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? 

To unfortunately return home, we flew out of Vilnius. Contrary to Ben and Sam of Jetlag The Game, we actually managed to depart. The Vilnius airport has a very old-school soviet style arrivals building, almost like a train station. Of course we had a quick visit to this quirky building before continuing to the brand new departure building, which looked like any new regional airport.

As we were flying in Business Class we could use the Fastlane security, which was genuinely fast as there was no one in the queue. After this we visited the Narbutas lounge, the only lounge in the airport.

Boarding was at gate A6, where the plane was parked in a weird angle and thus hard to photograph.

Before boarding they looked for volunteers as the flight was overbooked, unfortunately we had to work the day after so we couldn’t make use of the offer. An overbooking always happens when you can’t volunteer.

Even though it was a Brussels Airlines flight we would once again be boarding an Air Baltic bright green tailed A220 as during the summer Brussels Airlines has wet-leased a number of Air Baltic A220’s to fly its extended summer schedule.

Flight SN2372
From Vilnius (VNO) 18:40 (18:58) to Brussels (BRU) 20:15 (20:22)
Flight Time 2 hours 24 minutes
Airbus A220-300 YL-ABF
Delivered to Air Baltic in September 2021

Boarding was relatively straightforward, seated in the front row we had ample knee space. The seats where the same comfortable seats as on the previous Air Baltic flight and sported no power plugs or USB plugs for charging. The tray table folded out from the arm rest and was quite small and flimsy. Due to it being an older plane in the fleet it wasn’t yet equipped with Starlink Wi-Fi, so no free internet on this flight. The pre-boarding announcements where partly pre-recorded using AI-voices for Dutch and French which sounded a bit weird at times.

We were held a bit longer on the ground due to ATC restrictions, but once we were cleared we had a short taxi to Vilnius’ sole runway and had an immediate take-off.

After take-off the crew first handed us a drink while we waited for the meals to be heated up. I selected a gin-tonic (properly prepared with ice and a slice of lemon) with a glass of still water.

The meal tray itself was smaller and lighter than the one of Air Baltic on its own flights, nonetheless we were pleasantly surprised by a hot meal as we expected a cold salad or something similar.

The main was a hot pasta dish with a pesto sauce, some grilled vegetables and pine nuts. There was also a single slice of cheese and a single grape along with some butter that could be spread on the warm bread that we could select from the bread basket.

For dessert there was an apple tart, which was quite tasteful. I did miss a starter like a small bowl of salad on the tray.

I finished the meal with a cup of chamomile tea, unfortunately served in a paper cup rather than a proper porcelain cup.

All in all I thought the catering served by Air Baltic on its own flights to be superior to Brussels Airlines’. Also the extra touches like a missing menu or hot towel made Air Baltic’s own service feel much more refined.

Luckily the crew was as nice and service oriented as on the previous Air Baltic flights, they constantly checked on whether we need anything else and kept our water glasses topped up throughout the flight. A very friendly and proactive service.

While we looked at Air Baltic as an obscure small east-European low-cost airline, they however proved us wrong and showed us that they were a very service oriented airline with friendly crews and modern aircraft.

Baltic States 2025

1. REVIEW | The Loft by Brussels Airlines and Lexus business lounge at Brussels Airport A-Gates.
2. REVIEW | Brussels Airlines Business Class Brussels to Munich.
3. REVIEW | Lufthansa Business Lounge Schengen and Lufthansa Senator Business Lounge Satellite Schengen at Munich Airport Terminal 2.
4. REVIEW | Air Baltic Business Class Munich to Tallinn.
5. REVIEW | Swissotel Tallinn.
6. TALLINN | Lennusadam Seaplane Harbour Estonian Maritime Museum.
7. TALLINN | Estonian History Museum at the Great Guild Hall.
8. TALLINN | LGBT tour at Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom.
9. RAIL BALTICA | Baltic operators launch joint tender for regional trains.
10. ESTONIA | How to spend a day in Tallinn.
11. REVIEW | Pullman Riga Old Town.
12. LATVIA | Riga Castle.
13. LATVIA | Jugendstil in Riga ft Riga Art Nouveau Centre and Janis Rozentāls and Rūdolfs Blaumanis Museum.
14. RIGA | National Library of Latvia and the Latvian Railway History Museum.
15. RIGA | Baltā Kaza – Riga Ghetto – Latvian Academy of Sciences.
16. REVIEW | 3 Pavāru Restorāns / 3 Chefs Restaurant in Riga.
17. RIGA | Museum of the Barricades of 1991 and Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
18. LATVIA | Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation.
19. LATVIA | 1.5 days in Riga.
20. RAIL BALTICA  | Tallinn – Valga / Valka – Riga – Vilnius by train.
21. REVIEW | Radisson Collection Astorija Hotel Vilnius.
22. LITHUANIA | Railway Museum and Rail Park in Vilnius.
23. VILNIUS  | Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and Gediminas’ Tower.
24. REVIEW  | Restaurant Ertlio Namas in Vilnius.
25. VILNIUS | Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights.
26. LITHUANIA  | Two days in Vilnius.
27. REVIEW | Narbutas Business Lounge at Vilnius Airport.