Cities on the Baltic Sea

By David Barclay | September 5, 2025

(Nyhavn district in Copenhagen)

The Baltic Sea has a rich heritage and many fascinating countries and cities that are very welcoming to tourists.  This summer my family and I journeyed on a cruise ship to visit the countries that border the Baltic (all except for Russia & St. Petersburg, which was a shame to miss and will hopefully one day return as a place for leisure travelers to visit).  While we toured this region by cruise, it’s possible to visit any of these cities and countries either by land or sea, so I won’t spend time on the cruise aspect of our trip and will instead spend time highlighting what there is to see in each of these countries and cities.

Copenhagen (Denmark)

The capital of Denmark, Copenhagen has a lot to offer visitors and is worth a few days visit if you can spare the time.  Since this was the start of our vacation, we flew in ahead of our cruise to give us time to explore.   We stayed in Nyhavn, a waterfront district with beautifully colored buildings and many restaurants and cafes.  Our hotel, 71 Nyhavn Hotel, was right on the corner where Nyhavn canal meets the main Copenhagen canal.  It was a lovely hotel with gorgeous views of the city. 

(71 Nyhavn Hotel)

The city center is easily toured on foot, which we did our first day, exploring Nyhavn, walking down Strøget (a long pedestrian street with tons of shopping) and ending at the City Hall Square and nearby Tivoli Gardens.  We only had time for a short peak at Tivoli Gardens, one of the world’s oldest amusement parks, before the clouds opened up for the first of many rain showers on our trip, so we were not able to explore in detail.  But it is definitely a place to visit if you have time and the weather cooperates.  During our walk, we try a favorite street food in Copenhagen, hotdogs served in a bread tube.  The traditional condiment is mayonnaise, which my wife tried, while I stuck with ketchup.  It was an interesting and odd way for Americans to eat hot dogs!

Copenhagen is a very bike-friendly city, with dedicated bike lanes on almost every street.  Bikes are so prevalent that when crossing the street pedestrians need to worry more about getting run over by a bike than a car.  Since bikes are so ubiquitous, for our guided tour of the city we opted for a bike tour.  I’m ashamed to say this was my first city biking tour, but it won’t be the last, as I found biking in a bike-friendly city to be a great way to explore.  We covered significantly more ground compared to a walking tour, but had similar benefits of getting exercise, being able to stop wherever we wanted, and not having to deal with traffic.  Our bike tour included stops to see the Little Mermaid, Rosenborg Castle, TorvehallerneKBH Market, Christiansborg Palace, Our Savior’s Church with its outdoor staircase up the church spire (not for those who don’t like heights), Nyborder Old Naval Barracks, the Opera House, Amalienborg Palace, Frederiks Kirke, and finally returning to City Hall to have our guide add some color and history that we didn’t get on our self-guided visit.

Gdansk (Poland)

Gdansk definitely surprised and over-delivered on our brief stop to see this historic port city.  It is a lot larger than I expected and while a little crowded with tourists when we visited, it still provided enough spaces off the main streets to explore away from the crowds.  One thing that stands out is the architecture of the city, which seemed more Dutch than Polish, especially since we had just traveled from Copenhagen.  The buildings were very tall, narrow, and colorful.  Most had been destroyed in WWII, but the residents of Gdansk decided to rebuild them in their traditional style to maintain the unique architecture of the city.  We could also see this architectural style in new construction outside of the historic quarter, with the new buildings designed to compliment and blend in with the historic buildings. 

In additions to the architecture, Gdansk is known for amber jewelry, Polish perogies (both boiled and baked), and a large medieval crane on the river.  It also has one of the largest brick churches in the world, along with many other red brick buildings.  Brick was used instead of stone because the wet lowlands didn’t offer a lot of easily accessible stone, but red clay was in abundance.  Gdansk also has a well curated WWII museum, considered one of the best museums in Poland and I think one of the best museums dedicated to WWII in the world.  We spent over 2.5 hours touring the museums exhibits and towards the end had to pick up our pace, so we’d have time to explore other parts of Gdansk. 

Klaipėda (Lithuania)

Klaipėda was the first of our three stops in the three Baltic states.  One of the things I love about travel is learning about the history of other countries and how that led to their modern statehoods.  I hadn’t researched the Baltic states much and was curious why these three small countries exist instead of either being part of one of the neighboring countries or themselves combined into a single country.  What I learned is that while Lithuania & Latvia have many similarities and were the last European countries to convert to Christianity (our Lithuanian guide said they are proud to have been the last pagan country in Europe), one of the differences is that Lithuania has a large population of Catholics (~3/4 of the country) stemming from its conversion to Christianity in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.   

While Klaipėda is a typical small port city with not a lot to explore, we were unfortunately too far away from the capital Vilnius, which is on the other side of the country, so could not visit a large city.  But relatively near the port, there is an old USSR nuclear missile silo that’s been converted into a museum.  One of only a few decommissioned nuclear missile silos in the world that tourists can visit, it proved to be an educational and unique touring opportunity.  Commissioned in 1962 and not discovered by U.S. reconnaissance flights until 1965, the Plokštinė missile base housed four R-12 Dvina missiles with a range of ~2,000 km, enough to reach any of the NATO countries in Europe and Turkey.  We learned from our guide that the closest the base came to firing a missile wasn’t in response to a NATO action, but considered as an option to quell the 1968 Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia.  Thankfully that never happened, and the base was decommissioned in 1978.  Left abandoned for many years and looted for raw materials, it was repaired and converted into a museum in 2012. 

On our return to our ship, we stopped to try the popular Lithuanian Cold Beetroot Soup (a.k.a Pink Soup).  Although it looks somewhat like Pepto Bismol, it was delicious and fun to experience in a traditional Lithuanian restaurant.

Riga (Latvia)

Riga is the capital of Latvia and lies on the Daugava river.  Our small luxury cruise ship sailed up the Daugava river and dock very close to the old town, so it was only a short 10 minute walk to meet our tour guide near the opera building.  We learned from our guide that while Lithuania and Latvia had the same root language, today only about 15% of the words overlap, so Lithuanians and Latvians are not able to understand one another.  Since English is taught in school in both countries, they tend to use that as a common language.  In addition to the language differences, Latvia is more heavily Protestant, with Lutheranism being the predominant religion.

Riga has a great history and our guide Edvards brought that history to life for us.  We started near the Freedom Monument, honoring the soldiers of the Latvian war of independence.  Amazingly, it was not destroyed during the USSR occupation, as the USSR knew that would alienate the citizens.  Instead, the monument was repurposed and the features of the monument recast in a new story that aligned with USSR propaganda.  Next, we saw the famous cat building.  Legend says that a merchant wanted to join the Great Guild, a German-run business organization, but was denied because he was not of German descent.  In retaliation, he built a building across the street from the guild house, and placed a black cat statue on top, with the cat’s rear end facing the guild building.  In exchange for turning the cat around, he was allowed to join the guild. We also visited the building of the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a famous building originally built by a guild of 15^th century merchants.  Destroyed in WWII, it was rebuilt to its original design and is a popular attraction in the city.  The city is also known for its many Art Nouveau buildings, totaling over 800 scattered around the city.  During our touring, we learned that Latvians are not shy with their opinions.  As strong supporters of the Ukrainians in their war with Russia, they renamed the street the Russian embassy is on, it is now called “Ukrainian Independence Street” in protest of the war.

Riga also is famous for its large Central Market.  Housed in five zeppelin hangers which were dismantled in the countryside and reassembled in the city, each hanger is dedicated to a different part of the market.  Shoppers can purchase many items directly from the producers, including more normal items like steaks and bacon, and also cow tongues and pug snouts.  During our tour of the fish hall hanger, we also learned that lamprey, either grilled or jellied, is a seasonal delicacy for the Latvians. 

Tallinn (Estonia)

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and possesses well maintained historical buildings and its old city wall.  Estonia, although neighboring Latvia and close to Lithuania, has a very different history and feel different from the other Baltic states.  This is due to the history of the region.  While Latvia and Lithuania were heavily influenced by Poland and Germany, Estonia has been heavily influenced (and at times part of) Finland.   

The old town of Tallinn is easily toured on a self-directed walking tour, so for our guided tour we boarded a Soviet era bus for a mock Soviet-era tour of Tallinn.  We were met by our KGB handler who inspected our “papers”, grilled us on the purpose of our visit to Tallinn, and shared a morning shot of vodka with us.  Our driver was a pro with the bus, producing just the right amount of Soviet-era challenges with poor equipment.  He at one point purposely stalled the engine and said it wouldn’t start, so I and several others on the tour had to get out and push the bus to get it moving again.  With the bus working again, we set out to see some of the sights outside of the city center that were important in the Soviet days.  Definitely a fun and creative way to see Tallinn.

Helsinki (Finland)

Yet another capital on the Baltic, stemming from the importance of the sea trade in past centuries.  We learned that Helsinki wasn’t always the capital of Finland, one of the reasons it feels fairly modern for a European capital.  Emperor Alexander I of Russia moved the capital to Helsinki in the early 1800’s to make the Finnish capital further from Sweden and closer to St. Petersburg. 

Our exploration of Helsinki was a gastronomic one, with a walking food tour around the city center.  Before meeting our guide, we explored some of the food stalls outside of the city market, where it quickly became apparent that reindeer was a popular dish.  Not only as the primary meat in restaurant dishes, but also as hot dogs, burgers, and even kabab served at the food stalls.  Seafood is also popular, given the proximity to the Baltic, with many options for cured fish.  The Finns also like caviar, with options ranging from just expensive to crazy expensive.  For our lunch, we sampled several traditional dishes including Finnish meatballs, sauteed reindeer, and salmon soup.  To the delight of our 16-year-old son, our tour guide also took us to the Fazer Café to try the famous Karl Fazer Chocolate and purchased a huge bag of chocolate truffles which our son then devoured over the remainder of our trip.  We ended at a bar at the top of the tallest building in Helsinki, enjoying great views and sipping on a lonkero (a gin and grapefruit soda).  We also experience the very unique bathrooms at the top of this building, with great views but not for those who are extremely modest!

Stockholm Sweden

I didn’t do it on purpose, because I have ordered these cities in the order we visited, but I’ve saved the best city for the end of this blog post.  Stockholm is an incredible city and with only two days to explore the city we only scratched the surface of what there is to see and do. 

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Stockholm, right on the harbor front and with beautiful views from our room & balcony of Gamla Stan across the harbor.  This is the grand old hotel for Stockholm and a perfect fit for our trip.

For our first day, my family and I went on a half-day private walking tour.  Our tour guide, Tobias, customized the tour for us by combining the modern Klara District with the historic old town in Gamla Stan.  Starting in the Klara District, we learned that it had been rebuilt not because of WWII damage, but as part of an extensive urban renewal project where almost a thousand older buildings and houses were demolished to build a modern section of the city.  The Klara District also contains the main shopping areas of the city along with many restaurants and bars.  On our way to tour the old town, our guide took us into a subway entrance to see the underground station.  In Sweden, public projects like the construction of a subway station must include an element of art and that’s included as a percentage of the overall budget.  In the station we entered, the theme was a combination of ancient Greece combined with a warning about nuclear war and environmental conservation.  Very Scandinavian to include multiple messages about social good in a single work of art.  As we strolled the old town, we learned about the history of the city and important moments that occurred on the island.   We also stopped for the first of many ice cream cones we had during our stay in Stockholm, as ice cream venues are plentiful in this city.

Given our limited time, we could only focus on a few of the many wonderful museums in the city.  Our first museum and a highlight of our visit was the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa was a mighty warship, built in the early 17^th century to be the flagship of the Swedish fleet.  The first double gun deck ship built for the fleet, it had several design flaws and sunk on her maiden voyage as she sailed the harbor.  Preserved by the brackish waters of the harbor, she was found in the 1950’s and painstakingly raised, restored, and preserved, with 98% of the rebuilt ship being original. The museum doesn’t only house the ship, but also many exhibits detailing the construction and sinking of the Vasa.  In 2011, the museum received permission to exhume the bodies of the ~35 people who perished during the sinking (most of the passengers made it off alive) and their stories are told in great detail in individual exhibits.  If you visit Stockholm and can only visit one museum, I highly recommend you see the Vasa.