed more than once, and each time people came back at night to put them up again. Today there are tens of thousands, from tall carved wooden crosses to small rosaries that rattle in the wind. We give it an unhurried hour, and your guide explains what the carvings and inscriptions mean. Lunch is a sit-down meal nearby. Then it is about an hour and three quarters to Riga, over the Latvian border with no checks and across the flat farmland of Zemgale. We reach the hotel at about 4:30 pm, and the evening is free.

   Compris

   • Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai
   • Sit-down lunch near Šiauliai

   Temps libre : Evening free in Riga

   Activité : About 4.25 hours of driving in two stretches: about 2.5 hours from Vilnius to the Hill of Crosses and about 1.75 hours on to Riga. About 1.5 km on foot on gravel and grass paths.

   

7. Jour 7 : 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
   Détail du jour 7

   Riga's historic centre has been on the UNESCO list since 1997 for two things: the medieval Old Town and the ring of Art Nouveau streets around it. We start at 9 am with a licensed local guide: the Dome Cathedral, the Three Brothers, the oldest houses in the city, the Swedish Gate in the old wall, and the House of the Blackheads on Town Hall Square, rebuilt in the 1990s after wartime destruction. Then the lift up the tower of St Peter's Church for the view over the roofs and the river Daugava. Lunch is at the Central Market, set in former Zeppelin hangars, where your guide orders smoked fish, rye bread, pickles and Latvian soups to share. Afterwards we walk past the Freedom Monument to Alberta iela, where the facades by Mikhail Eisenstein are covered in masks and faces, and visit the Riga Art Nouveau Centre, a restored apartment from the early 1900s; it is closed on Mondays, when we visit the Latvian National Museum of Art instead. We finish at about 3 pm, and the rest of the day 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, entry included

   Activités en option

   • Riga canal and river boat
   • Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
   • Riga Cathedral organ recital, when one is scheduled

   Option plus facile : Skip the afternoon walk to Alberta iela and rest at the hotel; it is about 20 minutes on foot from the market.

   Option plus active : Take the commuter train to the beach at Jūrmala on your own in the free afternoon; your guide gives you the times.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 5 km on foot over the day, mostly flat, with a lift up St Peter's tower. The Riga Art Nouveau Centre is closed on Mondays; on a Monday we walk Alberta iela and swap the Centre for the Latvian National Museum of Art.

   

8. Jour 8 : Pärnu and on to Tallinn

   Riga along the Via Baltica to Pärnu, then Tallinn

   • Environ 4 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Tallinn
   Détail du jour 8

   We leave Riga at 9 am and follow the Via Baltica north along the Gulf of Riga, through the pine woods behind Saulkrasti and over the Estonian border with no checks, about two and a quarter hours to Pärnu, Estonia's summer resort town. A short walk takes in Rüütli street, the 17th-century Tallinn Gate, the wide sandy beach and the Art Nouveau Ammende Villa of 1905. Lunch is a sit-down meal in town, and on a warm day there is time to put your feet in the sea. After lunch it is about an hour and three quarters across farmland and forest to Tallinn. We reach the hotel by the Old Town at about 3:30 pm, with the rest of the afternoon and the evening free. Your guide can walk anyone who wants to the medieval walls and the Town Hall Square for a first look; the Old Town is quieter in the evening, once the cruise passengers have gone back to their ships.

   Compris

   • Walk in Pärnu: Rüütli street, the Tallinn Gate, the beach and the Ammende Villa
   • Sit-down lunch in Pärnu
   • Optional evening orientation walk in Tallinn with your guide

   Temps libre : Late afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 4 hours of driving in two stretches: about 2.25 hours from Riga to Pärnu and about 1.75 hours on to Tallinn. About 3 km of easy walking.

   

9. Jour 9 : Tallinn Old Town

   Tallinn on foot: Toompea, then the lower town

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Tallinn
   Détail du jour 9

   We start at 9 am with a licensed local guide, before the cruise-ship passengers who fill Toompea from mid-morning in summer. Tallinn's Old Town has been on the UNESCO list since 1997, and much of its circuit of walls and towers still stands. First we climb to Toompea, the limestone hill where the nobility lived, past the onion domes of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the pink front of the parliament building. From the Kohtuotsa and Patkuli viewing platforms you look over the red roofs and spires to the harbour. Then we go down Pikk jalg, the steep 'long leg' lane, into the merchants' lower town: Town Hall Square and its Gothic Town Hall, the old Town Hall Pharmacy and the guild halls on Pikk street. Lunch and the afternoon are yours: Kadriorg Park and its palace, the Telliskivi Creative City or the Seaplane Harbour museum. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner of Estonian food.

   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
   • Farewell dinner

   Activités en option

   • St Olaf's Church tower (open in the warmer months)
   • Kadriorg Palace art museum
   • Seaplane Harbour maritime museum

   Option plus facile : Toompea is uphill on cobbles; you can take a taxi up and join the group at the top, or leave the walk at Town Hall Square.

   Option plus active : Climb the narrow stairs of St Olaf's Church tower for the highest view over the Old Town, when it is open.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : About 3 km on foot over 3 hours, on cobbles with a steep section up and down Toompea.

   

10. Jour 10 : Tallinn and home

    Tallinn to Tallinn Airport

    • Environ 15 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 10

    The last morning is free. Have breakfast without hurrying, then go back to whatever you liked best: a coffee on Town Hall Square, a walk on the medieval walls at the Hellemann Tower, or the stalls along the Viru gate. Your hotel can hold your bags after check-out. A driver takes you from the hotel to Tallinn Airport (TLL), only about 4 km and 15 minutes from the Old Town, at the time that suits your flight; your guide confirms the pick-up times the evening before and sees the first transfer off. The trip starts in Warsaw and ends in Tallinn, so book an open-jaw ticket; most travellers connect home through Helsinki, Warsaw, Frankfurt or another European hub. A flight at any time of day works. If you would like to stay longer, a ferry crosses the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki in about two hours, and we can book extra nights in Tallinn when you request the trip.

    Compris

    • Drop-off at Tallinn Airport (TLL) at the time that suits your flight

    Temps libre : Morning free

    Activité : Any flight time works; the transfer is arranged around it.

Faune et météo : Summer days are long and mild, rarely hot, with showers at any time; Tallinn has around 18 hours of daylight at midsummer. In Białowieża, May and June bring birdsong and fresh green, and mosquitoes; bison are easiest to see in the show reserve, while wild herds keep to the forest. May and September are cooler and quieter in the capitals.

• Warsaw2 nuits
• Białystok1 nuit
• Vilnius2 nuits
• Riga2 nuits
• Tallinn2 nuits