Latvia Holidays

Hi Inga,

We really enjoyed our trip through the Baltic States. It was an interesting part of the world to visit with so much history and I enjoyed the tales and experiences about the Medieval times.

Below is some feedback and I have attached a few photos.

• The standard of accommodation was good – particularly in Riga.
• We enjoyed the New Year’s Eve Gala night
• The city walking tours were very good and the local guides in each city were outstanding and passionate about their cities.
• The accompanying guide throughout the trip appeared inexperienced, uninterested and uninteresting. However, this did not dampen our experience. (He was from Latvia & called Valdan, or something like that, but we just called his ‘where’s Wally??’)
• Our respective airport transfers did not arrive at our Hotel to collect us for the airport on 5^th January so we made our own way to the airport which was very close. (I think my driver thought he was in a James Bond movie the way he was driving J )

Many thanks to you for all of your efforts in putting this trip together for us – it has been greatly appreciated.

Regards

Maria S

Dear Lena

We enjoyed the holiday very much, thanks. Riga and Tallinn in particular were exceptional. We enjoyed a number of really first class meals, including at Vincent's in Riga and restaurant Tchaikovsky in Tallinn. 

Our guide in Riga, and who stayed with us until we reached Tallinn, was particularly good. She was a similar age to ourselves and, having lived through the Soviet occupation, was able to speak first hand about what life was like then which we found very interesting.

We will remember the Baltics with pleasure.

Kind regards

Robert

Hi Saija,

Had a great time on the tour - first of all we were so lucky with the weather, I was a bit worried going so late in the year but the skies were blue and it was really warm right through to Friday. The hotels were very good although in Vilnius and Tallinn a little way from the centre.

Sightseeing highlights were the Hill of Crosses and the Art Nouveau district in Riga which was also my favourite city of the 3 - beautiful parks, squares and walking. 

Through Facebook, 2 American ladies on the tour have kept me updated on their continuing travels in Helsinki, St Petersburg and Moscow.

Finally, please pass a big thank you onto our tour guide Alina Osmolina.

Thanks,

Ian

Inga

We had a really good time in Riga.  Outward travel went perfectly, the Hotel Justus was fine and well placed for the city.  We got to see a couple of the art museums, the central market, the top of St Peter’s and the KGB museum which was hard to find but fascinating.

Food was good – Valtera restaurant definitely a must and it was a different experience for us overall in terms of culture.

Unfortunately the return flight was delayed for nearly 3 hours just as it was taking off so we were stuck in the plane for nearly 6 hours!  Just one of those things I guess!

Anyway we would certainly use Baltic Travel again – I am keen on Estonia and my wife would love to see the Northern Lights next year.

Regards

Chris

Hello Inga 

Sorry for not responding sooner. We had a really good trip, everything went very smoothly and it was so relaxing. I will send you a few photos. 

We were very impressed with the inter-city buses, so comfortable and quick.

Padaste Manor was fantastic, and the hotels in Vilnius and Riga were good and in excellent locations. But we were not impressed with the Merchants House in Tallinn, although again in a good location it really does need some care and attention. The staff were pleasant but the first bedroom we had was really dark and gloomy, then they kindly moved us to another floor so we had more light and a proper shower. But the breakfast is taken in a horrible dark basement like a dungeon, and the main sitting room where the reception desk is located is totally uncared for and would not be a nice place to sit. 

Kind regards

Francesca

Dear Daina

Re the holiday:

1 Everything went perfectly - all drivers and guides turned up as scheduled...great.

2 Flights were fine

3 Hotels were excellent in terms of comfort and position...best one Tallinn. 

4 Guides were excellent especially the Riga one.

5 The restaurants were great - we had some wonderful meals in all 3 cities. 

6 Museums good but some were first class. Linda ( my achilles tendon was playing up after so much walking the day before so I rested)  went to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia in its temporary quarters. She said it was fantastic. It is difficult to be cheerful after seeing how Stalin treated these peoples.

The only slight problem was that you told me we could not go direct to St Petersburg from Tallinn (we went via Riga) but there were flights announced doing this. Am I correct?

Thank you very much for arranging an excellent holiday..we now have to write my 45 minute talk on the Baltic States! 

Hugo 

Hi Inga,

Thank you for your email. Sorry for the late reply, I've been very busy last week and didn't get a chance to reply earlier. The holiday was very enjoyable indeed, the guides were very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, the hotels I stayed in were very nice and well located, and the coach we travelled in was very clean, modern and comfortable. The size of the group on the tour was also a good size that was not too big. The flights you helped to arrange were also great, departing/arriving at confortable times that weren't super early in the morning or late a night.

One thing I would have liked is if we could have spent a little more time at some of the sites (especially the beahces at the resort towns of Jurmala and Parnu) but given the schedules and the time required to drive between sites I'm not sure how practically feasibly this would actually have been.

Kind regards,

Younan

Dear Daina!

Sorry I am so slow responding, we just returned from Ireland yesterday.  

As for feedback, we were very happy with the tour and would recommend it to others.  The tour guide was really nice and did a fantastic job, the driver was also really nice and reliable, and the hotels and food were all good, and everything was really well-organized.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

Best regards,

Kristen

Dear Daina

We are sitting in Tallinn airport about to board our flight home. We had the most fantastic holiday. I will write with more feedback in a few days.

Thanks so much for organising this excellent trip!

Helen

Hi Daina

Thanks for getting in touch and yes we are back and settled and all went very well except I picked up a cold half way through but then got back to London and everybody seems to have one here as well!  We had a very enjoyable time and were really impressed with the efficiency of you and your colleagues because everything went very well – flights on time, taxi driver waiting at the airport, transfer yesterday and the hotels and internal travel.  We were particularly impressed with our regular guide, Lamya (not sure I have spelt her name correctly) who had a great personality and organised everybody so well and our walking guide in Vilnius and Riga, Yanis (not sure that’s right either) who was really informative and also answered lots of questions so we learnt a lot from him.  The only minor criticism was it was a shame we couldn’t have got an earlier flight out because we ended up getting to the hotel in Vilnius about midnight so we missed the welcome meeting and then of course were both very tired the next day as we were up early for breakfast before the walking tour so had very little sleep and it slightly lessened our enjoyment of the day. 

However we have both agreed we would very much like to do another Baltic Travel tour so will be checking out other options for future trips in due course.

Thanks very much for organising and have a good week.

Best regards

 Helen M

Hello Saija

Thank you.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the Baltic States.

The best of the hotels was the Radisson Blu in Vilnius but those in Riga and Tallinn were very comfortable.

The geographical location of each of them in terms of old town accessibility was superb.  The choice of restaurants everywhere was mind-boggling.

We enjoyed the inclusive on-foot city tours with knowledgeable and interesting guides.  Our guide, Petros, who escorted us from Vilnius to Tallinn was especially deserving of praise. 

The full complement of tourists on this particular holiday totalled 15 which was excellent when it came to managing walking tours.  It also provided lots of space on our 42 seater coach!

We learned to say 'thank you' in three completely different languages.  Most confusing!

This was a great, relaxing way to visit the Baltic States and we highly recommend it. We are also grateful for the attentive and professional way you helped us prior to our departure.

Best wishes.

Thank you.  Aciu.  Paldies.  Aitäh.

Terry 

We enjoyed the holiday very much, thanks. Riga and Tallinn in particular were exceptional. We enjoyed a number of really first class meals, including at Vincent's in Riga and restaurant Tchaikovsky in Tallinn.

Our guide in Riga, and who stayed with us until we reached Tallinn, was particularly good. She was a similar age to ourselves and, having lived through the Soviet occupation, was able to speak first hand about what life was like then which we found very interesting.

We will remember the Baltics with pleasure.

Kind regards

Robert

We just got home last night from our wonderful trip to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland!  We have been lucky enough to have traveled all around the world but this was the only trip where things worked perfectly. We were accustomed to queuing up for taxis at airports and feeling uneasy about whether the meter was fair, to accidentally taking the wrong bus, or to being disappointed because the hotel that looked so great on the internet did not look great in person.  We have stayed in towns that literally closed down on Sundays and there had been no mention of that on-line.  We ate dinner from a vending machine because no restaurants were open.  Those glitches didn't ruin our trips - we just figured they were part of traveling.  Now we know better!  On the trip Baltic Travel arranged for us we were picked up at and delivered to every airport or bus by our own drivers.  What a luxury!  And in each city we enjoyed local tour guides arranged by Baltic Travel.  We learned so much from them.  The hotels were clean and beautiful and all were located within walking distance of art museums - something important to us, and they all served fabulous free breakfasts.  We were traveling on my 70th birthday and the reception clerks all wished me a happy birthday and some hotels even had a treat waiting for me in our room!  Everything was first class.  We will definitely recommend you to our friends.  We can't thank you enough for all the wonderful memories!

Very best wishes!

Hap and Jo

I have been meaning to contact you.  We had a great time and loved the places we visited. Thank you for your support during the trip as contact with the in country rep wasn’t that easy unless you went on a lot of the excursions, which we didn’t as we like to do own thing, in our own time.

I would recommend the trip to others – in fact I already have.

Paul

We had a really good time, Daina. All the arrangements worked perfectly, the car transfers at each end, the hotels, the coaches, especially the three local guides and most especially the one based at Riga who came with us from Vilnius to Tallinn were all excellent. We would have forgone the diversion to see the Hill of Crosses, as we heard would most of the other guests, but that was our only downside.
We thank you and Baltic Travel for all your arrangements and we have no hesitation in recommending you.

Thank you.
Richard and Lynda

We had a great holiday, the Hotels in Vilnuis and Tallinn were first class, the hotel in Riga could do with a bit of sprucing up.
All three local guides were very knowledgeable, helpful and friendly.
The itinerary was just right, having included tours but then options of extra tours or time to do your own thing.
We had bed and breakfast and there was so much choice at each of the hotels then on an evening we found some lovely restaurants and had really good meals.

We have already recommended this holiday to friends and family.

Thanks
Janice

We had a great time in Latvia. It all went very smoothly with the transfers and tours etc. The hotels were fantastic, The Dome spa, we very luxurious and exactly what we were after. The Hotel Garden Palace was also lovely and we had a sauna in our room!!! Thank you for the champagne at the Dome spa, all of the hotels had complimentary gifts for us which made us feel  very special. We absolutely LOVED Riga, such a beautiful and interesting old town and the walking tour was fantastic. Dikli palace was also fantastic. The only slight hitch was that it rained for a day and a half which really limited us without a car. However all the staff were great and we had an amazing massage. We also found the food absolutely brilliant the whole time, we have been telling everyone how fantastic the food was! Overall we had an amazing time, we couldn't imagine a better honeymoon; the perfect balance between relaxing and interesting things to do. Thank you so much to you and your whole team for arranging such a seamless trip. We will definitely being looking to Baltic travel company again for further tours in future as we hope to explore lots more of the Baltic in the years to come. 

Regards

Carley and Hugh

Dear Daina

Just a brief note of warmest thanks to you and Baltic Travel for organising our latest trip (to Riga and Stockholm).  Everything worked perfectly, both hotels were excellent and both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  A great experience all round.

With best wishes, Bill

Lena, we got back yesterday from our fantastic trip.  We had a delightful time, it was wonderful.  Your choice of hotels and tour guides was perfect, it could not have been better.  Thank you so much.  We wanted it to be a trip of a lifetime, and it sure was.  
We may want to return to Riga in the next year or so, it was our favorite and felt we could have spent a week there!
Thanks again!
Steve

Dear Inga
 
Many thanks for all the help that you gave us before  we went on holiday - especially the extra help the day we left.  We had a brilliant time - you even arranged perfect weather for us.  We don't know how you did it but are very grateful!
 
Thanks again, Inga, for all your help.
 
Best wishes
 
Tina

Hi Daina,
Many thanks. Yes, I had a lovely time, thank you. All arrangements were perfect and I had a great day birdwatching with an excellent guide. Loved the city, with its parks, and beautiful buildings.
Thank you for organising it, including the ballet which was also a special highlight.
Thinking I might like to do a trip to Greenland in the next year or two. If so, I will certainly arrange through your company,
Thank you for all you did to make the holiday such a great success,
Best wishes,
Carol

Dear Inga
We are back and I am pleased to say that all your planning worked perfectly. The guides were excellent, the hotels as good as could reasonably be expected and we enjoyed our tour very much.
If it were useful I can give you detailed feedback in particular on the degree of accessibility we found for wheelchairs in each location. It is obvious that at the moment there is very patchy provision for wheelchairs. Museums were bad in Riga and churches in Tallinn. Overall Vilnius was the best city.
It was very difficult to find public disabled toilets in Riga, only one in the whole old city.
As for our next trip, I am interested in a tour to northern Pomerania in Poland, former Prussia, where my wife's family come from. I have researched this area for many years and known the names of places that her ancestors lived in for over 300 years.

Best wishes
Roger

Hi Inga, just to let you know we had a great time in Riga at hotel Justus and thank you very much for the anniversary fizz.

We may be interested in a trip to St Petersburg next year with  stay in Tallinn - Helsinki.

We will be in touch I'm sure.

Kind regards,
Martin

Hi Lena, we have had a most wonderful time, and everything else worked liked clockwork........the hotels were beautiful (all quite different) and we have totally fallen for Riga and Tallinn especially ! Everyone was so very friendly ! We will definitely be going back to visit again, so thank you for your help, and wishing you a very Happy Christmas !
Kind regards, Jane

I just wanted to thank you very much for organising a terrific trip for Don and I through the Baltic Region.
All your arranging worked extremely well, with all transfers being on time, friendly and efficient.
The hotels we stayed in offered a variety of styles and all clean, central and a pleasure to be in.
Our guides were friendly and shared their wealth of knowledge of the area with us.
 
If you could pass on our thanks to the people involved that would be appreciated and a special thanks to yourself.
 
Don and I are now back home in Australia and have already recommended your company to a few people.
 
Kind Regards
from Jenny and Don

We’d just like to say how much we enjoyed our recent tour of the Baltic States and to thank you for your help. It was very nice to be able to pick up the phone and deal direct with an actual person. We also very much apprectiated your checking us in for our Easyjet flights.

All the arrangements at the other end worked smoothly (except for our very first taxi transfer from th airport - he was stuck in traffic or something), the hotels were nice and the guides very good and informative. Everything was as we’d been led to expect when booking, and in the itinerary. It was useful that we didn’t have to make up our mind about the optional trips at the start of the holiday, but could book them nearer the day they were due to take place.

We filled in the questionnaire that Baltic Vision asked us to complete before leaving Tallinn, but we thought we’d like to thank the office at the London end too.

Best wishes,
Mr & Mrs Death

We had a great Baltic holiday. Everyone in my family really enjoyed it!

We don't have any negative comments. The Radisson Blu hotels were all excellent. The tour guides were all very good. The tour was very well organized. And we loved the various cities that we visited, especially Riga.

The only small comment we do have is regarding the lunch stop on the journey between Vilnius and Riga. We stopped for one hour or so in a quiet, dull shopping mall. Perhaps it would be better to stop at a nice village restaurant, or provide a picnic stop in a nice park?

Anyway, thanks again for a great holiday. Keep up the good work!

Ed

We had a wonderful trip. Everything beautifully organised. Accommodation excellent apart from Dikli Manor.

A beautiful building and grounds.

Hope these comments are helpful.

Best wishes

Marilyn

I would like to say how very much my friend, Josephine Campbell, and I enjoyed our trip to Riga last week.  Your travel arrangements were excellent and we had no problems at all.  We were greeted by a very pleasant young “transfer car” driver at Riga Airport, despite the fact that the flight was over an hour late, and collected for the return transfer in good time by an equally pleasant and helpful young man.  The Hotel Gutenbergs is quirky and welcoming, had all the facilities we needed and our room was delightful and very unusual!  Also, by being so close to the cathedral, we could always find our way back to it...

We were lucky enough to have hot and sunny weather throughout our stay, so that apart from breakfast we never had a meal indoors.  Food was good everywhere and the unhurried service didn’t bother us as we weren’t there on business. Fascinating museums, interesting architecture (both ancient and modern), fun or elegant statues, pretty parks and a relaxing boat trip – all among the more memorable ingredients of our holiday.  The city was also immaculately clean – which is more than I can say for UK towns and cities! And your countrymen and women in the shops and cafes were smiling and polite and spoke enough English for us non-Latvian speakers to get by. Prices throughout were reasonable.  I rate Riga very highly.

There are just two things I’ll do differently next time I go:
1)    I will swot up on Latvian history beforehand! It’s so complex! We eventually found a booklet entitled Old Riga and wished we had found it earlier because it was readable and informative.
2)    I won’t pack any high heels! Fortunately I was wearing trainers and had some flat shoes with me, but my higher heels never left my suitcase, as those cobbles would have crippled me.

I have dozens of photos of the town, old and Art Nouveau buildings, the panorama from St Peter’s spire, street musicians etc. but I don’t want to burden you with them unless you have a use for any.

Thank you very much for your help. I shall certainly recommend Riga and also come back to you when/if we plan another Baltic journey.

Kind regards,
Julia

I would like to compliment Daina on her excellent organisation of our holiday to the Baltic.  It was perfect.  When there was an odd hiccup she responded immediately with all the necessary information.  The fault lay with the guide and not Daina.  She will be the reason why I wil be booking further holidays with your company.  Please complement her on our behalf.
janet

Dear Inga
We have just returned from our Baltic Highlights Tour (with Helsinki addon) booked through yourself. As with our previous trip to Iceland arranged by Baltic Travel Company the service was once again exceptional and an example to other travel companies of how to provide clear and excellent customer service.At every point in our trip arrangements were as specified and we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday, knowing that we were being taken care of by a company who is clearly an expert in their field.Many thanks once again for all your patience and assistance. We would not hesitate to recommend you to others planning the same trips and indeed have already done just that.Should we be looking at any of the other destinations you offer, we will definitely use your company again.Other organisations within the travel industry should take note of the work that you do.

Hi Iveta,

A quick note of thanks.  We really enjoyed our week in Latvia.  The Riga Festival made the start of our week very busy and we loved watching the performers we saw in various parts of the Old Town.  Hotel Justus is lovely and we would recommend it to anyone in the future.

Cesis, when we arrived, was quite a contrast to bustling, lively Riga, especially in the evening - the streets were deserted!  And it rained.  However, the next day the rain stopped and it all looked so much better as we explored the town.  The castle is very good and we found a nice cafe to eat in and a bar in Rose Square for a relaxing drink.  The next day we walked from Cesis to the Gauja river and the Cirulisi nature trails.

We also took a bus to Sigulda for a day.  We could have done with two days!  Perhaps you could offer a night in Sigulda in your City and Country package.

All your arrangements (the hotels and the airport transfers) worked perfectly.  However, Ryanair was not a pleasure.  It was especially chaotic at Riga airport!

Thank you for organising our visit.  I would recommend your company to anyone wanting to visit Latvia.

Yours,
John, Catherine and Beth Else

Hello Iveta

We would just like you to know how much we enjoyed our holiday in Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn. The hotels were all super, all the arrangements that you made for us were great, and I suppose that nobody can help Ryan Air, who did leave something to be desired at Stansted on our outward journey!

With our very best wishes
Neville and Joyce

Dear Veronika

I want to say thank you for arranging our trip it all went very smoothly.  On the downside we felt we didn't have enough time in Vilnius, and on the tour many of the hotels were a long walk into town, while the room in Tallin at the end was far better placed but  very, very small.  We loved our time in Riga and Tallin and the icing on the cake was ending the trip in Kuressaare.  We loved the Baltic countries and thank you for your patience!

Kind regards
Jackie H

The trip was wonderful, we really enjoyed it and feel everything you did to set it up was first class. Thank you

I will be more than happy to recommend you and your company should I have the opportunity. I have already told a number of people what a great trip it was and how they should go to the Baltics. Perhaps some will. Thank you again

Hello Daina

We've been back home for over a week now.
We all enjoyed the holiday very much.
Your organisation of the whole trip was excellent!
Many thanks from us all.
The hotels were all fine, and the guided-tours were very interesting. Also, because there were only the 3 of us, we had plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
A nice introduction to the tour of Riga was the sampling of  "Janu siers un Janu alus".
In Cesis the guide wore medieval Latvian costume, which looked lovely.
The tour of Sigulda on bicycles made a nice change too.
The cycle-ride through the forest was beautiful - so much forest!!
Canoeing on the Gauja was lovely too: peaceful, and pleasantly cooler than on land, as the weather was HOT.
Maris (Bike and Canoe Rent) was helpful too.
We particularly liked Ligatne.
We also loved seeing so many frogs, and especially ALL the storks and their chicks on their nests!
I would like to mention 3 things though, of which it  might be useful to warn other tourists:
1.  In the forest we were plagued by flies, and received many bites. A good insect-repellent would be a useful item to recommend.
2.  We each brought a mobile-phone with us from England or Ireland. None of them worked in Latvia. We couldn't text, or make calls on them, which caused us some difficulty. This happened to me and Anne in 2008, and we had hoped that this wouldn't happen again, but it did.
In the end, I bought a cheap mobile-phone out in Latvia to use during our stay.
3.  On the forest cycle-ride, we were following orange markers on the trees, which indicated our route. This worked very well, except for in one place, where the route forked backwards to the right and the marker wasn't visible, from our direction. Instead we went to the left towards a house in a lovely spot, where a very helpful, friendly man lives with his family. He showed us around. It was very interesting! This house was ABOUT  half-way between Valmiera and Cesis - maybe further on. Where we turned left instead of right there is a yellow sign: "SKAISTS PRIVATIPASUMS". It WAS beautiful too. We only went a little way in the wrong direction towards Cesis, as the owner of the house told us where we needed to go. He also told us that many cyclists on this route make the same mistake, so it wasn't just us!
We did have a lovely holiday though, and we would recommend it to others.

Best Wishes
Velta

Hi Daina, we have returned home after a truly wonderful tour. We want to thank you once again for all of your care and attention which resulted in us having a great time. It was a small group and surprisingly there were two other australian couples who had booked with you. The guides we had with Baltic vision were first class and the accommodation very good indeed. As it happened we were the only people left on the group going on to moscow from st petersburg so we had hands on care. We were able to spend our last day in London amid the buzz off the para games and managed a ride on the london eye. Thank you once again, John & Sue