I'm here right now and enjoying it (in Vilnius, just came from Tallinn and Riga). Besides the usual, my trip lined up with the once every 5 years song and dance festival in Latvia so they have events and exhibitions to do with that on all week, and yesterday was statehood day (public holiday) in Lithuania so they had a ceremony during the day at the presidential palace and an evening concert in the cathedral square on too
>I'm here right now and enjoying it (in Vilnius, just came from Tallinn and Riga). Besides the usual, my trip lined up with the once every 5 years song and dance festival in Latvia so they have events and exhibitions to do with that on all week, and yesterday was statehood day (public holiday) in Lithuania so they had a ceremony during the day at the presidential palace and an evening concert in the cathedral square on too
Sounds gay
Only been to Lithuania. 1-2 days in Vilnius is worth it. Some hours in Trakai to visit the castle is worth it as well. Have not been to baltic sea, curonian spit and those cities (palanga, klaipeda, nida). So can't say if it's worth it. Kaunas was not worth from a touristic point of view. Heard good things about oldtown in Tallinn as well.
I was thinking a day or 2 in riga or tallinn. Just to see a part of the world ive never been to or heard anything much about.
Only been to Lithuania. 1-2 days in Vilnius is worth it. Some hours in Trakai to visit the castle is worth it as well. Have not been to baltic sea, curonian spit and those cities (palanga, klaipeda, nida). So can't say if it's worth it. Kaunas was not worth from a touristic point of view. Heard good things about oldtown in Tallinn as well.
my colleagues from Latvia and Lithuania gave their assessments, it is the same with Estonia, pointless shithole
now, to be fair, old town in Tallinn is a very well preserved medieval town (because all relevant cities in europe got bombed to shit in ww2), but it is 1-2 days max if you are interested in shit like that
escort prices in estonia start from 150 per hour unless you want addicts or grannies
we got escorts coming to make money from all over europe and even from latam because estonian men just like to pay for women
Each capital city is worth a night or two. There's plenty of left over Soviet shit to look at if that's your thing. The food is nothing special but not bad. The locals are cold and it's hard to interact with them unless you're a social butterfly. As far as Europe its very middle of the road. I don't regret visiting but can't say I would go back.
Just spent two months in the Baltics: May to July.
I thought Vilnius was the nicest of the three capitals. Hills, greenery everywhere. Nice old quarter. They are spared some the RyanAir/cruise ship peasants since they are not on the coast or as easily accessible as the other two capitals, so that helps.
Riga was the most run-down of the three, and had a surprising amount of inbred alcoholic looking people--which was a surprise. Estonians looked the healthiest. The capital clears out on summer weekends as most people go to lake houses or dachas. Tallinn seems to be getting fricked by inflation: food and good Airbnbs as expensive as Finland and Germany.
Summer obviously the best time to go, but if you don't have blackout curtains trying to sleep normal hours gets irritating. Plus side is nice drinking vibe (in Tallinn) in the evenings, lots of cultural events in all three cities.
Another bonus of Tallinn is an easy, inexpensive bus to St. P, Russia (6 hrs). My wife (Korean) was able to go for a few nights. Americans are not. Not sure about Euros. It's a land border crossing so special rules apply.
Overally, the Baltics are OK. I'd rank them above Belarus or Slovakia, but below, surprisingly, Poland, and obviously the Scandis for overall interest/culture/food/accommodation.
Biggest issue or me is they burn Schengen days: I have been travelling non-stop for 8 years on a US passport so still I'm still limited to 180 days in Europe... didn't think it was 'worth' wasting two months in the Baltics, beyond a few nights in each of the capitals.
A friend from eastern europe basically confirmed all this. Said Estonia is autistic and expensive like Finland (but a bit better as a party place), Latvia is dirty slavs and Lithuania is underrated.
I didn't notice Tallinn being more expensive than Riga/Vilnius, my hotel in the old town (the best old town of the 3) was not more expensive than the others and was better located, food about the same price. Helsinki was noticeably much more expensive
In Riga, had some guy who looked like the Russian Untermensch from nazi propaganda come up to me pestering me to give him money for a new phone
And yeah getting to Vilnius and seeing a good amount of hills and trees was nice
I'm surprised the buses to Russia are still running considering they all made a big deal of shutting the borders, but it looks like they are
Yeah, I am just running out of map at this point, so thought I'd might as well give the Baltics a shot.
Old town Tallinn was nice, but got way too mobbed with tourists for my taste.
There's a great museum on the waterfront in Tallinn with old subs and boats. Worth a visit.
Buses every day to St. P. About 45eur each way. 6 hrs total (one hour at the border crossing). According to my wife the buses were packed, but she couldn't figure out who was the primary user. Two Americans got turned back at the border: they thought there was a 'transit visa' but it apparently no longer exists.
I got a lot of notes on museums (from all 3 Baltics) but I'm still away for this week (now in Poland) so haven't had time to go through anything.
That's the seaplane harbour in Tallinn, it's very good. It's the best half of the maritime museum, the other half is at the north end of the old town (in a building called 'Fat Margaret') which is also a pretty good maritime museum. Since the seaplane one is further out from the town the museum runs some taxi bus thing between them. I got the Tallinn card which gives you entry to basically everything so I spammed through quite a lot of museums there. The Maarjamae Palace (Estonian History Museum) that's quite a way off east of the old town was also a very good museum, almost felt like a shame it was basically empty for the 2-3 hours I was there, I guess no one wants to leave the old town for a bit. The Tallinn card gives you unlimited public transport to get around so it's easy to get to with it.
Riga war museum is a very good one and it's free entry so certainly a must while there.
All 3 Baltic capitals have an occupation museum, Riga has the best one imo for that too if you don't wanna do them all (Tallinn one will give you some audio to listen to for like 10-15minutes in each room, Vilnius was too much wall of text, Riga was just right)
Vilnius - Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is very good, basically a history museum. There was a lot of wall of texts especially on each past ruler of Lithuania (I mean you're not really gonna remember it all anyway) but it was like 12euro for all of it and you could easy be here for 4 hours or so even when skipping stuff/going through a lot of it quickly
KGB tours: hotel in Tallinn, kgb building in Riga. They have a different focus to each other so not repetitive. Tallinn was more 'fun' but it probably just comes down to the guide, but both worthwhile
I'm here right now and enjoying it (in Vilnius, just came from Tallinn and Riga). Besides the usual, my trip lined up with the once every 5 years song and dance festival in Latvia so they have events and exhibitions to do with that on all week, and yesterday was statehood day (public holiday) in Lithuania so they had a ceremony during the day at the presidential palace and an evening concert in the cathedral square on too
>I'm here right now and enjoying it (in Vilnius, just came from Tallinn and Riga). Besides the usual, my trip lined up with the once every 5 years song and dance festival in Latvia so they have events and exhibitions to do with that on all week, and yesterday was statehood day (public holiday) in Lithuania so they had a ceremony during the day at the presidential palace and an evening concert in the cathedral square on too
Sounds gay
just stick to walking around your local park and hiring a prostitute to your room in your parents house
whats fun over there
I'm from Vilnius and honestly if you're not an alcoholic who wants to spend days going to different bars, there's nothing to do here
I was thinking a day or 2 in riga or tallinn. Just to see a part of the world ive never been to or heard anything much about.
estonia/latvia/lithuania are just about the only countries i regret visiting in my entire life.
Only been to Lithuania. 1-2 days in Vilnius is worth it. Some hours in Trakai to visit the castle is worth it as well. Have not been to baltic sea, curonian spit and those cities (palanga, klaipeda, nida). So can't say if it's worth it. Kaunas was not worth from a touristic point of view. Heard good things about oldtown in Tallinn as well.
is it good for cheap cooming?
my colleagues from Latvia and Lithuania gave their assessments, it is the same with Estonia, pointless shithole
now, to be fair, old town in Tallinn is a very well preserved medieval town (because all relevant cities in europe got bombed to shit in ww2), but it is 1-2 days max if you are interested in shit like that
escort prices in estonia start from 150 per hour unless you want addicts or grannies
we got escorts coming to make money from all over europe and even from latam because estonian men just like to pay for women
Generic port countries but with western prices.
No. Balkans and Russia would be the better deal.
Each capital city is worth a night or two. There's plenty of left over Soviet shit to look at if that's your thing. The food is nothing special but not bad. The locals are cold and it's hard to interact with them unless you're a social butterfly. As far as Europe its very middle of the road. I don't regret visiting but can't say I would go back.
Latvia is a shithole, or at least Riga is. The countryside is okay but probably boring for tourists.
their capitals seem copy&paste to me but I might be totally wrong
Not since they have some feral blacks/africans running around
Just spent two months in the Baltics: May to July.
I thought Vilnius was the nicest of the three capitals. Hills, greenery everywhere. Nice old quarter. They are spared some the RyanAir/cruise ship peasants since they are not on the coast or as easily accessible as the other two capitals, so that helps.
Riga was the most run-down of the three, and had a surprising amount of inbred alcoholic looking people--which was a surprise. Estonians looked the healthiest. The capital clears out on summer weekends as most people go to lake houses or dachas. Tallinn seems to be getting fricked by inflation: food and good Airbnbs as expensive as Finland and Germany.
Summer obviously the best time to go, but if you don't have blackout curtains trying to sleep normal hours gets irritating. Plus side is nice drinking vibe (in Tallinn) in the evenings, lots of cultural events in all three cities.
Another bonus of Tallinn is an easy, inexpensive bus to St. P, Russia (6 hrs). My wife (Korean) was able to go for a few nights. Americans are not. Not sure about Euros. It's a land border crossing so special rules apply.
Overally, the Baltics are OK. I'd rank them above Belarus or Slovakia, but below, surprisingly, Poland, and obviously the Scandis for overall interest/culture/food/accommodation.
Biggest issue or me is they burn Schengen days: I have been travelling non-stop for 8 years on a US passport so still I'm still limited to 180 days in Europe... didn't think it was 'worth' wasting two months in the Baltics, beyond a few nights in each of the capitals.
A friend from eastern europe basically confirmed all this. Said Estonia is autistic and expensive like Finland (but a bit better as a party place), Latvia is dirty slavs and Lithuania is underrated.
Basically my experience
I didn't notice Tallinn being more expensive than Riga/Vilnius, my hotel in the old town (the best old town of the 3) was not more expensive than the others and was better located, food about the same price. Helsinki was noticeably much more expensive
In Riga, had some guy who looked like the Russian Untermensch from nazi propaganda come up to me pestering me to give him money for a new phone
And yeah getting to Vilnius and seeing a good amount of hills and trees was nice
I'm surprised the buses to Russia are still running considering they all made a big deal of shutting the borders, but it looks like they are
2 months sounds a bit crazy
Yeah, I am just running out of map at this point, so thought I'd might as well give the Baltics a shot.
Old town Tallinn was nice, but got way too mobbed with tourists for my taste.
There's a great museum on the waterfront in Tallinn with old subs and boats. Worth a visit.
Buses every day to St. P. About 45eur each way. 6 hrs total (one hour at the border crossing). According to my wife the buses were packed, but she couldn't figure out who was the primary user. Two Americans got turned back at the border: they thought there was a 'transit visa' but it apparently no longer exists.
I got a lot of notes on museums (from all 3 Baltics) but I'm still away for this week (now in Poland) so haven't had time to go through anything.
That's the seaplane harbour in Tallinn, it's very good. It's the best half of the maritime museum, the other half is at the north end of the old town (in a building called 'Fat Margaret') which is also a pretty good maritime museum. Since the seaplane one is further out from the town the museum runs some taxi bus thing between them. I got the Tallinn card which gives you entry to basically everything so I spammed through quite a lot of museums there. The Maarjamae Palace (Estonian History Museum) that's quite a way off east of the old town was also a very good museum, almost felt like a shame it was basically empty for the 2-3 hours I was there, I guess no one wants to leave the old town for a bit. The Tallinn card gives you unlimited public transport to get around so it's easy to get to with it.
Riga war museum is a very good one and it's free entry so certainly a must while there.
All 3 Baltic capitals have an occupation museum, Riga has the best one imo for that too if you don't wanna do them all (Tallinn one will give you some audio to listen to for like 10-15minutes in each room, Vilnius was too much wall of text, Riga was just right)
Vilnius - Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is very good, basically a history museum. There was a lot of wall of texts especially on each past ruler of Lithuania (I mean you're not really gonna remember it all anyway) but it was like 12euro for all of it and you could easy be here for 4 hours or so even when skipping stuff/going through a lot of it quickly
KGB tours: hotel in Tallinn, kgb building in Riga. They have a different focus to each other so not repetitive. Tallinn was more 'fun' but it probably just comes down to the guide, but both worthwhile
also since this is a 'fun' thread I noticed Tallinn had quite a lot of goth girls