Travel Tips for Latvia and Lithuania
December 2, 2022 12:54 PM Subscribe
What would you tell a first-time Baltic traveler about Latvia and Lithuania?
I'm hoping to travel to Latvia and Lithuania in March or April 2023. My approach is (very) budget-minded. I will be traveling alone.
I'm looking for any tips you can provide on how to find cheap flights from New York, weather in the Baltics, sites, must-sees, Latvia-to-Lithuania travel, projected costs, meeting locals and others. If you have any Jewish history tourism tips for either Lithuania or Latvia, I'm interested in those, too.
I'm hoping to travel to Latvia and Lithuania in March or April 2023. My approach is (very) budget-minded. I will be traveling alone.
I'm looking for any tips you can provide on how to find cheap flights from New York, weather in the Baltics, sites, must-sees, Latvia-to-Lithuania travel, projected costs, meeting locals and others. If you have any Jewish history tourism tips for either Lithuania or Latvia, I'm interested in those, too.
In the before times I would have recommended you get a cheap flight to Stockholm (SAS is cheap from the US), then one of the cheap and fun ferries one way from Stockholm to Riga. However, it looks like that route is still closed due to the Ukraine war.
Lithuania: I have only been to Vilunus briefly, and Kaunas. I found everyone I met to be lovely, the food affordable and the architecture interesting. Lots of English speakers as Lithuania is used as an near-shoring resource for a lot of UK financial/tech institutions. You can download the Wolt app for food if you'd to get an idea of prices. We used card everywhere, no cash. Basketball is big!
My hack for trip planning (not here specifically, sorry) is to look at what a tour operator like Intrepid Travel offers for X country, and use that to plan my transport connections/routes/must-sees.
posted by socky_puppy at 3:47 AM on December 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Lithuania: I have only been to Vilunus briefly, and Kaunas. I found everyone I met to be lovely, the food affordable and the architecture interesting. Lots of English speakers as Lithuania is used as an near-shoring resource for a lot of UK financial/tech institutions. You can download the Wolt app for food if you'd to get an idea of prices. We used card everywhere, no cash. Basketball is big!
My hack for trip planning (not here specifically, sorry) is to look at what a tour operator like Intrepid Travel offers for X country, and use that to plan my transport connections/routes/must-sees.
posted by socky_puppy at 3:47 AM on December 3, 2022 [3 favorites]
Vilnius has several Jewish walking tours and the Vilna Gaon museum, which encompasses several sites on Jewish history and the Holocaust. They're very informative.
There's also the Užupis neighborhood, which is cute and artsy, and Gediminas Tower which provides a pretty view and is free if you skip the tower itself and just walk up the hill.
posted by kingdead at 5:56 AM on December 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
There's also the Užupis neighborhood, which is cute and artsy, and Gediminas Tower which provides a pretty view and is free if you skip the tower itself and just walk up the hill.
posted by kingdead at 5:56 AM on December 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ah I'm so jealous of your trip.
Most of my recommendations are going to be Riga-specific; I haven't been to Lithuania, and most of my time in Latvia was spent in Riga.
Riga Traveller has a sightseeing tour bus between Riga and Vilnius. I really enjoyed their Riga-Tallinn "bus" (actually a van; there were 5 or 6 of us tops). The guide was great and we went to small towns and delightfully weird little spots that I never would have known about otherwise (and where they don't speak English, so having a guide was helpful).
https://www.rigatraveller.com/vilnius-tours-day-trips
God I loved the food in Riga. I don't have any budget recommendations because I was there for work, but in general (as wnissen noted) prices will be much lower than the US. If you want to splurge on a meal (that will still be cheaper than its US equivalent), consider Biblioteka No. 1 or 3 Pavaru. Uncle Vanya for horseradish vodka, Russian food and (sometimes) live music. For the view (not the food), get drinks at the Skybar on the top floor of the Radisson on Elisaveta Street.
Riga black balsam is a traditional herbal liqueur that is very polarizing. I didn't like it. But I loved birch everything: birch ice cream, birch wine, sparkling birch juice.
Medus Istaba in Riga old town has a million obscure (to me) varieties of honey (and products made from honey), and their little 1-euro jars make good souvenirs or gifts.
I found the "Like A Local" guides helpful:
https://www.likealocalguide.com/riga
https://www.likealocalguide.com/vilnius
Have fun!
posted by leeloo minai at 12:49 PM on December 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Most of my recommendations are going to be Riga-specific; I haven't been to Lithuania, and most of my time in Latvia was spent in Riga.
Riga Traveller has a sightseeing tour bus between Riga and Vilnius. I really enjoyed their Riga-Tallinn "bus" (actually a van; there were 5 or 6 of us tops). The guide was great and we went to small towns and delightfully weird little spots that I never would have known about otherwise (and where they don't speak English, so having a guide was helpful).
https://www.rigatraveller.com/vilnius-tours-day-trips
God I loved the food in Riga. I don't have any budget recommendations because I was there for work, but in general (as wnissen noted) prices will be much lower than the US. If you want to splurge on a meal (that will still be cheaper than its US equivalent), consider Biblioteka No. 1 or 3 Pavaru. Uncle Vanya for horseradish vodka, Russian food and (sometimes) live music. For the view (not the food), get drinks at the Skybar on the top floor of the Radisson on Elisaveta Street.
Riga black balsam is a traditional herbal liqueur that is very polarizing. I didn't like it. But I loved birch everything: birch ice cream, birch wine, sparkling birch juice.
Medus Istaba in Riga old town has a million obscure (to me) varieties of honey (and products made from honey), and their little 1-euro jars make good souvenirs or gifts.
I found the "Like A Local" guides helpful:
https://www.likealocalguide.com/riga
https://www.likealocalguide.com/vilnius
Have fun!
posted by leeloo minai at 12:49 PM on December 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Scott's Cheap Flights is sometimes a good resource. Sign up for the free tier and see if something pops up. It's cool because it lets you set your origin airports and then sends maybe 1-2 emails a day for destinations you choose and a few others. I've never actually booked through the site, so I don't know about what fees or other things are in there. But traveling, esp. March and April, should be a pretty cheap time to go to there.
I went to Estonia last summer and had a blast. Very friendly to those that don't speak the local language, excellent food, and a great time.
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:08 PM on December 3, 2022
I went to Estonia last summer and had a blast. Very friendly to those that don't speak the local language, excellent food, and a great time.
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:08 PM on December 3, 2022
Also TripAdvisor. Top sights, food, attraction, and accommodation recommendations, and usually links to the website of the respective...site. Has prices, too. We use that to decide just about everything we do when we travel, unless it's hiking.
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:55 PM on December 3, 2022
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:55 PM on December 3, 2022
John Lemon is a cheapish cafe in Riga where I got food poisoning in 2007 and it still exists. If you go, don’t get the salmon pasta. Oh, and if you like Art Nouveau architecture, Riga will be a treat.
posted by matildaben at 10:23 PM on December 3, 2022
posted by matildaben at 10:23 PM on December 3, 2022
The wife and I visited 15 years ago and found we were able to bumble our way around without knowing the local languages. As someone who loves photography, I found the Hill of Crosses to be a real treat.
Another highlight was staying in Druskininkai and riding a bicycle through the woods to visit Grutas Park. I'll also say that the Museum of the Occupation in Riga made a strong impression on us.
I would caution that you may find anti-semitism baked into the culture in ways that might be different than in North America or western Europe. The only personal examples I have are that in Grutas Park I remember an interpretive sign that (at least in the English translation) seemed to blythely blame Jews for inviting in the Soviets. It seemed either insensitively or maliciously written. The Museum of the Occupation in Riga is about both the Nazi and Soviet occupations, but it seemed to me that it was soft-pedaling the Nazi part. I inferred there were both good and bad reasons why that might be so. I think this stuff is complicated and I'm not an expert on it, but it might be something to be prepared for.
One bit of Jewish history that we accidented upon: in Trakai we found a display about Karaites, something I previously knew nothing about.
My only tip for meeting locals is to contact somebody ahead of time via email, because they might be a distant cousin of yours. It worked great for me--met some lovely people--but of course it won't work for everyone :{
I also wish I could've heard this episode of In Our Time about the Northern Crusades before I had visited--would have provided some better context for some of the places we visited.
posted by polecat at 11:38 PM on December 4, 2022
Another highlight was staying in Druskininkai and riding a bicycle through the woods to visit Grutas Park. I'll also say that the Museum of the Occupation in Riga made a strong impression on us.
I would caution that you may find anti-semitism baked into the culture in ways that might be different than in North America or western Europe. The only personal examples I have are that in Grutas Park I remember an interpretive sign that (at least in the English translation) seemed to blythely blame Jews for inviting in the Soviets. It seemed either insensitively or maliciously written. The Museum of the Occupation in Riga is about both the Nazi and Soviet occupations, but it seemed to me that it was soft-pedaling the Nazi part. I inferred there were both good and bad reasons why that might be so. I think this stuff is complicated and I'm not an expert on it, but it might be something to be prepared for.
One bit of Jewish history that we accidented upon: in Trakai we found a display about Karaites, something I previously knew nothing about.
My only tip for meeting locals is to contact somebody ahead of time via email, because they might be a distant cousin of yours. It worked great for me--met some lovely people--but of course it won't work for everyone :{
I also wish I could've heard this episode of In Our Time about the Northern Crusades before I had visited--would have provided some better context for some of the places we visited.
posted by polecat at 11:38 PM on December 4, 2022
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For Eastern European weather I like Wunderground, which bought my former favorite, Intellicast. They have forecasts in English with Fahrenheit temperatures for major cities like Riga.
Let us know how it goes!
posted by wnissen at 4:33 PM on December 2, 2022 [1 favorite]