Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn by Train: A 7-Day Baltic Route

For most of the past two decades, travelling overland between the three Baltic capitals meant one thing: a long-distance coach. The rail network inherited from the Soviet era ran east to west rather than north to south, and the direct Vilnius-Riga passenger service disappeared in 2004. Anyone wanting to see all three capitals in a single trip either booked a bus, hired a car, or flew, which on routes of a few hundred kilometres made little sense for either cost or carbon. The accommodation side was just as fragmented: three cities, three national markets, and no single place to compare them. That gap is narrowing, and platforms such as trip1 now list hotels across all three countries under one roof, which for a trip of this shape matters more than it might sound.

The transport picture has changed too. Since December 2023, Lithuanian operator LTG Link has run a daily direct train between Vilnius and Riga, restoring a link dormant for nearly twenty years. In January 2025, the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian railways coordinated their timetables to create a through Vilnius-Riga-Tallinn service with a single cross-platform change at Valga on the Estonian-Latvian border, sold under one ticket. Demand has run ahead of forecasts, and from January 2026 an additional daily Riga-Tallinn service was added.

What follows is a route, and rather more detail than usual on where to sleep at each end of it, because on a three-country itinerary the hotels are the part most people get wrong.

Why seven days, and how the three hotel markets differ

Three capitals in seven days sounds ambitious but is comfortable in practice. Vilnius to Riga is 348 kilometres, Riga to Tallinn 441, and the full Vilnius-Tallinn run 789. That is less than the length of Great Britain.

Two nights in each city, with the seventh day absorbed by travel or a stopover, is the sensible allocation. Travel south to north: Tallinn has the best onward connections, with ferries to Helsinki and Stockholm and a busy airport, which makes it the natural place to finish.

The three accommodation markets behave quite differently, and knowing how before you book saves money and walking.

Vilnius is the cheapest of the three and has an unusually deep boutique segment for a city of half a million, largely because the old town is full of restored palaces and merchant houses that convert well. Five-star rates here undercut four-star rates in Tallinn.

Riga has the widest range and the sharpest price gradient. Old town rates drop noticeably once you cross into the Quiet Centre, a ten-minute walk that also puts you closer to the Art Nouveau district.

Tallinn is the most expensive, has the smallest luxury segment, and sells out earliest. The medieval core is compact, genuinely worth staying inside, and priced accordingly. Book this one first.

Vilnius: two nights

Vilnius makes the strongest case for being the first stop, partly because it is the least familiar to most visitors and partly because it holds the largest baroque old town in Northern Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is still a working residential district rather than a preserved museum quarter.

Two days covers the old town, the Gediminas Tower viewpoint, Užupis across the river, and the National Museum. The contemporary city deserves an afternoon too: Vilnius has become a serious European fintech hub, and the effect on the restaurant and café scene in Naujamiestis is visible.

Where to stay in Vilnius

The old town is the obvious base, and the top end punches well above the city's size.

Hotel Pacai on Didžioji street is the standout. It occupies a baroque palace built in 1677 for the Pac family, once the grandest private residence in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and reopened in 2018 after a restoration by local architects as a 104-room Design Hotels property with a spa, restaurant and bar. The historic shell has been kept and the interiors are deliberately contemporary.

Relais & Châteaux Stikliai, on Stiklių street among the galleries and artisan workshops, is the older kind of luxury. Its restaurant has been the benchmark for fine dining in Vilnius for more than thirty years, served under a glass-roofed atrium, and the wellness area includes a pool and Roman-style baths.

Narutis, a Small Luxury Hotels of the World member on Pilies street, sits in a building first documented in 1581, which makes it one of the oldest hotel buildings in the city. It is directly on the old town's main artery, with a quiet inner courtyard and its own spa.

Radisson Collection Astorija occupies a classical 1901 building roughly thirteen minutes' walk from the railway station and includes an indoor pool. It is the reliable full-service choice, and the closest thing Vilnius has to a grand hotel in the traditional sense. Grand Hotel Vilnius, Curio Collection by Hilton covers similar ground.

In the mid-range, the Shakespeare Boutique Hotel sits in a renovated 17th-century palace fifty metres from Cathedral Square, and the Grotthuss Boutique Hotel occupies a historic building on a medieval street about eleven minutes from the station, with a small wine bar off reception. Artagonist Art Hotel, Imperial Hotel & Restaurant and Mabre Residence are all inside the old town and consistently well reviewed. For predictable business-standard rooms, Hilton Garden Inn Vilnius City Centre, AC Hotel Vilnius and Novotel Vilnius Centre are all central.

Vilnius railway station is around fifteen minutes on foot from the southern edge of the old town, so anywhere inside the walls keeps the onward journey simple. The  Lithuania travel guides on trip1 break the city down by district if you are weighing the old town against Užupis or Naujamiestis.

Vilnius to Riga

The train leaves Vilnius in the morning and reaches Riga Central Station in just over four hours, comparable to driving and considerably more pleasant. Second-class fares vary between roughly 10 and 24 euros; first class is fixed at around 34 euros and includes an assigned seat and complimentary refreshments. The rolling stock is a modern Pesa diesel unit with air conditioning, Wi-Fi, power sockets and at-seat catering.

Booking opens up to sixty days ahead on this sector, and the advice is consistent: book early. The service runs full and sells out days or weeks in advance. Interrail and Eurail holders need a seat reservation.

The coach alternative is perfectly good. Lux Express and Ecolines run frequent services, journey times are broadly similar and fares often lower. The difference is comfort and the ability to move around, which on a four-hour leg matters more than it sounds.

Riga: two nights

Riga is the largest of the three cities and has the widest spread of things to see: the old town, the Art Nouveau quarter on Alberta iela with the densest concentration of Jugendstil architecture anywhere in Europe, and the Central Market housed in former Zeppelin hangars. Two nights is a minimum rather than a comfortable allocation.

Where to stay in Riga

Riga Central Station is a seven-minute walk from the edge of the old town, which makes arrival easy regardless of where you have booked.

Neiburgs is probably the definitive Riga boutique stay. It occupies a carefully restored 1903 Art Nouveau building on Jauniela, directly beside Riga Cathedral on Dome Square, and its rooms are effectively apartments, with kitchenettes, high ceilings and original plasterwork. Each room has a different footprint because the heritage building dictated it. The hotel restaurant has held a Michelin Guide listing three years running and cooks seasonal Latvian produce sourced from the Central Market.

Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga, on Aspazijas bulvāris opposite the canal gardens, is the city's flagship five-star: 141 rooms, three bars, a spa widely rated among the best in the Baltics, and a rooftop restaurant looking across the old town spires. It is about 350 metres from Town Hall Square.

Pullman Riga Old Town on Jēkaba street, renovated in 2025, is the contemporary alternative, with a spa, indoor pool, rooftop bar and large, light rooms just inside the old city gates. Grand Palace Hotel on Pils iela, a Small Luxury Hotels member five minutes from Riga Cathedral, is the more traditional five-star.

At the value end, the Eurostars Metropole on Aspazijas is Riga's oldest continuously operating hotel, open since 1871 and a seven-minute walk from the station, and remains remarkably inexpensive for the space and location. Rixwell Old Riga Palace, Hotel Gutenbergs, Konventa Sēta and Hotel Monte Kristo are all solid old town options at moderate rates.

If you would rather be near the Art Nouveau district than the medieval core, Hotel Bergs sits inside the Bergs Bazaar, an elegant 19th-century courtyard complex in the Quiet Centre, and deals almost entirely in suites. Grand Poet by Semarah and Radisson Blu Latvija are nearby and cheaper. Art Hotel Roma, in a converted early 20th-century building near the National Opera, is the most characterful mid-range choice in the centre.

The Latvia travel guides on trip1 are useful for settling the old town versus Quiet Centre question before you commit, since the two produce quite different trips.

Riga to Tallinn, via Valga and Tartu

This is the leg where train and bus genuinely diverge. The coach is faster, around four and a half hours on a good run. The train takes longer, requires a change at Valga, and costs about 30.50 euros in second class.

It is still worth taking. The route runs through the Latvian countryside and southern Estonia rather than along a motorway. And there is Valga.

Valga in Estonia and Valka in Latvia were a single town until the border was drawn in 1920. They now function as twin municipalities inside the Schengen area, with no border controls and a pedestrian bridge over which, in one of the more charming pieces of municipal design in Europe, an international swing has been installed, letting you swing between two countries. The station has free luggage lockers requiring only a small coin deposit, so a few hours here is easily arranged.

The stronger case for breaking the journey, though, is Tartu. Estonia's second city and home to its oldest university, it has a compact old town, a river, an unusually beautiful wooden railway station and an atmosphere owing more to Scandinavia than to the Baltic coast. It was a European Capital of Culture in 2024 and the investment shows.

If you stay, Antonius Boutique Hotel is the pick, a small luxury property directly opposite the main university building and about 170 metres from the Town Hall. Lydia Hotel, a contemporary building set within the historic old town, has a spa lounge with several saunas and a pool. Dorpat Hotel is the large, good-value option, 197 rooms on the Emajõgi riverfront with its own Herb Spa, near the AHHAA science centre. V Spa & Conference Hotel is the wellness-led choice, and Hotel Soho sits beside Town Hall Square.

Tallinn: two nights

Tallinn Balti Jaam is roughly eight minutes on foot from Town Hall Square, a considerably better arrival than the bus station, which needs a tram ride into the centre. On a rail itinerary this is worth factoring into where you book.

Where to stay in Tallinn

Stay inside the medieval walls. The old town is small, the alternative districts are not appreciably cheaper, and the walls are the reason you came.

Schlössle Hotel is the heritage benchmark: a restored 13th-century merchant's house in a quiet corner of the old town with just 23 rooms, a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, a sauna and spa, and a basement cigar lounge built around an open hearth. Queen Elizabeth II stayed here in 2006.

Hotel Telegraaf, Autograph Collection is the most complete full-service option, occupying a converted 19th-century telegraph building with a courtyard, the substantial Telegraaf Spa, and the Michelin-listed Tchaikovsky restaurant on site. If you want a polished city stay rather than a historic curiosity, this is it.

The Three Sisters spreads 23 rooms across three connected medieval merchant houses and is the design-forward choice. Hotel St. Petersbourg is the heritage option at a lower rate.

Nunne Boutique Hotel deserves particular mention on a rail trip: 74 rooms built into the city walls, about five minutes from Balti Jaam and four from Town Hall Square, with a restaurant and spa. It is hard to beat for a short stay with luggage. Go Hotel Shnelli sits directly beside the station and is the budget version of the same logic.

For views over cobbles, Swissôtel Tallinn occupies the tallest building in the city. At the value end inside or beside the old town, Meriton Old Town Garden, Merchants House Hotel, My City Hotel and Bern Boutique Hotel all review well. Kalev Spa & Waterpark is the family choice.

Tallinn sells out earliest of the three capitals, particularly across summer and the December market period. The Estonia travel guides on trip1 cover Tartu alongside Tallinn, which helps if you are still deciding whether to build in the stopover.

Booking and paying: hotels with crypto

One development worth flagging, particularly for a regional audience.

Both Lithuania and Estonia have positioned themselves as regulated hubs for digital assets under the EU's MiCA framework, and travel has been among the earlier consumer categories to reflect that. trip1 now lets travellers book hotels with crypto, paying for a room in Bitcoin, USDT or other major assets while the property is settled in euros and never has to handle digital currency at all. From the hotel's side nothing changes. From the traveller's side, it removes the conversion step.

On a single-city trip that is a marginal convenience. On a three-country itinerary it is more useful than it first appears. You are making three bookings across three markets, and a payment method that works identically for all of them, without card foreign-transaction fees and without moving funds into a bank account first, takes one variable out of the planning. For visitors arriving from outside the euro area, or for anyone holding crypto who would rather spend it than convert it, the ability to pay in trip1 for hotels with crypto is a practical advantage rather than a novelty.

It also fits the region. The Baltic states have spent a decade building a reputation for digital-first public and financial infrastructure, from e-Residency in Estonia to a dense fintech licensing environment in Lithuania. A traveller booking a Riga hotel in crypto from a Vilnius café is, in a modest way, an expression of that.

What comes next

The current rail service is a stopgap in the best sense. Rail Baltica, the 900-kilometre standard-gauge line that will eventually connect Tallinn to the Polish border via Riga and Kaunas, passed the point of no return some time ago. As of mid-2026, 267 kilometres of main line are construction-ready, around 43 percent of the first phase, with track laying underway in Lithuania and terminal works advancing at Riga Central Station and Tallinn's Ülemiste. The first phase targets 2030.

When it opens, journey times between the capitals will roughly halve and the trip described here will compress into something closer to a long weekend. Until then, the slower version has its own argument. Eleven hours from Vilnius to Tallinn, with a change at a border town where you can swing between two countries, is not the fastest way to see the Baltics. It may well be the best one.