As promised, my review of this excellent Travelsphere tour:Arrived at the Novotel in Warsaw early afternoon and headed straight out for a walk around. This is safely done via nearby underground walkways so I got to the Palace of Culture and Science which was across the road from the hotel. The following day we had a guided tour of old Warsaw and points of interest nearby. Some of the group stayed in the centre as our excellent coach driver Valdice went back to pick them up later. As I’d been to Warsaw previously, I headed round the Polish Army Museum, attached to the National Museum, although the weather was not the best with heavy rain at times.
Moved on to Lithuania and attempted to have lunch en-route except nobody knew we were coming so nothing was ready. Staff hastily prepared some soup, but then tried to serve it with mouldy bread! Apparently this restaurant is used regularly for lunch breaks by TS so I suggest they try elsewhere. Next, drove to Druskininkai for a guided tour but the guide refused to use the microphone so nobody had any idea what was said as we raced round our tour. Next we went to Grutas Park, again there was no guide available, but thankfully there were descriptions provided for every statue so you could get some information yourself, it was easy to walk around too. Arrived at hotel for our included dinner.
Today we had a guided tour around Vilnius with an excellent guide before having free time for lunch and further sightseeing. Then moved on to Trakai Castle which we walked to along a path/bridge before having a guided tour around the castle and museum with another really good guide. Afterwards we drove to our next hotel in Kaunas, as no dinner was included tonight, I went out for a wander and some snacks.
We started today with an early guided tour of Kaunas with the excellent Alma. The tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours followed by a 3 hour drive to the hill of crosses - some were moved more than others by visiting and placing crosses for their loved ones. We stayed here about 45 minutes before driving to Rundale Palace for our lunch break at 3pm (I think it would have been better had we known our lunch break would be so late as some didn’t have anything since breakfast). We then had a good tour of the Palace and a little free time to see the gardens before closing time at 6pm. We arrived in Riga at 7:30 and had dinner in a lovely local restaurant at 8:30, I got back to the hotel just after 11pm.
Started our walking tour of Riga at 9am with another excellent guide (Maria). Walked through the old town seeing all the sights whilst negotiating the many marathon runners racing around. Then had free time so I went up in the lift to the viewing platform in St Peters Cathedral (included) for stunning views of Riga. Continued to other areas of interest in Riga and to the outdoor museum with old villages, windmills, etc, had a short guided tour followed by some free time.
Left hotel at 9 for our drive to Tallinn, stopping en-route in Sigulda and then to Turaidas Castle with another great guide. Arrived in centrally located hotel in Tallinn, walked to local restaurant for a lovely meal (some got a taxi for around €5 each way).
Had a guided tour with the lovely Eha for about 2 hours before going to the outdoor concert area, then had an orientation tour by coach pointing out areas of interest before getting off for a lunch break in Tallinn. In the afternoon we visited Kadriorg Palace and had a guided tour followed by some free time. As the hotel was so central and lunch tonight was not included, I walked back into Tallinn for a look around.
As we had the morning to ourselves I again headed out to the centre of Tallinn where they were setting up the market stalls in the main square. I came back via the Russian orthodox cathedral we had visited the day before and spent some more time observing proceedings before heading to Linda’s Hill Park which was only minutes from our hotel. We left around 12:45 for the short drive to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry to Helsinki. I have unhappy memories of ferries from my school trips to France many moons ago, but this ferry was more like the cruise ships I’ve seen advertised, it had about 10 floors and looked lovely inside. I settled by a window so I could see out and hardly noticed we were moving on the 2 hour journey. This hotel was further from the centre and a few of us remarked on how we would have preferred a more central hotel. The rooms were also too hot and the air conditioning only went down so far and was still too hot, the windows didn’t open either. The staff, however, were lovely and the food exceptional and so fresh.
Today we left at 9 for our guided tour of Helsinki with the hilarious Margaret. We visited a nearby sculpture before going to the church in the rock, then onto Senate Square followed by an orientation drive. This afternoon we visited the charming Porvoo and had a short guided tour and time to have lunch. Our driver then dropped those who wanted to spend more time in the centre of Helsinki off (returning later to pick them up), and took everyone else back to the hotel.
As you can see this was a very full-on tour with lots of walking, most days started at 9. We had a great tour guide in Pamela, and a fabulous coach driver in Valdice, nothing was too much trouble, both were very approachable. Although mostly meat eating countries, vegetarian options were readily available- the food throughout the tour was to a high standard. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this tour.
Caroline
