Baltic Visitor

A Baltic Times article on tourism in Tallinn paints a fairly grim picture of an industry which has expanded too fast and cannot fill hotel rooms or attract enough staff. This year has seen a fall in tourist numbers and a drop in the average number of nights for which visitors stay – at […]

[Read more →]

The Baltic Times reports on two separate incidents which resulted in the arrest of British nationals over the weekend. In the first, two members of a stag party were arrested for possession of cocaine – a third was detained but released uncharged. In the second incident, a Scotsman climbed the steps of the Freedom Monument […]

[Read more →]

Visitors to Riga will soon discover that there are a wealth of free guides to the city, most of them pocket sized and available in hotel lobbies. I was looking through my stash of them and thought that it might be useful to run through some of the best.
Of the pocket sized freebies, the best […]

[Read more →]

[ 21 July, 2007; ] This weekend sees the most important event in the calendar for Estonian indie music fans – the annual Plink Plonk festival which began in 2005. The event is held in Tartu, helping it to stand out from the myriad festivals which take place in the capital over the summer months. It might not be the […]

[Read more →]

Anybody who was interested in the Extreme Crafts events which recently took place in Vilnius might want to read a post on Lithuanian knitting on the Sheep To Shawl blog. It includes material from an exhibition at England’s Woolfest, as well as information on yarn shops and knitted products in Vilnius. The blog’s author Donna […]

[Read more →]

[ 20 July, 2007 to 21 July, 2007. ] The coastal port of Liepaja is widely considered to be the home of Latvian rock music, and every summer since 2001 it has celebrated this heritage with a beach festival. The event has grown over the years, now attracting an impressive 45,000 people. There are five stages this year, hosting everything from pop acts to […]

[Read more →]

If you are thinking about visiting the Estonian islands of Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu, or even if you are not, it’s worth taking a look at an article on hitchhiking writing by Joel Alas for the Baltic Times. Despite being described as ‘a hitchhiker’s guide’ it is more of an amusing look at the islands […]

[Read more →]

[ 5 July, 2007 to 8 July, 2007. ] Today sees the start of the biggest event in the Lithuanian cultural calendar – so big, in fact, that it only happens once every four years. The Lithuanian Song and Dance Celebration brings together thousands of performers, and has been officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of […]

[Read more →]

[ 4 July, 2007 to 8 July, 2007. ] The annual Ollesummer (Beer Summer) festival has been running in Tallinn since 1996, and has grown to the extent that it now fills up the entire Song Festival Grounds. This year the event – running from 4th-8th July – will include more than ten entertainment stages, along with beer tents and food stalls. The biggest […]

[Read more →]

An article in the Baltic Times claims, with good reason given the growth in visitor numbers, that the three Baltic countries are ‘losing their novelty appeal for international travelers’. This is not meant in a negative sense. Baltic travel expert Neil Taylor, author of several guidebooks including the excellent Tallinn Mini City Guide for Bradt, […]

[Read more →]