August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It will most likely not be ready by 2030. But that doesn’t stop us. What to expect from the Baltics? Is it affected by overtourism?
The last hotel for our trip would be the Radisson Collection Astorija in Vilnius. A historic hotel located in the centre of Vilnius right next to the town hall. The hotel consists of 2 buildings, the older main building and the second annex at the opposite side of the road, connected by a bridge.
Our room was located in the main building, overlooking the courtyard. It was in a strange shape (due to the building layout).
The entrance lead into a corridor where you could find the desk and the wardrobe. Inside the wardrobe where the stocked minibar, coffee and tea facilities and 2 complimentary bottles of water. Here they also stocked the bathrobes and slippers (to wear to go to the pool).
To the left of the corridor was the closed off bathroom, with a nice walk in shower. Despite a proper full size glass wall, the shower still flood the bathroom. The toiletries here was also the full range in multiple use dispensers mounted on the wall.
At the end of the corridor was the bedroom area with a big comfortable bed with power and USB sockets at both sides.
In the morning the breakfast was served in the restaurant at the front of the hotel. You had both a light flooded seating in the veranda or a somewhat darker seating in the main area.
There was a big buffet with some local specialities. Contrary to previous hotels you had to get your coffee and tea yourself. There was also an a la carte menu, but getting to order items proved difficult. Some tables got immediate service and attention while they seemed to not notice us. In the end Timothy went to look for one of the staff to ask whether we could order something as well.
The gym and wellness area was located at the back of the hotel under the conference area. It was quite a weird way of getting there, especially in your bathrobe as you had to walk through the conference centre and then walk down some stairs that where closed off by a gate at the top. The nice thing however was that you could make use of the facilities 24/7, something i have never encountered before. The downside of this was that one morning Timothy discovered some squatters sleeping on the sunbeds at the pool while going for his morning workout.
The fitness equipment was located right next to the pool, in the same space which was a bit odd.
The pool was of a good size and had some counterflow jets if you wanted to have your swim work out, the Jacuzzi was nice, warm and bubbly.
We also had booked and confirmed a late check-out at 18:00 through the website, however at 15:00 we received a call why we hadn’t checked out yet. We immediately grabbed our bags and checked out. They then looked into it and saw that indeed we were entitled for the late 18:00 checkout. They offered us to get the late check-out fee waved as a compensation, but then went ahead and charged us anyway.
The Radisson in Vilnius was the least favourite of our hotels on our Baltic trip. The different small breakdowns of service left us a bit with a sour taste.
Baltic States 2025
- REVIEW | The Loft by Brussels Airlines and Lexus business lounge at Brussels Airport A-Gates.
- REVIEW | Brussels Airlines Business Class Brussels to Munich.
- REVIEW | Lufthansa Business Lounge Schengen and Lufthansa Senator Business Lounge Satellite Schengen at Munich Airport Terminal 2.
- REVIEW | Air Baltic Business Class Munich to Tallinn.
- REVIEW | Swissotel Tallinn.
- TALLINN | Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour Estonian Maritime Museum.
- TALLINN | Estonian History Museum at the Great Guild Hall.
- TALLINN | LGBT tour at Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom.
- RAIL BALTICA | Baltic operators launch joint tender for regional trains.
- ESTONIA | How to spend a day in Tallinn.
- REVIEW | Pullman Riga Old Town.
- LATVIA | Riga Castle.
- LATVIA | Jugendstil in Riga ft Riga Art Nouveau Centre and Janis Rozentāls and Rūdolfs Blaumanis Museum.
- RIGA | National Library of Latvia and the Latvian Railway History Museum.
- RIGA | Baltā Kaza – Riga Ghetto – Latvian Academy of Sciences.
- REVIEW | 3 Pavāru Restorāns / 3 Chefs Restaurant in Riga.
- RIGA | Museum of the Barricades of 1991 and Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
- LATVIA | Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation.
- LATVIA | 1.5 days in Riga.
- RAIL BALTICA | Tallinn – Valga / Valka – Riga – Vilnius by train.