Cycle the Baltics

It was the first cycling holiday with exodus and lived up to all my expectations with a great mix of leisurely cycling and cultural visits. Our tour Leader Andrius contributed to the success of the trip with his thoughtfulness, caring attitude, and sheer determination to ensure our group had a lovely holiday. Nothing was left to chance and each day was so varied with a packed itinerary to explore three countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with all its history, culture food and drink. I enjoyed the leisurely cycle to admire the beautiful landscape of each country along Rivers Lakes, Forests and coastal shoreline. Swimming or paddling in the Baltics sea together with having lunches to taste the local cuisine to include smoked fish, soups and of course Zeppelins.

It was a fantastic trip, every day was a new adventure. The cycling was varied, and there was a lot of custom made cycle paths, e.g. on the Coronian Spit which consisted of just miles of cycle paths. The hotels were great, the best being the one in the National Park called Palmse Manor, with a stunning lake. The Hotel Braavo in Tallin was probably one not to return to, as they were obviously doing some refurbishments and it was a bit like a "work in progress".

We thoroughly enjoyed the easy cycling on mostly flat terrain through lovely countryside mixed with city visits. We were lucky with the weather as it was warm without being too hot, much of the cycling is through forest providing welcome shade. There was a mix of personalities and fitness levels in our group that overall was supportive and gelled well. The trip visits all 3 capitals but also more rural spots and much of the cycling is near the coast or lakes. The amount of cycling per day was such that there was never any rush and plenty of time for breaks. The cycling infrastructure (segregated paths) and courtesy of the drivers when cycling on roads is something I miss back in Britain. In most cases we stayed 2 nights in the same hotel giving time to explore the city or in the case of Palmse – explore the wonderful gardens and enjoy the peace and quiet. See Stephen Mardon's extensive write up for further details.

A really excellent holiday that takes in some amazing countries and scenery. Everything about this holiday was great from the cities of Tallin, Riga and Vilnius to the Curonian Strait, beatiful beaches and lakes galore. The quality of the food and the accommodation was also surprisingly good.

Thanks to wide comfy saddles and mostly flat terrain the cycling was easy and enjoyable. My favourite area was Laheema National Park in Northern Estonia with wooden fisherman's houses, empty beaches and BIG swings. Swimming in the Baltic is lovely - the temperature is perfect and it's not salty. Our guide, Andrius, was great at setting the historical scene and teaching us what it's like to be a Lithuanian with an off-beat Lithuanian sense of humour. He led us round Talinn, showed us the art nouveau in Riga, cycled us through Vilnius as well as various smaller towns, castles and even a nuclear launch site. He was particularly good at organising places for us to eat Zeppelins, drink mead and dig our fingers into freshly smoked fish. But he was even better at setting up musical experiences. We heard a pipe organ concert in a Riga church, a big swing band on the water-front in Klapedia and best of all, our fabulous group spent a memorable night dancing like no-one was watching to a funky jazz band playing classics. Thanks Andrius. A special mention also for Mindogas, our ever-attentive driver who kept the whole show on the road.

This is a brilliant trip, which we really enjoyed. The accommodation was better than we expected, apart from one hotel/motel, The Green Park, which feels like you are sleeping (or not sleeping) in the middle of a main road. I think the tour would benefit from being very slightly more expensive and have better hotels, which are little difference in price in these countries. The itinerary was good, but it felt a bit rushed. We hardly saw Latvia and we had a couple of very long transfers. It would benefit from being a couple of days longer. Our guide, Andrius, was superb. He was so lovely, sociable and knowledgeable and was a pleasure to have around. The driver, Dmitri was a very good driver, without a single word of English. This was a shame, as we could not socialise with him. My big problem with these trips, and it is not just Exodus, is that, to save money, they have gone from 2 guides, to one guide and a mechanic/back-marker, to only one guide. This created a potentially big problem when I had an accident (and it was no-one's fault). I had to be taken to hospital by the guide as walking wounded (stitched up and continued cycling for the remainder of the holiday). That meant there was no-one to lead the cycling. Fortunately, we had a very competent fellow traveller who did this job. However, this is not the first time we have been caught out in this way. Exodus needs to take a serious look at health and safety, because it does matter. This is where the star has been dropped.

An easy cycling trip exploring the 3 Baltic states, their capitals, countryside and beaches, as well as gaining a good understanding of their social, political and historical background up to the present day.

A great way to see all three Baltic Countries with really pretty reasonably easy cycling.

The trip was well organised and the leader was excellent. The bikes were disappointing. The bikes were new and in excellent condition but they were very heavy and had only 8 gears and were not to the standard I have experienced in previous exodus cycling tours. In addition neither the guide nor the driver were experienced mechanics which resulted in one of the experienced cyclists on the tour helping out.

Vaida is an exceptional tour guide, I would go on any trip with her. The biking was great and the areas were beautiful. Really get a nice sense of the country. But we had beautiful weather, very lucky. The one thing I would change is the hotel in Kleipeda; it was so terrible it almost ruined the trip for me. Also, vegetarians need to make arrangements - bring protein bars, etc, because it is mostly meat and fish.