BALTIC WAY

Buffet breakfast. Sightseeing tour of the Polish capital Warsaw and its main monuments. Walk through the Royal Lazienki Park - Royal Baths, with the monument to Frédéric Chopin, the Palace on the Water and the Theatre on the Island. Transfer to the former Jewish part of the city: the grounds of the former ghetto and the monuments commemorating the places where the martyrdom of the Jews took place during World War II, such as Umschlagplatz and the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. Transfer to the Old Town (UNESCO). Walk through the medieval streets from the Royal Palace and the Cathedral, passing by the Market Square and the Barbican to the New Town. Overnight in Warsaw.

Buffet breakfast. Kazimierz Dolny is a town of artists on the Vistula. Stroll through its most important sites: the Market Square surrounded by Renaissance noble houses, the Baroque parish church, the ruins of the Castle with the tower, from which there is a wonderful view of the Vistula valley, Kazimierz and the castle in Janowiec. This wonderful landscape of fields, forests, meadows and hop plantations forms the setting for the Kazimierz Landscape Park. Free time in the Old Town for lunch and to admire the regional crafts in numerous art galleries. In the afternoon, transfer to Zamosc. A short walk through the town also known as the "Padua of the North", a perfect example of a 16th-century Renaissance town that retains its original layout and fortifications, as well as a good number of buildings that combine Italian and traditional Central European architecture. For this reason, its historic centre is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Night in Zamosc.

Buffet breakfast. Krakow – the former Polish capital has earned the title of World Heritage Site on the first list created by UNESCO. Visit to Wawel Hill, where the Castle with the arcaded courtyard – the former seat of the Polish kings and the cathedral – is located. Walk through the Market Square in the Old Town with emblematic monuments such as the Cloth Hall, the Church of the Virgin Mary or the Town Hall Tower. Continue to the Barbican and the walls that surrounded the medieval city.

Free afternoon in the Old Town. Overnight in Krakow.

Buffet breakfast. In the morning transfer to the Auschwitz – Birkenau Museum in Oswiecim. Auschwitz – Birkenau (UNESCO), the largest concentration and extermination camp, is a world symbol of terror, genocide and the Holocaust. It was built by the Nazis in 1940 on the outskirts of the town called Oswiecim. During the occupation by Hitler's army, this area was the place of greatest sacrifice of people from different countries of Europe (mainly people of Jewish origin). Transfer to Czestochowa. Free time for lunch. Visit to the Jasna Gora Monastery, known for the image of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, which has attracted many pilgrims from all over the world since the 14th century. The Madonna was proclaimed Queen of Poland by the Polish King John Casimir (Jan Kazimierz). Visit to the Jasna Gora Basilica, the Chapel of the Virgin Mary with the miraculous painting, the Treasury and the Armoury. Continue to Warsaw. Arrival at the hotel and overnight.

Buffet breakfast. Free day in Warsaw. Overnight in Warsaw.

Buffet breakfast. Departure from Warsaw to Nowogrod. Visit to the open-air museum of regional wooden architecture, which presents how Poles lived centuries ago. Then travel through the Masurian region with thousands of lakes, landscaped parks and nature reserves. Walk around Mikolajki, the sailing centre. Free time for lunch. In the afternoon transfer to Ryn. Overnight in the medieval castle hotel in Ryn.

Buffet breakfast. After breakfast, visit the Wolf's Lair, one of Adolf Hitler's largest headquarters during World War II. Walk through the system of 50 secret bunkers hidden in the forest. This is where General Stauffenberg made an attempt on Adolf Hitler's life. This story is presented in Tom Cruise's film "Valkyrie". Then departure from Masuria and transfer to Vilnius. Arrival and accommodation at the hotel. Free afternoon. Overnight in Vilnius.

Buffet breakfast. In the morning, a panoramic tour, by bus and on foot, of the city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. In the 14th century, it was declared the capital of the state of Lithuania by Grand Duke Gediminas, who in 1323 invited numerous artisans and merchants from all over Europe to settle there in order to give a boost to the commercial and structural development of the city. The old town of Vilnius is one of the largest in all of Eastern Europe.

It has a total of 359 hectares with nearly 1,500 buildings distributed, giving a perfect combination of different architectural styles, from Gothic to postmodernism. In 1994, this part of the city was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of note are the churches of St. Anne and St. Peter and St. Paul, as well as the cathedral. Also significant are the courtyards of the old Vilnius University (entrance), (founded in 1579, it is the oldest university in Eastern Europe); the tower of Gediminas Castle, with stunning views of the entire city; the famous “Gate of Dawn” and the Amber Gallery.

Lunch at a selected local restaurant.

Free afternoon. Accommodation.

Buffet breakfast. Departure for Latvia. Visit of the "Hill of Crosses" in Siauliai, a shrine for many Catholics. The first few hundred crosses were put up by the local people to honour the dead of the anti-tsarist revolt of 1831. When the Soviet authorities took power in Lithuania after World War II, they tried to remove the crosses on many occasions. But the crosses always reappeared, people putting them back up overnight. Today more than 50,000 crosses bear witness to the spirit of the Lithuanian people. The hill was visited by Pope John Paul II on his visit to Lithuania in 1993.

Lunch at selected local restaurant.

Departure for Rundale. Visit of Rundale Palace and Gardens, the former summer residence of the Dukes of Courland. Built in the first half of the 18th century by Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who also designed the Tsars' Winter Palace in St Petersburg. The building was seriously damaged during the various wars that ravaged the country since its construction. The interior was renovated and today the palace looks splendid. Large crystal chandeliers, silk-covered walls, precious stucco mouldings, sculptures, huge fireplaces, mirrored halls and all kinds of works of art and rich objects adorn the different rooms and chambers of the palace. The frescoes by Italian artists Francesco Martini and Carlo Zucci stand out, and the Golden Room, the White Hall, the Porcelain Room, which houses a magnificent collection of porcelain figures of different styles, and the Duchess's dressing room are of singular beauty. The palace gardens, in French style, are also of singular beauty.

Continuation of the trip and arrival in the afternoon at the hotel in Riga. Check-in and accommodation.

Buffet breakfast. Visit to the Riga Central Market, the largest market in the Baltic States and one of the largest in Europe. Opened in 1930, the main structures of the market are five pavilions built by reusing the old hangars of the German Zeppelins. We continue the tour through the area of ​​the boulevards of the center of Riga, where we can enjoy numerous buildings and monuments. Thus we will see the Arsenal Tower, the National Theater, the Art Noveau buildings from the beginning of the century, the Monument to Freedom, the Opera House, the University of Riga and the numerous bridges over the Daugava River.

Panoramic tour, by bus and on foot, of Riga known as the “Paris of the North”. Riga is the largest of the three Baltic capitals with almost a million inhabitants. Located on the banks of the Daugava River, according to ancient chronicles the city was founded in 1201 and became an important commercial center in the 13th century, as a city belonging to the German Hanseatic League. The beauty of its old town stands out, with buildings that reflect all the architectural styles: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Art Nouveau, etc.

Visit to the Riga Dome Cathedral (entrance), better known as the Dome, the largest in the Baltic countries, a Gothic jewel built in 1211 closed to the Daugava River. Dedicated to Protestant worship, its austere interiors impress with their solidity: some of its walls are more than 2 metres thick. It is famous for its spectacular organ, the largest in Europe, built in 1844: four keyboards and more than 6,700 pipes.

Visit to the Art Nouveau district of Riga, the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world, with its characteristic facades of sinuous lines and rich ornamentation. Its construction began between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, although the most famous buildings are magnificent examples of the characteristic Jugendstil style of the interwar period. In 1997, UNESCO declared 475 hectares of Riga's historic centre and surrounding neighbourhoods on the right bank of the Daugava (Dvina) River a World Heritage Site.

Lunch at a selected local restaurant.

Free afternoon. Accommodation.

Buffet breakfast. Departure to Estonia.

On the way, stop and excursion to the Gauja Valley and visit of Sigulda and Turaida - known as the "Latvian Switzerland".

Visit to the ruins of the Castle of the Order of the Teutonic Knights (13th century) which was connected to other small buildings by underground passages and visit to the medieval Turaida Castle (1214), the best preserved in all of Latvia.

We will also see the Local History Museum of Sigulda, the Turaida tomb, the Gutmann Cave and the Daina Park, a sculpture park dedicated to Latvian folklore.

Lunch at a selected local restaurant in Sigulda.

Travel along the road that borders the Baltic Sea, to Pärnu, the summer capital of Estonia. Panoramic visit of Pärnu. Located 130 km south of Tallinn at the mouth of the Pärnu River on the shores of the Baltic Sea, it is known as the “summer capital” of Estonia due to the great liveliness that reigns in the city during the summer period, thanks to the numerous visitors attracted by its sandy beaches and the beautiful forests that surround them. The city has 750 years of history and a Hanseatic past.

Continue to Tallinn. Arrival at the hotel in the afternoon. Check-in and accommodation at the hotel.

Buffet breakfast. Panoramic bus and walking tour of Tallinn. Tallinn is the oldest medieval city in Northern Europe. In today's Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, you can see a perfect symbiosis between the oldest traditions and the most modern. The old town is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Unlike many European cities that have mixed old buildings with new ones, the old town of Tallinn is preserved as it was centuries ago, preserving its ancient walls, with narrow cobbled streets, glowing torches and secret alleys, which have made the city known as the "Forgotten Pearl of the Baltic".

Visit to the historic city centre where you will visit the famous towers of "Long Hermann" and "Fat Margarete", as well as the Town Hall Square and the churches of St. Olaf and St. Nicholas. Toompea Hill is home to a large concentration of historical monuments, including the Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Lutheran Toomkirik Cathedral from 1233; the Estonian Parliament housed in Toompea Castle; the Estonian Art Museum; and the Kiek-in-de-Kök, a tower museum built in 1475.

Lunch at a selected local restaurant.

Free afternoon. Accommodation at the hotel.