New Tour

Baltic Traverse: Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia

Day 1: Meet in Vilnius

We meet in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, for an afternoon guided walking tour of the Old Town, one of the largest baroque old towns in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage site. We pass the cathedral and its free-standing bell tower on the square, the red-brick Gothic of St Anne's Church, and the Gates of Dawn, the last surviving gate of the old city wall. The lanes are tight and walkable, and on the hill above the centre stands the brick tower of Gediminas, the remnant of the upper castle.

In the evening, we gather for a briefing on the week ahead, then sit down to a welcome dinner at a local restaurant.

Please let us know if you need assistance with airport transfers or pre-tour hotel bookings.

Amberton Cathedral Square Hotel Vilnius
Dinner

Day 2: Vilnius → Trakai → Vilnius

After breakfast and a bike fitting, we ride out of Vilnius for the first time. The route leaves the city through Vingis Park and follows quiet roads past Lentvaris and open farmland to Trakai.

Trakai was once the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Its red-brick Trakai Island Castle sits on an island in Lake Galvė, reached by footbridge, and we follow the lakeshore to Užutrakis Manor, a neoclassical house in a lakeside park.

There is time to stop for lunch on your own at one of the Karaite cafés. The Karaim, a Turkic community brought here in the fourteenth century, are known for kibinai, baked pastries filled with mutton, and Trakai is the place to eat them.

We transfer back to Vilnius (approx. 30 minutes), where the evening is free to find dinner in the Old Town.

Amberton Cathedral Square Hotel Vilnius
Breakfast
Ride 44km
+283m
-220m

Day 3: Vilnius → Kaunas

We leave Vilnius this morning and transfer to Kaunas (approx. 1 hour), where the ride begins at Pažaislis Monastery, a seventeenth-century Baroque church and cloister on the wooded shore of the reservoir.

From there we ride into Kaunas, Lithuania's capital between the two world wars and known for the modernist architecture of that era. We pass through the Old Town where the Nemunas meets the Neris, then follow the Nemunas west out of the city.

The river road runs past Kačerginė and Zapyškis, where a red-brick Gothic church stands on the riverbank. Lunch is your own, at a café in one of the riverside towns, before we cross the Nemunas on a small ferry to Vilkija, a town on the slopes above the river.

A short transfer returns us to Kaunas (approx. 45 minutes) for the night, with dinner on your own.

Best Baltic Hotel Kaunas
Breakfast
Ride 54km
+167m
-212m

Day 4: Kaunas → Klaipėda

We transfer west from Kaunas into Žemaitija National Park (approx. 2.5 hours), a region of lakes and forest that Lithuanians know as Samogitia, with its own dialect and identity. The ride is a loop around Lake Plateliai, the largest lake in the park, on quiet roads and bike paths by the shore. We visit the Cold War Museum, set inside a former Soviet underground missile base at Plokštinė, where the silos and control rooms now hold an exhibition, and pause for lunch nearby. From the park we transfer to Klaipėda on the Baltic coast (approx. 1 hour), a port city at the mouth of the Curonian Lagoon. The evening is free to wander the old town, with its half-timbered houses, and find your own spot for dinner.

Navalis Hotel
Breakfast, Lunch
Ride 24km
+102m
-106m

Day 5: The Curonian Spit

A short ferry takes us across the strait from Klaipėda to the Curonian Spit (approx. 10 minutes), a narrow peninsula of sand and pine between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We ride south on the Seaside Cycle Route, a paved path through the forest. At Juodkrantė we pass the Hill of Witches, an open-air trail of wooden folk carvings, and a long-standing colony of grey herons and cormorants in the pines. Further on, the Dead Dunes rise above the lagoon, sand that buried whole villages as it shifted. Lunch is your own in one of the villages along the spit, where the local smoked fish is the thing to order.

The ride ends at Nida, a fishing village near the southern tip, where we have free time among its timber cottages and the high dunes above the water.

We transfer back to Klaipėda (approx. 1 hour). Dinner is on your own, perhaps aboard the Meridianas, an old sailing ship moored on the river that now serves as a restaurant.

Navalis Hotel
Breakfast
Ride 59km
+103m
-99m

Day 6: Klaipėda → Riga

From Klaipėda we ride north up the Baltic coast, on the Seaside Cycle Route through the pine woods of the Coastal Regional Park. We pass the clifftop of the Dutchman's Cap and the small fishing village of Karklė, with the sea on our left for much of the morning.

The ride reaches Palanga, Lithuania's busiest seaside resort, where a long wooden pier runs out into the Baltic and the Amber Museum sits in a manor park, amber being the fossil resin the sea still washes up along this coast. We stop for lunch on your own on Palanga's pedestrian street, then ride on to Šventoji, close to the Latvian border.

From there a long transfer takes us into Latvia and on to Riga (approx. 4 hours), its capital. We arrive in the evening, and the night is free to find dinner in the city.

Hestia Hotel Jugend or similar
Breakfast
Ride 42km
+104m
-102m

Day 7: Riga → Jūrmala → Riga

This morning, a guided walking tour takes us through Riga, its medieval Old Town around the House of the Blackheads on Town Hall Square, and the Art Nouveau streets the city is known for, with their carved faces and flowing stonework. Lunch is on your own in the centre. In the afternoon, we ride out of the city on bike paths to Jūrmala, a resort strung along the Gulf of Riga. Wooden villas from the late nineteenth century stand among the pines, and a wide sandy beach runs for kilometres along the shore. There is time to walk the beach or swim before we transfer back to Riga (approx. 40 minutes). Dinner is at a restaurant of your choosing.

Hestia Hotel Jugend or similar
Breakfast
Ride 31km
+80m
-88m

Day 8: Riga → Pärnu

A transfer north from Riga brings us to the Estonian border at Ikla (approx. 1 hour 40 minutes), where the riding begins in Estonia, the third country of the trip.

From the crossing we follow the Baltic coast, a flat run of coastal roads past quiet coves, sandy shores and pine woods, with the option of a shorter distance if you prefer and the support vehicle covering the rest. The final stretch from Uulu into Pärnu runs on cycle paths. We break at a local restaurant on the way, where lunch is your own.

We finish in Pärnu, a seaside town at the mouth of its river that grew up as a spa resort, with a wide sandy beach and a small historic centre. The evening is free to walk the beach promenade, and dinner is on your own.

Parnu Hotel
Breakfast
Ride 65km
+71m
-74m

Day 9: Pärnu → Saaremaa

A bus and ferry carry us out to Saaremaa (approx. 3 hours 30 minutes), the largest of Estonia's islands and a quiet, rural place of juniper scrub, stone walls and old wooden windmills.

On the way we stop at the Kaali crater, a round lake in a wooded bowl gouged out by a meteorite that fell here thousands of years ago. The riding is a short, flat stretch through farmland and along the coast, on roads with little traffic. There is a lunch stop en route, on your own.

We reach Kuressaare, the island's main town, where a medieval stone castle stands in its moat and park near the harbour. Dinner is your own, in the streets around the castle.

Staadioni Hotel
Breakfast
Ride 27km
+25m
-38m

Day 10: Kuressaare → Sõrve Peninsula → Kuressaare

Our last ride heads down the Sõrve Peninsula, the long, narrow tongue of land that runs south from Kuressaare to a lighthouse at its tip. We ride out along it on quiet roads, through open juniper fields and low coast, with the sea drawing closer on both sides as the land narrows. Heavy fighting reached the peninsula in 1944, near the end of the war, and concrete gun batteries and a war memorial still stand among the fields. At the southern point, the tall lighthouse looks out across the strait toward Latvia. Lunch is at a restaurant en route. From the tip, we transfer back to Kuressaare (approx. 45 minutes). The evening is free, with dinner on your own around the town square.

Staadioni Hotel
Breakfast, Lunch
Ride 59km
+73m
-77m

Day 11: Kuressaare → Tallinn

We leave Saaremaa behind and travel north to Tallinn (approx. 4 hours), the Estonian capital and our final destination. You have time to find lunch in one of the Old Town's cafés. In the afternoon a guided walking tour leads us through the medieval centre, along its ring of stone walls and towers, the cobbled lanes around Town Hall Square, and up to Toompea, the upper town, where the view runs over the red roofs to the sea. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner, raising a glass to a journey that has carried us through three countries, from Vilnius to Tallinn.

Hestia Hotel Europa or similar
Breakfast, Dinner

Day 12: Tallinn departure

After breakfast the tour ends in Tallinn.

If you are staying on in Tallinn, there is plenty to explore. The Seaplane Harbour is a maritime museum set in 1917 seaplane hangars on the waterfront, with a submarine you can go inside. The Kalamaja district north of the Old Town has wooden houses and the Balti Jaam Market, good for a slow morning and lunch. Further out, Lahemaa National Park spreads along the coast to the east, a day among bogs, pine forest and old manor houses.

Please let us know if you need assistance with post-tour hotel bookings. We are happy to help you organise these final details for your journey home or an extended stay in the capital.

Breakfast

Disclaimer: The adventure cycling tours we operate often go beyond the beaten track, and the countries where we ride are not always predictable. Due to these reasons, it is occasionally necessary to reroute or update itineraries. Our guarantee is that we will not change a trip unless for safety or to improve it. Our listed hotels are always accurate at the time of writing, but should we have to change any hotel, it will always be for a similar or better one.