Cost to Travel in the Baltic States
Hey everyone, in this article we will share with you our complete budget breakdown and what it really cost to travel in the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia).
So far, road tripping in the Baltic States stands as one of our favourite road trips. Each of the 3 Baltic States is remarkable and worth visiting and even if they share similarities, each has its own style.
In about 2 weeks, our journey brought us from Lithuania to Estonia through Latvia with a bonus day trip to Finland. It was memorable. And the cherry on the cake was that it was empty of tourists.
From beautiful old towns, magnificent castles, massive memorials, breathtaking landscapes, lushy natures to stunning national parks, the Baltics States don’t disappoint.
The Baltics States are not what it was in the past. And the communist era is long gone. Today, it is a safe place to travel even with all the events around the Russia/Ukraine war.
Cost wise, the Baltic States are not more expensive to travel to than any other country int Europe. In fact, it is even cheaper than the western European countries like France.
So, let’s get to the cost to travel in the Baltic States.
Here is our complete video from this trip :
Table of Contents
Mapping the day
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What’s included in our budget
Our cost of travel in the Baltic States and complete budget breakdown covers what we spent on accommodations, transportations in the country, food, activities and other side costs.
We do not include our flights into the Baltic States as it is something that will vary significantly based on where you start your travel to the Baltic States.
However, all the cost in our cost to travel in the Baltic States article are for a couple, as this is how we travelled there.
The amount in our cost of travel in the Baltic States article are all in euros (€) as it is the official currency in all the countries.
Our complete itinerary
To get some perspective, our detailed itinerary was the following:
- Day 1: Arrive in Vilnius
- Day 2: Visit Vilnius & Trakai
- Day 3: Drive to Kaunas + Visit Kaunas
- Day 4: Road trip to the Curonian split
- Day 5: Explore the Curetonian spit
- Day 6: Curonian Spit + Road trip to Riga
- Day 7: Discover Riga
- Day 8: Open air Museum & Sigulda
- Day 9: Gauja National Park
- Day 10: Road trip to Tartu
- Day 11: Soomaa National Park
- Day 12: Pärnu
- Day 13: Ride & Visit to Tallinn
- Day 14: Tallinn
- Day 15: Helsinki
- Day 16: Return
This itinerary goes from Vilnius to Tallinn and could be done in the opposite way. It was actually a total of 16 days. If you want to shorten it, you could easily skip the day 15 and combine 14+16.
Now, let’s talk about the real cost to travel in the Baltic States.
Cost of Accommodation in the Baltic States
Let’s start our cost to travel in Baltic States breakdown with accommodation. We booked all our accommodations on booking.com. There we found various type of accommodation, from guesthouses, to apartments, and even hotels. We often tried to have an accommodation with somewhere to cook to lower our food budget.
To be honest, we were always looking for accommodation ranging from 45 to 70€ depending on where we were in the country. But globally, the cost of accommodation was similar throughout our trip.
Here is what our accommodations cost us:
- Vilnius: 56 €/night
- Kaunas: 72 €/night
- Juodkrantė: 63 €/night
- Riga: 71 €/night
- Ligatne: 45 €/night
- Tartu: 51 €/night
- Parnu: 47 €/night
- Tallinn: 67 €/night
We loved our experience. And in this trip, we wouldn’t recommend budgeting a little bit up to get an accommodation. But if you can, they are some great accommodations in the Baltic States.
Here is a list of accommodations we recommend based on your budget.
- Vilnius: (€): Mikalo House, (€€): Uptown apartments,(€€€): Hotel PACAI
- Kaunas: (€): Laisves ave. Apartments Mini(€€): Laisves ave. Apartments (€€€): Radisson Hotel Kaunas
- Juodkrantė: (€): Prie Ąžuolo(€€): Come2rest – Smilga (€€€): Vila MAY
- Riga: (€): Hostel Viktorija(€€): Renovated apartment in Riga center (€€€): Grand Poet Hotel
- Ligatne: (€): Green bear(€€): Karlamuiza Country Hotel (€€€): Ezerkalni
- Tartu: (€): Looming Hostel(€€): Estonishing Stay Premium Lofts (€€€): Antonius Hotel
- Parnu: (€): Villa Ene(€€): Austri Villa (€€€): Villa Ammende Restaurant and Hotel
- Tallinn: (€): Roseni City Apartment(€€): Old Town Lai street apartment with private parking (€€€): Hotel Telegraaf
If like us you mixed it a little bit but stay on the lower end, this first chapter of our cost to travel in the Baltic States ended up with a total cost for accommodation of 888€ for two. Which represents around 59€ per night for two.
Cost of Transportation in the Baltic States
To continue with the cost to travel in the Baltic States, let’s talk about transportation. Transportation around the country could be a bit tricky, especially if you plan on visiting the national parks and going out of the beaten path. There are public trains and buses, but it will not get you everywhere. And you may have to add taxi cost on top of it or spend lots of hours in transportation.
That’s the reason, we opted to road trip the Baltic States. It gave us so much freedom and driving there was super easy. Plus, the roads are not crowded at all.
Refuelling the car was as any other country. A full tank cost us around 50€ and we even took a ferry to reach the Curonian spit which added 18,30€ to the cost. However, the Curonian spit is our favourite place.
We rented a car for 16 days in the Baltic States. We used rentalcars.com and booked it a few weeks in advance. For safety, we opted for their insurance (but we wouldn’t have need it in the end, as apparently our credit card insurrance is covering it)
All together the rental car costed 962€, so 60€ per day. The insurance was 117.5€ and the car hire charge 845€. So, without insurance it would have been 53€ per day.
If we add the fuel, the ticket, the cleaning, and so on, the cost to travel in the Baltic states when it comes transportation cost us in total 1268€, which means around 79€/day.
Strangely that’s one of the most expensive car rentals, we have ever had. (If we compare to Morocco, the car rental was 385€ for 18 days. Corsica in France was 283€ for 13 days).
Cost of food in the Baltic States
Let’s get to the yummy part of cost to travel in the Baltic States. We often like to cook our own meals, that way we reduce cost and do not need to worry about finding whole food plant-based food and vegetarian food. While traveling we are more flexible with what we eat.
In the Baltic states, we almost cooked all our meals, to reduce as much as possible, the cost of the complete trip. We did try a few times some local restaurant but, in the end, we preferred to stick to our own cooking.
Including waters, drinks and all the food, the food cost to travel in the Baltic States was 601€ for two. Which is about 37€/day.
Cost of Activities in the Baltic States
Travelling to someplace new, means that you will be doing some activities. The activity cost to travel in the Baltic States in an important part of the cost breakdown. However, it is one of the lowest costs at all. Because visiting old towns and national parks doesn’t cost at all.
Our favorite things to do in Lithuania was the Gauja National Park spit where we hiked along the Gaujas River and explore Līgatne.
Our favorite things to do in Estonia was Soomaa National Park to hike its 3 best trails. It is amazing to be in a national park with bog.
Our favorite things to do in Latvia was the Curonian spit where we stand between ocean and lake and between forest and beach. It had such a layback vibe. We loved it.
Here is a breakdown of some the cost: (Always for 2)
- Trakal Castle: 24€
- Raudonė Castle: 3€
- Panemunės Castle: 8€
- St Peter Church Riga: 18€
- Ethno Open Air Museum Riga: 8€
- Sigulda Castle: 4€
- Turaidas castle: 12€
- Nature Hike Park: 8,6€
- Sangaste castle: 14€
- Rock Church Helsinki: 10€
And the total activity cost to travel in the Baltic States goes up to 120€ for two. Representing about 7,5€/day
Other cost in the Baltic States
For that final section of our cost to travel in the Baltic States breakdown, we have:
VISA: All those countries being in Europe, it is likely that you will not need any VISA.
Souvenir: We love to bring some little souvenirs. In the Baltic States, we got great souvenirs like balsam, earing, key holder, magnets, soaps, … Altogether costing around 320€. We admit, we may have over done the souvenir part there.
SIM Card: One of our least favorite things to do when we arrive in a new country is to have to figure out how to get a good sim card. From finding where is the shop, in the airport, or the city center? To deal with the registrations, giving ID and even finding which operator is the best… Well, it’s a true headache.
Thankfully, our French SIM card was covering the Baltic States.
However, if you don’t want to be bothered anymore, you can get an eSim from Airalo, Airalo is the world’s first eSIM store that gives you access to eSIMs (digital SIM cards) for 200+ countries/regions to be connected anywhere in the world the second you land. You have the option to get an eSIM per country or to get a regional one for Europe.
For 5 GB, you will pay 19€. Plus, Airalo has a discount going on:
- New customer: Save 15% on eSIMs at Airalo.com. Use Code: NEWTOAIRALO15 (7/1 – 12/31/2024)
- Existing one: Save 10% on eSIMs at Airalo.com. Use Code: AIRALOESIM10 (7/1 – 12/31/2024)
Travel Insurance: Frankly, we did not take a travel insurance. Our French credit card company is offering a full travel package that we have. So, if something happen to us, we are covered.
However, if you don’t have such coverage, a travel insurance is recommended for all. WorldNomads offers excellent travel insurance and covers most if not all that could happen during your time abroad.
Total Cost to travel in the Baltic States
It is time to sum-up everything and end our cost to travel in the Baltic States breakdown. In total for 2-week in the Baltic States, for two of us, it cost us 3 196€ which is 1 598€ per person and 199€ per day for two.
In detailed we have:
- Transportation: 1267€ in total, 633€ per person, 79€ per day.
- Accommodation: 888€ in total, 444€ per person, 59€ per night.
- Food: 601€ in total, 300€ per person, 37€ per day.
- Activities: 120€ in total, 60€ per person, 7,5€ per day.
- Others: 320€ in total, 160€ per person, 20€ per day.
If you remove our crazy souvenir rush, you are down to 2 876€ which is 1 438€ per person and 179€ per day for two.
It is not the destination where you end up but the mishaps and memories you create along the way
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