Insight Guides Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania

Insight Guides

Description

Insight Guides: all you need to inspire every step of your journey.

From deciding when to go, to choosing what to see when you arrive, this is all you need to plan your trip and experience the best of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with in-depth insider information on must-see, top attractions like Tallinn's old town, and cultural gems like Trakai Castle

·       Insight Guide Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is ideal for travellers seeking immersive cultural experiences, from exploring Vilnius, to discovering Riga
·       In-depth on history and culture: enjoy special features on the recent history of the Baltic States, all written by local experts
·       Invaluable maps, travel tips and practical information ensure effortless planning, and encourage venturing off the beaten track
·       Inspirational colour photography throughout - Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books
·       Inventive design makes for an engaging, easy reading experience

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

Sujets

• Lituania
• Letonia
• Travel
• Eastern Europe
• Lithuania
• Latvia
• Eastern
• Estonia
• Lettonie
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781789198294
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book
This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editor’s Choice categories of activities and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, activities from culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.
In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.
Maps
All key attractions and sights in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.
Images
You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.
About Insight Guides
Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.
Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd




Table of Contents
Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania’s Top 10 Attractions
Editor’s Choice
Introduction: The Baltic States
The Baltic Peoples
Decisive Dates
A Shared History
Life Today
The Church and Religion
Culture
Folklore
Insight: Saunas and Spas
Nature and Wildlife
Outdoor Activities
Food
Introduction: Places
Introduction: Estonia
The Making of Estonia
Insight: Festivals
Tallinn
Tartu and the South
The West Coast
The Islands
East of Tallinn
Introduction: Latvia
The Making of Latvia
Insight: Manor Houses and Castles
Rīga
Around Rīga
Kurzeme: The West Coast
Latgale
Zemgale
Vidzeme
Introduction: Lithuania
The Making of Lithuania
Vilnius
Kaunas
Aukštaitija
The South
Insight: The Baltic Sea
Žemaitija and the Coast
Travel Tips: Transport
Travel Tips: A–Z
Travel Tips: Language
Travel Tips: Further Reading


Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania’s Top 10 Attractions



Top Attraction 1



Tallinn Old Town. This is as pretty as Old Towns get, with cobbled streets, a harmonious square and attractive buildings such as The Three Sisters. Like the other two capitals, Tallinn is a Unesco World Heritage Site. For more information, click here .
Toomas Volmer/Tallinn Tourism Board


Top Attraction 2



Palmse Manor. One of the finest restored manors around, the house and grounds show the luxurious lifestyle of the Baltic German nobles who bought it in 1873. There is an orangery with exotic plants, too. For more information, click here .
APA Micah Sarut


Top Attraction 3



Museum of the History of Rīga and Navigation. The best historical museum in the Baltics, it explains the Latvian capital’s rich past acquired by the Hansa merchants, with paintings, furniture and decorative arts. For more information, click here .
Alamy


Top Attraction 4



The Curonian Spit. This magnificent 98km (60-mile) spit is a dazzling white sandy hill alongside the Lithuanian coast. “One must see it to give pleasure to one’s soul,” wrote Alexander von Humboldt. For more information, click here .
iStock


Top Attraction 5



Gauja National Park. This is the place to go for outdoor activities, from bobsleighing to canoeing, horse riding to bungee-jumping. It’s a favourite of Latvians, who, like all Baltic people, love the outdoor life. For more information, click here .
Shutterstock


Top Attraction 6



Saunas. Don’t visit without trying a sauna. Traditionally, these lie at the heart of country homes, but today can be found in hotels and locations throughout the three countries. For more information, click here .
Druskininkai Spa Centre


Top Attraction 7



Amber Museum, Palanga. This extraordinary fossil of pine resin is a feature of the Baltic coast, where it made many fortunes. The museum in Palanga, Lithuania, is the place to find out all about it. For more information, click here .
Alamy


Top Attraction 8



Saaremaa. The largest of Estonia’s many islands is a real rural retreat, with a marina, meteorite craters and the castle at Kuressaare, the only complete medieval fortress in the Baltics. For more information, click here .
iStock


Top Attraction 9



Art Nouveau, Rīga. Latvia’s capital is known for its Art Nouveau, which flourished here at the turn of the 20th century. Among its architects was Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the great filmmaker. For more information, click here .
APA Micah Sarut


Top Attraction 10



Trakai. Built just outside Vilnius in the 14th century by Grand Duke Vytautas, this imposing brick Gothic castle, beautifully set on a lake, embodies Lithuania’s glorious past. For more information, click here .
iStock


Editor’s Choice



Best Beaches

Pärnu. Estonia’s “summer capital” buzzes with beach parties and barbecues to make the most of the white nights. For more information, click here .
Jūrmala. This string of small towns lies just outside Rīga, attracting a holiday crowd. The name in Latvian simply means “seaside”. For more information, click here .
Ventspils. This prosperous small town on Latvia’s coast has a fine beach, an outdoor museum of old fishing boats and a narrow-gauge railway. For more information, click here .
Palanga. This Lithuanian settlement of fishermen and amber-gatherers is now a popular resort. For more information, click here .
Nida. The main resort of Lithuania’s Curonian Spit has sandy beaches and several museums, including the summer home of Thomas Mann. For more information, click here .



On the beach at Palanga.
Getty Images


Family Attractions

Open-air museums. All three countries have open-air museums where traditional buildings have been brought together. Here, costumed blacksmiths, potters and other craftspeople show their skills. For more information, click here , click here or click here .
Estonian Puppet Theatre. A popular local attraction, and although shows are in Estonian, they are not hard to follow. There is also a high-tech museum of puppet history, and theatres in Rīga and Kaunas, too. For more information, click here.
Zoos. Zoos in Tallinn, Rīga and Kaunas have large animal collections, and with children’s playgrounds they are orientated towards families. For more information, click here .
Horse riding. The quiet lanes and forest tracks are ideal for hacking, and there are stables throughout the three countries. For more information, click here .
Druskininkai. Adventure park, snow park, water park, cycling paths and wonderful forests – Druskininkai has all a child could wish for. For more information, click here .



In costume at Tallinn’s open-air museum.
ESTD/Toomas Tuul


Bird-Watching

Matsalu National Park . The flatlands of Matsalu Bay in Estonia attract waders, terns and white-tailed eagles. For more information, click here .
Vilsandi National Park. Covering 150 islets off the coast of Estonia, this is a hatching ground for many European species. For more information, click here .
Pape Nature Park . This is the best place to see migrating birds in Latvia. For more information, click here .
Engure Lake and Nature Reserve. Around 50,000 birds a year visit Latvia’s 18km (12-mile) long lake, which has a floating ornithological station. For more information, click here .