Exploring the Pearls of the Baltics

This trip includes both easy hikes and city walks, traversing across historic towns, through forest trails, and over gently rolling hillsides. You will need to be able to hike over sections that contain rocky steps, uneven surfaces, and occasionally downhill over loose scree. There are some tight staircases in the castles, and trails may become muddy and unstable with bad weather. While this is not a challenging trip, it is active and you will need to be able to keep up with the moderate but steady hiking pace of the group.

We strongly urge you to train for your trip, as your enjoyment will be highly dependent on your level of fitness. The best training for a hike is to hike, especially over hills or rough terrain. Next best are running, swimming, bicycling, or other cardiovascular exercises. Stair-climbing machines are excellent preparation for hiking uphill. Your feet should also be well prepared—make sure your hiking boots are sturdy, comfortable, and thoroughly broken-in.

The Baltic summer, May to September, has relatively warm weather and long daylight hours, with up to 19 hours of daylight known locally as the “white nights.” It’s the ideal season for exploring the cultural heritage of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and enjoying outdoor activities including hiking and visiting the Baltic Sea coastline.

The hotels we use on this trip are the best available accommodations. They have comfortable rooms with en suite bathrooms and are in optimal locations. Since they are sometimes in historic buildings, the rooms are not always of uniform or international size. Our leaders do their best to assign rooms in a fair way so that all participants experience an equal advantage throughout the trip as a whole. Single rooms can be requested but are not always available, due to the limited space in the hotels. If you prefer a single room, please make your request as early as possible.

Baltic cuisine shares similarities with other northern European countries and is particularly known for its black rye bread, beet soups, rich pies (both savory and sweet), fermented and pickled vegetables, smoked fish, and hearty dishes including potato dumplings with an array of fillings. When near the Baltic Sea, fresh-caught fish is on offer. Menus change seasonally based on the availability of local ingredients. Please note that in Europe, the dinner hour is considerably later than what it is in the US. We do our best to secure early reservations for our groups, but most often the evening meal will be at 7:30 pm.

Our bus will transport the group’s luggage, so you only need to carry a daypack for items you need during the day (rain gear, sweater, camera, water bottle, etc.). Trip members are always free to skip a day’s hike and travel to the next destination in the support vehicle (or remain at the hotel if we are not transferring that day).