Which Baltic country should you visit?

Estonia is the northern one. Medieval Tallinn, more than two thousand islands, bogs, saunas, a Finno-Ugric language, and a digital state that actually works. It feels closer to Finland than to Lithuania, because it is.

Latvia is the middle one. Riga is one of the biggest cities in the Baltics, with around 600,000 people, the region's best restaurants, its best nightlife and the densest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture in the world. It also has the best short-trip logistics, because everything else is one drive away.

Lithuania is the southern one. The largest old town in the region, baroque rather than Gothic, Catholic rather than Lutheran, warmer, greener, cheaper, and the least polished for tourists in a way that a certain sort of traveller will much prefer.

You want the postcard. Tallinn's walled old town is the most intact medieval core in northern Europe and it genuinely delivers on the photographs. If you are going to see one Baltic old town and you want it to look like a fairy tale, this is the one.

You want nature that is strange rather than merely pretty. Estonia's bogs are unlike anything in western Europe: raised peat plateaus with black pools and stunted pines, crossed on boardwalks, silent. Soomaa floods every spring so completely that people canoe through the forest. The islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, run on a slower clock than the mainland.

You are combining the trip with Helsinki or a Nordic itinerary. The Tallinn to Helsinki ferry takes about two hours and makes a Finland day trip trivial.

You value smoothness. Everything here works, digitally and otherwise, and English is spoken at close to Nordic levels.

You want a real city. Riga has around six hundred thousand people, a similar scale to Vilnius and noticeably bigger than Tallinn, and it feels it. The restaurant scene is the best in the region, the Central Market is one of the great European markets, and there is a proper nightlife rather than three good bars.

You care about architecture beyond the medieval. Riga holds more than seven hundred and fifty Art Nouveau buildings, the densest concentration anywhere in the world, and Alberta iela is genuinely astonishing.

You have a short trip and want the most for it. Riga sits in the middle of the region, so Vilnius and Tallinn are each one drive away, and Jūrmala's beach, the Gauja valley and Rundāle Palace are all comfortable day trips. No other base gives you that reach.

You want the lakes and the quiet east. Latgale, in the far southeast, is the least visited corner of the Baltics and one of the most rewarding.

You want the biggest old town and the fewest crowds in it. Vilnius old town covers around three and a half square kilometres, the largest in the region, and it is baroque, sprawling, and busy with ordinary life rather than only with visitors. You can turn a corner in Vilnius and be alone in a way you cannot in Tallinn.

You want the coast that people actually talk about. The Curonian Spit is a hundred-kilometre sand bar between a lagoon and the sea, half of it in Lithuania, with dunes, pine forest and old fishing villages. It is a UNESCO site and it is the single most distinctive landscape in the Baltics.

You are interested in recent history told without varnish. The Hill of Crosses, the KGB museum in a real former KGB building, the 1991 television tower. Lithuania was the first Soviet republic to declare independence and it has not forgotten a minute of it.

You want the best value. Lithuania is roughly ten to fifteen percent cheaper than Estonia across food, rooms and everything else.

More than they look on a map, less than a local will insist. The languages are the clearest evidence: Lithuanian and Latvian are related Baltic languages, but Estonian is Finno-Ugric and shares nothing with either. An Estonian and a Latvian have no common native tongue.

Religion split them too. Lithuania is Catholic and looks it, all baroque curves and pilgrimage. Latvia and Estonia are historically Lutheran, which shows up as brick Gothic, plainer interiors and a cooler public manner. Estonia is also one of the least religious countries on earth.

What they share is the twentieth century: independence in 1918, occupation from 1940, deportations, fifty years inside the Soviet Union, and the Baltic Way of 1989, when two million people held hands in a line from Vilnius to Tallinn. That shared history is why the three are grouped at all, and why seeing only one gives you a third of the story.

See all three. This is not a sales line: the three capitals are within six hundred kilometres of each other, the drives between them are four hours and pass things worth stopping for, and a week covers it comfortably. Choosing one country here is like choosing one Benelux country. Possible, but it is a strange constraint to accept when the alternative is so easy.

If your trip is genuinely three or four days, then choose one and do it properly. Riga is the most rewarding single-city choice, Tallinn the most photogenic, Vilnius the most surprising.

Which Baltic country is the best to visit?

It depends what you want. Estonia has the best-preserved medieval old town and a Nordic feel, Latvia has one of the region's biggest cities and the best food and nightlife, and Lithuania has the largest old town, the most distinctive coast and the best value. With a week, see all three.

Which Baltic country is the cheapest?

Lithuania, by roughly ten to fifteen percent across accommodation, food and everything else. Latvia sits in the middle and Estonia is the most expensive of the three.

Which Baltic country is the prettiest?

For a single view, Tallinn's medieval old town wins and it is not close. For landscape, Lithuania's Curonian Spit is the most distinctive thing in the region. Riga wins on architecture across a whole city rather than one quarter.

Can you visit all three Baltic countries in a week?

Yes, comfortably. The three capitals sit within six hundred kilometres of each other, and the drives between them are around four hours each and pass places worth stopping for. Seven days is the classic first visit.

Are the three Baltic countries very similar?

Less than outsiders assume. Estonian is unrelated to Lithuanian and Latvian, Lithuania is Catholic while the other two are historically Lutheran, and the architecture differs sharply. What they share is the twentieth century.

If I only have three days, which Baltic city should I choose?

Riga, if you want the most varied single city, or Tallinn if you want the medieval postcard and the easiest logistics. Vilnius rewards a longer stay because its old town is larger and more spread out.

• UNESCO: Historic Centre of Riga
• UNESCO: Historic Centre of Tallinn
• UNESCO: Curonian Spit
• Eurostat: population on 1 January by city
• Eurostat: comparative price levels of consumer goods and services

• Riga vs Tallinn vs Vilnius
• How many days in the Baltics?
• The Baltics vs Scandinavia
• Is the Baltics worth visiting?
• Plan a custom trip