In the process of researching a fall vacation (when aren’t I researching…), another Adventure Center offering intrigued me. The Baltic Republics with its three countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. (Check out the Adventure Center “Find Your Adventure” on this side of this page for more information.) This particular trip is run by Explore U.K., one of ex-Marine’s (husband, Steve) and my favorite tour operators, represented in the United States by Adventure Center. This would be our 16th trip with Explore and I don’t use tour operators who aren’t up to snuff. Just too many other reputable travel operators/consultants who would love your business to bother with a sub-par one.

“Historic Baltic Republics” was a cultural tour of the three countries, often seen as one nation. Each has its own identity, language, traditions and currency. They will adopt the EU currency around 2012, but for now, this could be a little challenging! All three countries have been occupied by different invaders since the 13th century and spent the last 50 years under Soviet occupation.

Baltic States map
Religions vary in the Baltics. Estonia and Latvia have Lutheran backgrounds, Lithuania is a Catholic country and the Russian minorities belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. In Vilnius, Jews arrived after the expulsion from Spain in approximately 1487, and before the Holocaust, Vilnius was home to more than 110 synagogues.

Our group tour would visit the main capitals of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, along with other highlights and travel by bus, train and foot in the three countries. The tour would begin in Estonia, the most northern of the three Baltic Countries that lies between Latvia in the south, Russia in the east and the Baltic Sea in the north and west with Finland only 80 km/50 miles away across the Gulf of Finland. Hmm…should we include Finland?