Baltics: Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius

1. Day 1: Arrive in Tallinn

   Tallinn Airport to your hotel by the Old Town

   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Tallinn
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Tallinn Airport (TLL), only about 4 km from the city centre. A driver meets you in the arrivals hall at whatever time you land and takes you to your hotel by the Old Town. 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.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Tallinn Old Town

   Tallinn on foot: Toompea, then the lower town

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Tallinn
   Day 2 details

   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. 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. The evening is free.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: 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.

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

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

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

   

3. Day 3: Lahemaa National Park

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

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Tallinn
   Day 3 details

   Lahemaa, about an hour east of Tallinn, was founded in 1971 as the first national park in the Soviet Union and is Estonia's largest: pine forest, raised bogs, granite boulders left by the ice, and a coast of capes and fishing villages. We leave at 8:30 to reach the Viru Bog before the tour buses. 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. 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. We are back in Tallinn by about 5 pm, and the evening is free.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Walk the boardwalk only as far as the first viewing point and turn back; your driver waits at the car park.

   More active option: Walk the whole boardwalk of about 3.5 km and climb the viewing tower.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 3.5 km on a flat boardwalk, then short village and shore walks. Bring insect repellent from June to August.

   

4. Day 4: Pärnu and the coast road to Riga

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

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Riga
   Day 4 details

   This is one of the two longer drives, about 310 km and a little over four hours on the road, which we break into three stretches of two hours or less. We leave Tallinn at 9 am and drive south through farmland and forest to Pärnu, Estonia's summer resort on the Gulf of Riga. 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. Your hotel is a short walk from the Old Town, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Evening free in Riga

   Activity: About 4.25 hours of driving in three stretches: Tallinn to Pärnu about 1.75 hours, Pärnu to Kabli about 30 minutes, Kabli to Riga about 2 hours, with stops of about 2 hours in Pärnu and 30 minutes at Kabli.

   

5. Day 5: Riga Old Town and Art Nouveau

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

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Riga
   Day 5 details

   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 built 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 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. The evening is free.

   Included

   • 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)

   Optional experiences

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

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

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: 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: if day 5 falls on a Monday, we walk Alberta iela as planned and visit the Centre on the afternoon of day 6, after the train back from Jūrmala.

   

6. Day 6: Jūrmala by train

   Riga to Jūrmala by train and back

   • By train
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Riga
   Day 6 details

   Jūrmala, Riga's seaside town, is a string of resort villages along a sandy strip between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe river. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay on the beach or at a café on Jomas iela while the group walks to Dzintari; we meet again for lunch.

   More active option: Stay on in Jūrmala for a swim in the afternoon and take a later train back on your own; your guide gives you the ticket and times.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 5 km of easy walking on streets and sand.

   

7. Day 7: Rundāle Palace and on to Vilnius

   Riga to Rundāle Palace, then through Panevėžys to Vilnius

   • Drive about 4.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Vilnius
   Day 7 details

   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. 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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: Skip the garden walk and sit on a terrace by the palace until lunch.

   Free time: Evening free after the orientation walk

   Activity: About 4.25 hours of driving in two stretches: about 1.25 hours from Riga to Rundāle, then about 3 hours to Vilnius with a coffee stop halfway; about 2 km on foot in the palace and garden, with stairs.

   

8. Day 8: Vilnius Old Town and Užupis

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

   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Vilnius
   Day 8 details

   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 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. 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. In the evening we meet for a farewell dinner.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Leave the walk after the university and rest before the afternoon; the hotel is a few minutes away.

   More active option: Walk up Three Crosses Hill for the view over the Old Town roofs, or through the Bernardine Garden on the way back.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 4 km on foot over 3 hours, on cobbles with gentle hills.

   

9. Day 9: Trakai Castle and home

   Vilnius to Trakai, then Vilnius Airport

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 9 details

   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. 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.

   Included

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

   Easier option: If your flight leaves before about 5 pm, we take you from the hotel straight to the airport instead of Trakai.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 5 pm to see Trakai. About 1.5 km on foot, with stairs in the castle.

   

Wildlife and weather: Summer days are long (around 18 hours of daylight in Tallinn in late June) and mild, rarely hot; showers come at any time. May and September are cooler and quieter, with fewer cruise passengers in Tallinn. Autumn brings bird migration along the Gulf of Riga coast at Kabli.

• Tallinn3 nights
• Riga3 nights
• Vilnius2 nights