Baltic 2009

Hi everyone

Looking to start the planning process ( over a glass or two ) of next year's tour

The theory is a tour of the Baltic starting and finishing Rotterdam for approx 10 days in June

Any advise / suggestions ?

Richard

funnt thats how we planned our trip, but it was a bottle whiskey, supped and not much plannin:blast

just rode East :D

return trip was finished off near rotterdam, well Amsterdam to be more acurate,
we did hull to zebrugge ferry, long trip but ye got some good snapp ont big boat:drool

ugg
 
I'm hoping to do leave from the UK and do the ring around the Baltic in Sept and take about 3 weeks. My planning so far has involved getting a couple of maps and highlighting interesting places to see en-route.

I'm umming and erring about how to cross from Finland to Estonia - via ferry or pref Russia, though my planning's not advanced enough to have enough information to start this.

Steve
 
Early days yet (in other words I'm too bloody dis-organised to have got much done...).

Fully intend to remedy that soon... :thumb2

What's your route, will you go up into Scandinavia.?
That's the gist of it. Me and a mate are headed for Hamburg first to pick up a couple of German bikers, then head for Copenhagen to pick up an Aussie biker who's doing the Roskilde festival, then headed for the ferry from Stockholm over to Finland.
From there it'll be ride over to St Petersburg and then head through the Baltic states.
We've got weeks 2 off, so plenty of time for a good bit of sightseeing on the way. :thumb2

I'm umming and erring about how to cross from Finland to Estonia - via ferry or pref Russia, though my planning's not advanced enough to have enough information to start this.

Steve

Difficulty with Russia is you need a visa, which means you need an invite from inside Russia which basically means you need to book a hotel. So you have to hit the target nights for the hotel (and it does kind of suck when you set goals in concrete for a tour).
But, it would be a shame to be in the area and miss out on visiting the place!
 
LittleMark said:
Difficulty with Russia is you need a visa, which means you need an invite from inside Russia which basically means you need to book a hotel. So you have to hit the target nights for the hotel (and it does kind of suck when you set goals in concrete for a tour).

I wouldn't leave it too late to arrange visas if you plan to go into Russia. I haven't ridden in Russia, but did fly to St Petersburg last year and really loved the place, but the paperwork and officialdom can be daunting. We used http://www.realrussia.co.uk/ to arrange visas and found them really helpful. I suggest you ring them to discuss whether you need hotels prebooked as the official "invitation" seems to be a bit of a formality. We had our invitations issued by a big hotel and stayed in an apartment owned by someone completely unassociated with the hotel, but not sure about flexible dates...

Very jealous of your trip plans. Maybe next year :)
 
I wouldn't leave it too late to arrange visas if you plan to go into Russia. I haven't ridden in Russia, but did fly to St Petersburg last year and really loved the place, but the paperwork and officialdom can be daunting. We used http://www.realrussia.co.uk/ to arrange visas and found them really helpful.

When I arranged the UKGSer 2005 Baltic States tour, I gave up trying to get bikes into Russia. The Russian Embassy in London was extremely unhelpful!!

Greg
 
I'm in Nottingham and am planning a circumnavigation af the Baltic too... :thumb
Hello Everyone,

I'm only just renewing my membership in UKGSer (good to be back!) so I'm sorry I haven't joined this thread earlier.

I too am looking to do a Baltic Trip this summer, in July-August of 2009. Starting with the ferry crossing from Hull to Rotterdam, I'll hope to work my way up the Baltic Countries (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland), maybe even to Nordcapp or close to the Arctic Circle before returning via Sweden/Norway to Hull. Also hoping to see St.Petersburg, but will probably opt to leave the bike parked in Tallinin, as it sounds like riding into Russia is a big hassle. My bloodline is part Lithuanian, so I'll hope to drag my heels once there and spend a bit of extra time seeing (for the first time) this "homeland."

Anyway, I'd love to join a tour if there's already one in progress to the Baltics. Or you are welcome to join me. Right now, I'm just trying to get a handle on logistics. How long will this trip take? How much ground can I expect to cover each day on the roads of the Baltic countries? I'm not a "hammerhead"; my style is not a blistering pace or rushing through a trip. If a place feels interesting, it's often worth an extra day's visit.

Any advice from riders who have already done this trip would be highly appreciated. If you can e-mail me directly (frankgresham@verizon.net) with your contact details, I'd love to ring you to chat directly on this subject if you don't mind. Or you can just offer ideas in this thread. Either way, your advice would be very much appreciated.

Presently, my main concern is how much time to allot for a trip like this? I no longer own a GS (I'm a US expat who will be returning home to the States in the fall), so I will be hiring one for the duration (expensive, I know, ...but what are my other choices?). Six weeks? Seven weeks? Less time? More? I hope I'll hear from you all on this subject, the sooner the better. And the more info the better!

Thanks!!!!

Platinum Pig
(Frank Gresham)
 
Hello Everyone,
I'd love to join a tour if there's already one in progress to the Baltics. Or you are welcome to join me.
Platinum Pig
(Frank Gresham)

Evening Frank.
Your welcome to join me for my Baltic tour (Holland->Germany->Poland->Kaliningrad->Baltic States->Russia->Finland->Denmark->Germany->Holland). I'm planning to leave around the 9th of July from Hull.
The only problem I see is that we're planning on doing the entire trip in 2.5 weeks, which sounds like it'll be going through countries a bit quick for you.
Still, if you fancy it or want to join us for the first leg then let us know!
I'd thoroughly recommend doing that bit extra to get into Norway. Some of the best riding scenery and roads in the world! :thumb
 
Just back today

Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Holland

2950 miles door to door in 9 days - pics later I hope
 


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