Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia

I second the motion.

We visited those three wonderful countries in 2011 for a total of six nights, at the end of a tour/river cruise in Russia.

The people were wonderful, the cities historic and the energy and fortitude of the people were outstanding.
Everywhere we went the people pointed out aspects of how much they suffered under the Soviets and loved their freedom and independence. Also, we saw massive rebuilding and development, which demonstrated economic success from that independence.

Our last travels included these countries. Highly recommend visiting. Bus transportation is the best way to get place to place as train routes don’t effectively link these countries. We just visited the capitals and the old town areas. There has to be a lot more to experience. One guide book for these countries would be a good addition to the Europe through the Back Door philosophy of traveling.

Now is probably not a good time for them to consider expanding their product line. I would suspect that adding more countries to their guidebooks (which takes quite a bit of on the ground research) will depend on how much interest there is in traveling there in the future. That is, the post-COVID tourist-consumers probably have to start going there in numbers first, in order to justify books. Just like the surge in Iceland travel resulted in a book. Noting that there isn't a Poland book either, or Ukraine, or the Balkans.

I concur. The USA is supporting them with boots on the ground, to include Poland and the Ukraine. I would also be curious for something on Kaliningrad. Got to get through COVID though.

I have visited Estonia twice now, with the second trip including travel by bus from Tallinn to Riga and Vilnius and I used the DK Eyewitness book that combines the 3 countries--it was quite detailed and had useful maps and included cities I didn't have time for (though I hope to return to all 3 countries, Estonia for sure) so I cut out the sections I needed. I don't care for the Lonely Planet format, I much prefer Rick's books, but this did nicely--I still do plenty of research on the internet no matter where I go, but this gave me plenty of background on various things that I was glad to have with me.

OAT does a very good tour of the three Baltic countries + St. Petersburg Russia.

Concur on the OAT tour. We have been on it and OAT does a good job. HOWEVER look up threads on this forum about problems with refunds from OAT when they cancel tours (they no longer cancel them, they are just "postponed" to the next year).

There's a cycling trip we keep considering …. https://www.utracks.com/ideas-cycling-estonia-latvia-lithuania . It does seem like a great part of the world. We did visit Tallinn on a Baltic cruise but only spent like 4 hours. I would say we weren't impressed enough to visit as a single country but his bike trip might be the ticket.

I went to Lithuania for a Yiddish class in August 2007. I got college credit for it. The class was in Vilnius University. I actually saw very few sights in Lithuania and I did not see any part of Latvia or Estonia. Sometimes I think of traveling to the Baltic states. But since the class, I have traveled to England, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands. Maybe I am afraid I won't do a good enough job of seeing the countries. My ancestors gaves could be there but I haven't decided whether I should care about this and I wouldn't know how to find them or how to read them, if they even still exist. Or I might feel guilty for coming close to where my ancestors lived without seeing the towns they lived in. Because what am I supposed to do, get out of a bus, taxi, or rental car and say, oh wow, my great×5 grandparent(s) lived somewhere in this town or rural district, now what do I do? And then get back on the next bus or back in the car and go back to my hotel? If I traveled to the Baltic countries I probably would see castles, museums, monuments - normal tourist stuff without trying to go to the towns or rural districtsmy ancestors lived. Except that I would have to see at least one or more Jewish related sights.

No, there’s been no serious discussion of revisiting this topic. Many years ago, Rick did publish a couple of editions of a book called Russia and the Baltics (available through some used book outlets but I wouldn’t bother). All of his books were smaller then and it only added Moscow and Vilnius, beyond the coverage that is maintained in other books for Riga, Tallinn, and St. Petersburg.

This is a rather unconventional source of info, but I have attended the EU Open House Embassy Tours in Washington DC every year in May (except this year, obviously). I was able to pick up some good (hard copy) tourism materials from embassies representing these three countries, including detailed maps that I would not be able to obtain easily anywhere else. Perhaps this would be a good source of information, if and when the embassies are back operating normal hours. I hope the embassy open house tours come back next year or the following year, they are very popular and well-attended. I recall the Latvian Embassy having a really attractive interior and furnishings.

That's a good tip for those of us living around Washington, Agnes. My first step in trip planning used to be a letter (this was before the computer age) to a country's tourist office in NYC. I'd get lots of good information, including very useful maps. As far as I know, those days are gone, though poking around on the internet often reveals helpful downloads. But I miss the maps; a downloaded map really only works for a small town.

The population of the Baltic is low compared to Western and Central Europe. Far fewer Americans visited the Baltic states in the one or more years before the travel ban compared to other parts of Europe... see the Wikipedia article on tourism in Lithuania: the USA was not in the top ten countries visitors to Lithuania came from in 2017-2018. Maybe Rick skips publishing material about places he has little interest in.

Would you go to a small town or rural area just to say you were there, just because a great grandparent or great x 3 grandparent grew up there? Or should I skip the places because according to rational thinking, there would be little or nothing to do see or do there that would otherwise be of interest to me?... for example, there are one or two places on google maps - a parish or rural area and also a campground in a national park, with cabins that can be rented, in Eastern Latvia, whose names in German and Yiddish is my last name. Another example: my great grandfather with my same last name grew up in Lyutsin, also known as Luda in Latvian. The town may have the unimpressive remains of a small castle - nothing you can go inside, just parts of some stone walls; and a house sized old building that might not be open to the public that used to be used as a synagogue.

I did a trip to those three countries a few years ago. I agree there is a lack of travel books on the area.

Here's the link to my trip report: https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/trip-report-and-photos-the-baltics-tallinn-riga-and-vilnius-1131865/page3/ Hopefully you will find some useful information in it.

The photos are here: https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/f408399438

Thanks for the link to your description of your trip.

I found some more information about Ludza, the town in Eastern Latvia my great grandfather with my same last name grew up in. I haven't decided whether this makes it worth traveling there. It looks like there is a local history museum there. It is at least partly an open air museum - they have a small collection of small old buildings and they own an old wood synagogue that was restored or well renovated in 2015-2016. See ludzasmuzejs.lv/en . The weird thing the site mentions, at the bottom of the page about the synagogue, is you are supposed to sign up to see it a day in advance, in person or on the phone.