Great Baltic Loop: Tallinn, Turku & Ystad, 12 Days

It starts with your own journey to Kiel. In the evening your machine goes on board the ferry bound for the Baltics, and you spend the night in your cabin at sea. The next morning you wake up already well on the way east.

In the evening you reach Klaipeda and stand on Baltic ground on your own wheels for the first time. A walk through old Memel is well worth it: the Simon Dach Fountain, Theatre Square and the small half-timbered houses define the old town. Overnight in Klaipeda.

Today the spit road leads roughly 100 km to Nida: open forests, gentle dunes and again and again the view across the Curonian Lagoon. The former fishing villages of Nida and Juodkrante invite a rest before the way back to Klaipeda.

Via Palanga and Kuldiga you follow the Lithuanian-Latvian coast to Riga, around 350 km. The largest city in the Baltics welcomes you lively, modern and historic all at once – a clear contrast to the quiet spit of the day before. Overnight in Riga.

The day begins with a detour to the Gauja National Park, where the river winds through the landscape and Turaida Castle near Sigulda is worth a stop. Continuing through the Latvian countryside you reach Pärnu after around 250 km, with its wooden villas and broad sandy beach.

Via Haapsalu, once a popular spa town in Tsarist times, quiet minor roads lead on to Tallinn, around 220 km. Winding cobblestone lanes, defensive towers and steep-gabled merchant houses define the old Hanseatic city on the Estonian north coast.

By ferry you cross from Tallinn to Helsinki. The harbour, the old Kauppahalli market hall, Senate Square with its cathedral and the Temppeliaukio church blasted into solid rock fill the day in the Finnish capital.

Around 200 km lead on to Turku, the gateway to the Finnish archipelago. Coffee and a cinnamon pastry in the old market hall are part of the programme, before the ferry casts off in the evening and threads its way through thousands of small islands towards Stockholm.

In the morning you reach Stockholm. The Royal Palace, the old town of Gamla Stan and the view from the Södermalm district fill a whole day of impressions – it is explored on foot, and your machine stays parked for the day.

The way follows the Baltic coast past red Swedish wooden houses to Oskarshamn, around 340 km. The harbour links the mainland with Gotland, and the Fnyket quarter invites a stroll among its picturesque wooden houses by the water.

Via Kalmar with its cathedral and castle and Kristianstad with its well-preserved old town centre it continues to Ystad, around 360 km. Crime fiction fans can follow in the footsteps of Detective Wallander here, everyone else strolls the pretty town centre.

In the morning you reach the port of Trelleborg and board for the way home. In the evening the ferry docks in Lübeck-Travemünde or, alternatively, Rostock – the big loop around the Baltic Sea ends here, and everyone continues home individually.