In case it's helpful to others planning a trip to the Baltics, I'm going to share my notes on highlights of our trip to Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, and Helsinki in May 2025. I'm going to have to break this up into parts to meet the Travel Forum character limit. We loved the Baltics and believe it's truly a hidden gem of Europe! Here goes ...
FROM RIGA TO TALLINN
We took the train from our Old Town accomodations back to the Riga airport and rented a car for our drive to Tallinn.
Along our drive we stopped at another top highlight of our entire trip: Cesis Castle. This is another place that I highly recommend you prioritize seeing. Absolutely worth any extra effort it requires. The castle complex is so well-preserved and has such an interesting history. For one part of it there are people dressed in period costumes handing out candlelight lanterns to explore the darker regions of the interior. Very cool! https://cesupils.lv/en/