Tips for visiting the Baltic Coast

Hi, myself & 2 mates are heading off to the baltics for a week. Tips would be welcome wrt sights, entertainment, accommodation, ferries, etc. Thanks.

Will post some stuff on Stockholm later on as I've just come back from living there for a year. When do you leave?

We leave on Friday 29th of July. Will be spending the weekend in Stockholm.

Depending the route you take, I understand the boat trip from Helsinki to Stockholm is pretty good.

yep both Viking Line and Silja are good from Stockholm to helsinki. Viking is a bit more of a party ship and Silja is a bit more posh. Both pretty good though and you sail overnight

When i went to Riga we went to an underground shooting range which was cool, choose any gun you want including machine guns and pay per bullet.

Also went to the Olympic luge course and you can get someone (ex olympic athlete) to drive you down the luge track - also do it in the summer in an especially designed cart.

Copenhagen is quite nice if you are in that area.

I would say you definitely have to visit Gamla Stan (Old Town) in Stockholm.. it's on an island connected by a bridge. My Stockholm photos are here, if you want a taster :
http://www.home.elephant.org/gallery/Stockholm
Feel free to ignore the trade fair pix

And a few more Stockers photos.

A week in Stockholm

Twas my first week there. Have learned a lot since.

Thanks guys for the info on Stockholm. Anyone got anything on Helsinki, Tallinn or Riga?

Helsinki - stay at the Eurohostel by the harbour, have a Reindeer Kebab at the market in the building by the harbour, and see the rock church- really cool.

Tallin- the old town is great! Good food too. We stayed at Relax Inn, sorry no link- I didn't book it.

Riga- take the bus from Tallin- about 6 Euro for the ride, We ate near the city center, there are sort of Cafeteria style restaurants, that you just have to point then to the food. It was yummy- lots of tomatoe, cucumber and pickle saladas, try perogies! I am not a big meat eater, but, man did I eat. Again, don't know link for hotel, was booked by a friend in Helsinki. Went to a park outside of Riga for a day trip, on train, was gorgeous- will have to check at home for name, its in my Lonely Planet Baltic States book- also a great book!

We also did Vilnuis on the trip.

I am so envious- I loved it there

thanks a mil for all the tips guys. Will let you know how it went and possibly post some of own photos for all to see.

Hasta la vista baby! Here we go...

Have fun!

I thought I would "revive" this thread since I am looking for accommodation in Stockholm (a couple of nights).
I have had a look at Keydesk´s webpage (nice pics), but have not found any tips on where to stay. Maybe someone here can tell me which area would be best to stay considering that we do not have that much time!

Cheers

what budget range?

around 100-130 €

I stay in this one when I am on business... it's ok..

http://www.lastminute.com/site/find/World/...;v1v$.html

it has a strange name, but otherwise it is fine. another choice is

http://www.globehotel.se/

a nicer hotel more central...

BuLi

http://www.hrs.de

I'd also recommend the Globe - it looks mad from the outside, but very nice redecoration as it was a horrible 80s theme hotel, excellent transport links and good for the shops if you've run out of something while there on business (Globen shopping mall). Nice restaurant too.

http://www.birgerjarl.se/

Thanks!

I've been to Riga and a few other parts of Latvia on several different trips.

Hotels in Riga are very expensive (and not necessarily of sufficient quality to justify the cost).

Old Riga (as its name might suggest) has a load of old buildings - it's a bit touristy but nice all the same.

Jurmala is worth a visit, especially this time of year - many kilometres of sandy beaches and only a 40 minute train journey from Riga.

There's some useful links here http://www.rigatourism.lv/riga/?alias=en - including some maps.

Vilnius is well worth a look

ooooohhhhhh, they got a great buffet on that boat!!! just what the staving backpacker needs

I thought I'd revive this thread.

I'll be in Stockholm for a few days in the middle of December. Any ideas for a hotel? The ones posted earlier in this thread seem a bit pricey.

I don't want to stay in a hostel, but I don't need anything too fancy. I'm thinking something in the range of 80-100 euros. Am I being unrealistic for a centrally located hotel in Stockholm?

Whoops

I actually meant for that last post to go Hotels in Stockholm - Sweden

That's what I get for having multiple windows open at once. Sorry for the confusion!

Has anyone done the ferry Stockholm Helsinki? I am going to try and do this early next year. Heard it's just pure 16 hours drinking there, a few hours to look around Helsinki and 16 hours drinking back again.

I've done the Helsinki-Talinn ferry and it was pretty much the same. Drinking all the way across, stocking up on cheap Vodka while there, and then drinking all the way back.

There're 2 ferries if I remember correctly from Stockholm to Helsinki and both are party boats. We went on a "quiet" night and to say it was debaucherous would be an understatement. The ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn was fairly sedate. People do buy trolley loads of hard liquor, but no one was drinking on the boat.

As for accommodation in Stockholm, the Chapman comes highly recommended. We didn't stay on the boat though although that looked pretty cool. It is a hostel, but it was really clean and comfortable.