When Dan and I talk about our recent (June, 2018) trip to the Baltic region, mentioning all the cities we visited, invariably someone asks, “Were you on a cruise?”

No. We were not on a cruise. Let me dispel that idea here and now, once and for all. We are not cruise people. We might become cruise people one day, when we can’t get around by ourselves very well any more or suddenly transform into extroverts–but not now. Nor were we planning, originally, to make our trip look like a cruise trip. It just sort of . . . happened.

It all started as a trip to Helsinki, a city Dan wanted to visit because of its reputation as a center of clean, modern design and the home of the famous architect Alvar Aalto. We thought we might go there over midsummer, knowing that there are fun celebrations in Finland at that time. And besides, Helsinki isn’t that far from St. Petersburg, a city I’ve long wanted to visit. That simply, we had the beginning of a plan: Helsinki and St. Petersburg over midsummer.

First, we investigated airfare to and from the region. We like nonstop flights, but it wasn’t a surprise to discover that there are no nonstop flights from San Francisco to Helsinki–much less to St. Petersburg. The closest we could get nonstop was Copenhagen, another city we’d hoped one day to visit. So, we added Copenhagen to our list of vacation destinations.

At this point, with three cities in the plan and an estimated timeframe of about two weeks in late June, we encountered our first problem: the World Cup in soccer was to be held in Russia at that time, starting on June 15th. And a friend had a horror story of being bumped from his confirmed and prepaid stay in a St. Petersburg hotel when there was some tourist event in town and the hotels could get more money. So–sorry, they “lost” his reservation. They found him a place to stay miles outside of the city–the best they said they could do. To avoid a similar problem during the World Cup, we decided to stay in an American chain hotel where Dan had a preferred traveler relationship. And, to be safe, we also decided to move our trip earlier than we’d thought–timing it to be leaving St. Petersburg just before the World Cup began. This decision anchored the start date of the trip. The end date was anchored by our desire to be in Helsinki for midsummer, and then spend a few days in Copenhagen.

Getting directly to St. Petersburg, it turned out, involved many hours of travel, and considerable expense–at least on the dates we had narrowed down to. We found that we could travel more easily–and with less stress–by breaking the outbound part of the trip up in Helsinki, spending an overnight in a real bed at a hotel airport, and then flying to St. Petersburg the next morning on a different airline. Thus, the plane reservation: outbound to Helsinki on June 7, 2018 via SAS Airlines, return from Copenhagen on June 26th. With an arrival in Helsinki on June 8th, we were able to reserve a hotel room at the airport, allowing time to decompress from the long flight, and fly to St. Petersburg the next day on Finnair, with a flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen on Finnair toward the end of the trip.

We now had a trip framework in place. It was time to figure out where we were going between June 9th and June 23rd (and how we were going to get there). And, of course, to make the necessary hotel reservations.

Four days in St. Petersburg seemed about right, and it would get us out of Russia two days before the World Cup started. Between that and the now-fixed departure to Copenhagen on the 23rd, we had ten days to spend in the Baltic. We knew we had to be in Helsinki last, but how many days would we want to spend there?

Research into “what to do in Helsinki” suggested that four days would be plenty, assuming we didn’t want to travel north into the Finnish countryside. But, interestingly, a side trip to the city of Tallinn, Estonia, via a relatively short two-hour ferry ride, was widely, and highly, recommended. It took only a few photos of the World Heritage medieval old city, and I was on board. But no need for an afternoon excursion: we had the luxury of spending a couple of days.

Given the frequent ferry connection between the two cities, we could potentially do them in either order. I decided to let the ease and cost of getting there from St. Petersburg enter into the decision process — and discovered almost by accident that the easiest and least expensive flight out of St. Petersburg was to . . . Riga, Latvia.

Well, why not! It seemed we had the time, and it wasn’t like we were likely ever to get another chance to visit. And besides, Riga, it turns out, also has a World Heritage medieval city center. And it’s fairly easy to get from Riga to Tallinn by land, giving us a chance to see some of the Baltic countryside.

A little research into travel methods, even more research into hotels, and the framework of the trip now looked like this:

• June 07-08:  San Francisco to Helsinki via SAS, overnight in Helsinki
• June 09:       Helsinki to St. Petersburg via Finnair
• June 09-13:  St. Petersburg, Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel
• June 13:       St. Petersburg to Riga via Air Baltic
• June 13-16:  Riga, Redstone Boutique Hotel
• June 16:       Riga to Tallinn by private tour, rigatraveller.com
• June 16-19:  Tallinn, Three Sisters Boutique Hotel
• June 19:       Tallinn to Helsinki by Tallink high-speed ferry
• June 19-23:  Helsinki, Hotel F6
• June 23:       Helsinki to Copenhagen via Finnair
• June 23-26:  Copenhagen, Copenhagen Admiral Hotel
• June 26:       Copenhagen to San Francisco via SAS

A few notes of importance for anyone planning a trip such as this:

St. Petersburg

• Traveling from the USA, as of this writing, you need a visa to get into Russia (and, even more important, to get out again). Allow plenty of time for this, as it’s a real process. The website  https://waytorussia.net/RussianVisa/ contains a good step-by-step guide.
• The Renaissance Hotel is expensive; however, we were able to use Marriott points.
• Buy your Hermitage tickets in advance, and avoid the lines! See https://www.hermitageshop.org/tickets/.

Riga

• We did not like the Redstone Boutique Hotel, and do not recommend it. The two really good features were that the rooms were spacious and nicely furnished; and the staff was as helpful and friendly as you might wish. However, it was very hot in Riga when we were there, and the air conditioning did not work in some of the rooms, was marginal in others, and in any case was shut off centrally around midnight. The hotel was in a very loud location. And, to make matters worse, the management allowed parties on the roof until after midnight, with concommitant noise of loud party-goers coming and going, easily audible in the hallways and rooms. A word to the wise: Try someplace else.
• We found the World Heritage medieval city center a bit touristy, with a lot of bars and restaurants and souvenir shops. And the building stock had a lot of infill of later eras. But it was nice enough.
• We were completely surprised by a huge Art Nouveau district with some totally amazing buildings. For this alone, Riga is worth a visit. If I were to go back, I would try to stay in this area.
• There’s also a lovely park ringing the old medieval city.

Tallinn

• The Three Sisters Boutique Hotel is fabulous, and very well located just inside the city walls of the medieval city. It comprises three centuries-old buildings, totally renovated.
• The medieval city center is very well preserved and full of interesting shops and other sights.
• There is an up-and-coming artsy district called Kalamaja just a short walk from the old city that is definitely worth a visit.

Helsinki

• Hotel F6 also turned out to be a good choice; the location was excellent, as was the hotel itself.
• The so-called “Design District” was disappointing. There weren’t a lot of design-oriented shops or ateliers compared to just regular cityscape.
• The just-regular cityscape is quite nice.
• It turns out I don’t care much for Alvar Aalto’s architecture, though his bent-wood chairs are kind of cool.
• There’s a great underground church in Helsinki, worth a visit. They charge you to get in, but don’t provide bathrooms for the public. Plan ahead!
• Oh–and most important–in Finland, they do not necessarily celebrate midsummer at, well, midsummer. They celebrate it on the first Saturday afterwards. We left that afternoon, and missed the bonfires there. But another word of advice: They also do not necessarily celebrate midsummer in Helsinki. Everyone closes up early and heads to the north, to the woods. So we would probably have missed the bonfires in any case. Who knew!

Copenhagen

• It turns out that in Denmark, they also celebrate midsummer on the first Saturday after midsummer, and they’re not shy about doing it in the city. So we arrived just in time!
• We’d reserved a (relatively) inexpensive room on the back side of the hotel, but a room was available facing the harbor, and since (by chance) the Copenhagen midsummer celebration was to be held right there, we splurged and upgraded. And it was worth it.
• A word about money: Copenhagen is expensive. Plan on it. Capuccino and a croissant for breakfast in a simple neighborhood bakery/cafe can run you $8 to $10.
• The design scene in Copenhagen is wonderful. I still wish we’d bought the sheets and duvets. And the furniture is simple and beautiful.
• There’s a neighborhood called Nørrebro that’s a little off the beaten track and worth a visit. It has edgy, unusual shops; a beautiful park-like cemetery; the old Jewish cemetery; and a vibrant, interesting Moslem immigrant neighborhood. I mention this, because your guide book might not.

That’s about it for trip planning. I’ll also be posting some pictures and commentary on various sights from time to time. If you’re thinking of planning your own trip, I hope you find this information useful — and feel free to contact me, should you have further questions. And have a great trip!