Rebecca Currie 6/25/19 Rebecca Currie 6/25/19

Backpacking in Scandinavia and the Baltics

A beautiful lake beach in Karlstad, Sweden

Hi folks 👋🏼 Ok so I know for some parents the thought of backpacking with toddlers is……well fresh hell?! Or that’s how husband describes it. I don’t find this is true, tiring yes, at times a bit stressful, weighty on your back-absolutely but incredibly rewarding. Also I’m aware some of you may not have small ones or extra humans at all so here’s a little guide on how to get around/see the delights of Northern Europe without selling an organ or something.

First up you need to plan your route (no brainer) and also I think it makes a difference which season you go. The visits I’ve made in winter have been incredible but I do think you spend more as you need to be inside more and some of the places we visited on our recent trip probably wouldn’t be suitable if it was really cold but you can find some quirky alternatives. One of my starting points is always where can I get a cheap flight.

Great starting hubs for me are Oslo and Copenhagen, you can pretty much always get flights under £30 even in high season and from Copenhagen you can get the train to Malmo (Sweden) over the bridge that connects the two countries which is cool in itself, (last time I did it was about £10) or from Oslo you have tonnes of train routes.

So a breakdown of our recent trip: Oslo-2 nights >Train to Karlstad (Sweden) 2 nights >Train to Stockholm (Sweden) 1 night/2 days >Overnight ferry to Helsinki >Helsinki 2 nights >Ferry to Tallinn (Estonia) 2 hour day ferry >Bus to Loksa, 2 nights at projekt kodu in Lahema National Park Estonia >Bus back to Tallinn and one night in Tallinn >Flight home from Tallinn to Gatwick

So we had a pretty packed itinerary and we had 4 kids between us aged 1, 3, 3, and 5. I really fancied adding Russia into our itinerary as from Helsinki you can visit St Petersburg and get a free 72 hour visa if you go via ferry. It was quite complicated and we decided not to as our trip was packed enough. It was amazing to spend so much time in forests and surrouded by nature. Even when we were in cities it didn’t feel that we were in a city.

So largely I prefer to travel via train but if you have older kids/no kids you can certainly travel via bus-it’s incredibly cheap and they are of a great standard particularly in the Baltic’s. For my ferries I tend to always book via Direct Ferries. I find they give you all the options and compare providers which is really useful. You can find their website here…

https://www.directferries.co.uk/

Stockholm to Riga (Latvia) will cost you about £130 for a 4 berth inside cabin and Stockholm to Helsinki for a 4 berth inside cabin will set you back about £160. If you wanted to visit St Petersburg I would definately go from Helsinki or Tallinn as from Stockholm it’s 38 hours and for me that’s a bit long. We were a bit worried on the ferry we wouldn’t have a great deal to do but the kids absolutely loved it. We travelled with Viking, they had an amazing soft play and kids club onboard and we paid for the buffet, it was €32 with unlimited food and wine and the kids went free so for us it was great value and the food was so impressive. Honestly it was such a fun part of our trip I would really recommend it.

You get some amazing views on the ferry out of Stockholm

Aside from our ferry we used trains in Oslo/Sweden, (our decision to stay in Karlstad was based purely on the fact it’s roughly halfway between Oslo and Stockholm) which you can find on the SJ website, it’s easy to navigate-all in English and the key is advance booking. In late August you can get a high speed train from Gotenberg to Stockholm for £15 one way (a steal-I think) you don’t pay for infants on laps and we bought tickets for the three year olds cause we didn’t want them on knees but they were much cheaper than adult tickets and I think (but don’t quote me) they can go without a ticket.

Cinnamon buns providing us a quiet train journey

Bus travel in the baltics is really cheap, the train networks aren’t great but if your kids are good travellers or older or you are on a solo trip it’s definitely worth looking at. You can go between Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for around €10 a trip with an average of 4 hours per journey. I’d take the 3 year old but wouldn’t risk the baby yet as he’s a high energy boy.

Accomodation. We stayed in some really exciting places. Obviously budget was on our mind and this is where Scandinavia can cost you. Budget was generally £30-£50 a night, sometimes it was cheaper but this was per family so I don’t think rediculous-if you were travelling with a friend you’d split the cost and when we go next I will check out more hostels etc. Here’s a little breakdown of our digs….

Oslo-Traditional Wood cabin Airbnb

Karlstad-wooden cabin at Campsite

Stockholm-Boat Hostel/Hotel

Overnight Ferry

Helsinki-we had an incredible apartment found on Airbnb

Estonia-Projekt kodu eco retreat and hostel

Tallinn-Apartment near the old town (found on Airbnb)

Highlights for each place for me we’re: Oslo-the waterfronts, lovely neighbourhoods and incredible forests.

Karlstad-the campsite, again being in the most incredible forest and the playground in the city, I can’t explain how awesome it is!

Stockholm-I have too many here, I’ve written a blog on Stockholm which you can find here…. https://www.bexytravels.com/europe/Stockholm

Helsinki-The shopping!!! Kids shops were INSANE…..if you love toys (like me) Moomins, good food and ethereal, stylish humans you will enjoy helsinki.

Loksa/Laheema National Park-Projekt kodu was a particular highlight, biking through the forest was wonderful and also the food.

Tallinn-again I could say a lot as it’s one of my favourite cities but I would definately say Telleskivi the creative quarter and eating at Rakatsaevu 16 and pizza kana klook (voted 16th best pizza worldwide).

My staples when looking for accommodation are www.booking.com and Airbnb but when you’ve found somewhere it’s always worth checking directly with the property as their rates may be better. Our pals Becky, Flynn and Freya can be found over at http://www.wishesandwellies.com

Is there anything else you’d like me to cover? You can always drop me a comment below or contact me via Instagram.

The wonderful showers and Sauna at projekt Kodu

Have been to any of these countries? Ever fancied it? I’d love to hear about it if you have!

Rebecca Currie 4/23/19 Rebecca Currie 4/23/19

Tallinn in winter

Fairytale buildings, snowy landscapes, saunas and british stags……Tallinn seems to be known for pretty specific reasons but I’ve been desperate to go for a while and it didn’t disappoint.

I’m not going to lie, this is largely an account of how much food I ate in 3 days. As we were child free, we were seeking some relaxation, food drinks and pretty streets to wander and it certainly delivered on those fronts. I think one of my favourite things about Tallinn is there isn’t a tick list of sights, you can just go and soak in the pretty town, eat glorious food, enjoy the sauna culture and enjoy the snow.

The low-down:

Flights-Ryanair cheap job £73 each return from Stansted (that included 2 bags between 4 of us)

Hotel-Raddisson Blu Olumpia fab hotel with small (but lovely pool and sauna on top floor). Easy walk to the old town, around 15 minutes and rooms were clean and comfortable. It was £269 for 2 for 3 nights. We wanted a nice hotel but you get some amazing airbnbs which are great value!

Spends- £150 for 3 nights (Friday to Monday)

Activities- 2 hour spa visit at Tallink spa and hotel which came in at 20 euros. Everything else we did was free (exploring) or involved eating.

Logistics-5-10 euros to get from the airport and only a 10 minute drive, you can get a local cab or an uber (not much price difference). We also got a taxi to Kalamaja as the snow was pretty heavy but we walked back, the city is very walkable but when the taxis are cheap and the weather is really cold we succumbed. You can head to the port to get a ferry to Riga, Helsinki, St Peters and Stockholm. (Around 20 euros for a day return to helsinki and 2 hours each way).

How we spent our 3 days

Friday- Lunch at Lido. So apparently Lido is a bit of an institution in Tallinn, it’s a buffet restaurant in the Solaris shopping mall (about 5 minutes from our hotel and about the same from the old town). You go in and its a buffet, some self serve and some you ask the folk behind the counter. The selection is amazing and its really hard not to eat everything, you are best looking around first to scope out what you’d like. The fried potatoes are a must and there os tonnes of meat, fish, vegetable dishes, desserts, pancake bar, salad bar, soups, bread-basically everything. The food is delicious, my only criticism is can be a bit cold-maybe because we visited during a quieter time. Its super cheap (you pay per item) a huge plate of potatoes is about 1 euro 50 and meats and fish tend to be 2-4 euros…….for 2 big plates of food and a salad plate and mulled wine I paid 13 euro but you could seriously spend less, I’m just greedy! After a quick walk round the old town I made the team trek to Rost for coffee and cardamom buns and also a little stop off at the iconic Kalev chocolate shop. On the way back I dragged everyone to Babulja for THE most incredible giant blinis (the soured cream type with apple and the cheese and ham……YOU ARE WELCOME) and some pretty awesome cocktails.

Saturday- We chose not to have breakfast at our hotel as it was on the pricey side and well thats my favourite meal of the day. We headed in an uber to Telliskivi creative quarter which is a magical little community in the old fishing town of Kalamaja. Think east london/brick lane meets a cool european food market. As we were out a bit late we missed breakfast at the super popular Fhoone (I would recommend booking) and ended up having lunch which was pretty awesome. We also wandered round the indie, arty shops which is absolutely my bag and if you are a keen photographer and enjoy street art this is the area for you! I would 100% take a trip to the Balti Jaama food market as its like a estonian version of the mercado de la boqueria in barcelona you can get so much, the usual fresh stuff but also hot street food and there’s a vintage and flea market upstairs-try the bao buns there too. From here it’s an easy walk to the old town and we walked round the walls, saw some pretty impressive look-outs, the stunning Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and explored the cute alley-ways. In the square look out for the town hall, there’s the coolest little pub called III Draakon, everyone’s dressed in medieval clothing and it’s super dark inside, you can get beer, cider and possibly wine, they have pies for snacking (Apple alllllll day) for about a euro and elk soup for about 1.50. It’s criticised a fair bit as being a novelty and the staff being quite rude but we loved it and found the staff lovely so I would put it on the list!

Pegasus-Ok I’m going to talk about Pegasus. I was told to go to Rataskaevu 16 which is voted the best restaurant in the city. We couldn’t get in so booked at their sister restaurant Pegasus. It was incredible. The service, the food, cocktails, the best bread and butter I’ve ever eaten (I’ve eaten a lot) all those little details. For the quality it was so reasonably priced and I can’t wait to return. I had the beef tail confit and then the Roe deer striploin and they were unreal…..they were also so good at catering for my sisters dairy allergy and even though they tweaked her dish really put loads of thought into her alternative. When I go back to Tallinn in june I am definitely going to book Rataskaevu as they even have a children’s play area which is pretty much the dream for a food-loving mama.

Sunday-Sunday was our chill day started off with pancakes at the famous Kompressor. It’s apparently the only restaurant in the old town locals will actually eat as its so authentic and the portions are huge. For about 10 euros I got a coffee, a coke (I was hanging-don’t judge) a huge pancake, garlic bread side and potato balls. The garlic bread is weird like deep fried rye bread with a garlicky dip-still delish though, you can get sweet and savoury pancakes, both yum and you order at the counter. Again service is very eastern europe, direct but for me friendly and I would again say you need to book but you need to go. In the afternoon we headed to the Tallink spa and conference centre for a relaxation sesh….weekdays are cheaper at 14 euros for 3 hours but as it was the weekend it was 20 euros. It’s not that fancy but we had a fab time, there’s lots of different sauna rooms which is expected in the land of saunas and some cool pools and my favourite part, a swim up bar. Kids are welcome too and you can stay there. We were tempted by this hotel but they are renovating which put me off slightly. We had a super fun and relaxing afternoon.

That evening we wanted to head to Kaja pizza Kook but gutted to find they had shut (our mistake as they close when they run out of dough, as we were back near Telleskivi we thought we would check out Lendav Taldrik which is a quirky indian restaurant with high ceilings and old fashioned tables. The food was good (similar to uk prices) but portions were huge. I think they do a lunch deal too. There are conflicting reviews for this place about horrible service but again we enjoyed our food and service was good for us.

Our flight home was fairly early Monday and I would of happily spent a week there 3 days is enough to do plenty. I am returning in June as part of my Scandinavia and Baltics tour with the smalls and there’s a few things I will check out that I didn’t do this time:

Kadriorg palace and gardens
Lahemaa national park
Seaplane harbour maritime museum
The beach
The edgewalk at TV Tower
BIking tour

I also have more restaurants I want to visit but if anyone has anymore tips for Tallinn or Estonia in general please drop them in the comments.