Holidays in Estonia

Dear Lena,

My holiday to Tallinn went very well.  I thoroughly enjoyed this very interesting, historic city.  I visited the art museums in Kadriorg Park, the TV Tower, Lennusadam and the museums and historic sites of the Old Town, including the very interesting Museum of the Occupations.

The My City Hotel was excellent.  The location in the Old Town was very good as all the places I visited were either within walking distance or could be reached easily on public transport.  The breakfast in the hotel was great, with a wide choice.  The hotel staff were excellent and very helpful.  They upgraded me to a superior room because I was staying with them for a week.  The room was in a quiet location, was large, well furnished and clean.

The airport/hotel transfers were very efficient and prompt.  The Easyjet flights were fine.

Overall, it was a very relaxing and trouble free holiday.  I did not eat at the hotel in the evenings, but I found many excellent Estonian restaurants nearby - all of which served very good, freshly prepared meals.

Very many thanks.

Regards,

Jonathan K

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

Dear Inga,

Sorry not to get back to you sooner.  My holiday was not the most successful I’ve had for the following reasons:

-          I was ill-prepared for my visit – partly because I booked it a bit too close to my departure and hadn’t read enough about the two cities (Riga and Tallinn) I was visiting;

-          Also because a 92-year old friend collapsed the week before and a spent a whole day at the hospital with her and paid her several visits during that week.

-          Also because I had a bad stomach upset which started on the Friday night before I went on holiday, i.e. Friday 7^th- Saturday 8^th.   By Sunday evening, things seemed more or less ok when I left for Stansted and Riga the following morning.  However, I had a couple of really  bad days in Riga – one day when I had to stay in my hotel room all day.  However, by eating mostly bread and plain biscuits and drinking water, I got through the rest of the week. The available food was either very rich, or smoked or very heavy.  So, not my most successful holiday.  I did get out and about but not very far and not very fast as I felt quite weak some of the time.  My digestive system is still not quite right but improving and I have  very little energy.

At some point in the future, I would go back to Tallinn – lovely people and environment but found people in Riga less friendly and communicative. 

So, this was not a typical holiday for me – I spent most of my time quite close to the town centre and my hotel, apart from my final day in Tallinn when I went to the open air buildings museum.

The arrangements made by Baltic Travel all worked very well, apart from the taxi to the airport in Tallinn.  The driver was about five minutes late.  He was very apologetic – he had been helping a friend whose taxi had broken down.  We were in plenty of time to get to the airport but it is not the sort of thing one wants when one is going for a flight! 

With my thanks to you in particular, and your colleagues, for arranging my holiday so efficiently.

Kind regards,

Deborah

PS:  I will send one or two photos shortly.

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