Baltic States + Poland

Traveling in the Baltics is not as easy as it may seem. There is very little rail service and the relatively short routes between the capitals are set up as overnights. There are lots of buses, but the roads are rough so the buses are fairly uncomfortable and fairly slow. Even though Vilnius is closely tied to Poland it’s not easy to get to between the two. Make sure your route does not go through Belarus to avoid issues of a transit visa.

Look for flights at Air Baltic (there’s a sale right now) and Estonian Air. There’s a sale right now at Air Baltic.

I loved Tallinn, Vinius and Riga. Riga was probably my favorite, but all are great. I would try to stay in, or very near, the “old town” in all three, although accommodations will be more expensive in old town.

Thanks oldlady. I have done a bit of research into travel and it seems that Eurolines run coaches between the cities but, as you said, they may not be comfortable. I’ll definitely bear that in mind when I’m booking travel. In terms of Vilnius – Warsaw, there is a daily train which takes about 8hrs I think and doesn’t enter Belarus, I checked that!

I’ve booked flights with easyjet which were pretty resaonable, I think they were about £90 for flight there and back. I’ve got hostels as well and as you advise, they are in the old town areas. I should have listed these before, but here are the hostels. If anyone has stayed in any of these I’d really appreciate feedback;

• City Bike Nunne Hostel, Tallinn, Estonia
• City Lounge Hostel, Riga, Latvia
• Hostelgate, Vilnius, Lithuania
• Oki Doki Hostel, Warsaw, Poland
• Greg-Tom Hostel, Krakow, Poland

Thanks again.