Travelers around the globe constantly are looking for the next great destination to visit. If till now, the TOP must see lists were occupied by well-known places in Western Europe, now, especially after terror attacks in Paris and Brussels, it is time to rise and highlight less discovered and crowded areas like the Baltic states. The Baltics are unique – they will satisfy nature lovers by lush green forests, lovely nature parks and natural wilderness in the countryside, while culture lovers and urban explorers will be surprised and delighted with rich cultural life and architecturally breathtaking cities and towns.
But the Baltic countries have more than a few surprises. Here are seventeen reasons why to book tour to the Baltic states this summer.

1.Historical Old Towns of the Baltic capitals

The Old Towns of the Baltic countries are the main must see spots. Despite the fact that the Baltic states have very similar history, travelers will enjoy different characters and beauty in each of them. Baroque and Gothic style Vilnius Old Town amazes by twenty-eight churches belonging to different building periods and confessions. Riga Old Town has a well-balanced blend of evidence from the 13th century and lovely flower decorated squares with modern restaurants and cafeterias, while Tallinn Old Town ensures the medieval atmosphere and fairy-tale landscape.

2.UNESCO World Heritage listed sights

There are 8 sites in the Baltic countries listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Three from them is Struve Geodetic Arc signs located one by one in each country – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and is part of a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Norway to the Black Sea, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian and helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet. Other UNESCO sites in the Baltic states includes well preserved medieval Historic Centre of Tallinn, Historic Centre of Riga with Riga Central Market and impressive Art Nouveau area, Historic Centre of Vilnius, 98 km long sand dune peninsula Curonian Spit and Kernavė Archaeological Site, which represents an exceptional testimony to some 10 millennia of human settlements in this region.

3.The Song and Dance Festivals

Unique and stunning is the tradition of the Song and Dance Festivals in each of the Baltic countries. With the history dating back to 1864 with 1000 singers to 35`000 singers and dancers in 2013 performing to an audience up to 80`000 people in each of them – Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. As a major celebration of nations singing culture and deep spirit, the Song and Dance Festivals are some of the largest amateur choral events in the world, a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Estonian and Latvian Song and Dance Festivals held every five years while Lithuanian held every four years and during the festivals art and folk craft markets, different orchestra concerts and a festive parade also take place.

4.Folk Songs

Folk songs are path how all three nations – Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians have preserved their culture and identity through the centuries.  Folk Songs are short in a four-footed trochaic meter and each line is usually eight syllables long. Folk Songs concern themselves with native Pre-Christian mythology like the Sun, Moon, animals and the life of people, especially its three most important events – birth, wedding, and death. Thousands of Folk Songs have been passed down from generation to generation as oral folklore and were written down only at 19th-century when they were collected and structured by local enthusiasts by the first time. There are about 1.4 million Latvian Folk Songs, almost one Folk Song to each Latvian, which is a fascinating phenomenon.

5.Traditions

Each of the three Baltic countries is proud of its rich heritage of folklore, folk customs, ancient craft skill and traditions that are part of national identity. The lifestyle of modern Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian includes such unique traditions as rituals during yearly celebrations like egg painting with natural materials in Eastern or making bonfire at the summer solstice, participating in folkloric choirs and dance groups, celebrating Song and Dance Festival, grave culture and flower giving culture which all might be quite surprising for some travelers.

6.Midsummer celebrations

The pagan tradition to celebrate the shortest night of the year is still alive in the Baltic states. Each year on 23rd of June thousands of people making bonfires and wreaths of oak leaves and meadow flowers, dancing and singing around the bonfire by celebrating the longest day of the year and believing that the rituals ensure fertility and prosperity. The Summer solstice is the feast for the belly as well. Ladies are baking pies, making special yellow kummel cheese in the form of the Sun while the men taking care of beer brewing. The mouth washing in the morning dew while the Sun is rising is also part of the summer solstice rituals.

7.Four Seasons

Baltic countries are blessed with 4 different seasons and that is the reason, why the tour to Baltic states Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania in different time of the year always will be full of surprises. Summer in the Baltics is mind-blowing with sunny pleasant weather on the white sandy beaches, blossoming parks, and meadows, melodious bird songs and special summer smell in the air. Autumn comes with astonishing color palette and prosperous nature`s bounty – berries and mushrooms in the forests, ecological vegetables, and fruits in gardens. Winter surprises with quietness, snow covered fields and snow flowers in the window pane. But the spring has it all – refreshing rain invites to cast out first green leaves, while the first rays of the sun are playing with colored rainbow arcs over the red tiled roofs.

8.Baltic language as one of the ancient languages

The Baltic languages belong to the Balto language branch of the Indo-European language family and are spoken by Latvians and Lithuanians, while the Estonian language belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. Obvious similarities in words and word forms in Latvian, Lithuanian and Sanskrit – the primary sacred language of Hinduism, proves uniqueness and archaism of both Baltic languages. For example, “abhi” in Sanscrit, “abi” in Latvian means “both”, “dhruva” in Sanscrit “druva” in Latvian means “cornfield”, “sana” in Sanscrit “sena” in Latvian meaning “old”, “agra” in Sanscrit “agra, agri” in Latvian means “early”, “asru” in Sanscrit “asaru” in Latvian means “tears” and many others.

9.Amber

Amber – the Baltic gold was a valuable treasure to buy or exchange already thousands of years ago. Jewelry from yellow, honey color stone originally produced in Baltic region has been found in Mesopotamia, Egypt, ancient China, Morocco, Greece, and Italy. Baltic amber is fossilized tree resin formed in the water 40 -60 million years.  About 90% of the world’s extractable amber is still located in that area around the East coast of the Baltic Sea near Klaipeda and the Kaliningrad (Russia). Amber is widely used as a gemstone, as an ingredient in perfumes and as a healing stone in folk medicine. Amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions that make this gemstone unrepeatable.

10.Christmas tree

Have you ever thought from where comes tradition to decorate the Christmas tree? No, it is not coming from Santa Claus. It comes from the Baltics – Tallinn and Riga, where Christmas trees were decorated by the Blackhead’s guild of unmarried merchants in the Town Hall Squares accordingly in 1441 and in 1510. The fight between Tallinn and Riga is still going on for the title the First decorated Christmas tree in the world, while for the guests this is a great reason to visit both cities.

11.The greenest countries in the World

Latvia and Estonia are lands of forests. Over 50% of each country is taken over by green forests that ensure fresh, unpolluted air and title of one of the greenest countries in the Europe. Forests not only absorbing more CO2 than people produce here but also provides a natural bounty of mushrooms and berries, which are wildly picked up by each family as well as used for food production in factories.

12.Sandy beaches

The Baltic States is proud of the most amazing natural white sandy beaches in the Europe. With total coastline length of 2002 km (4554 km including islands) the Baltic states invite visitors to summer resorts like Palanga, Jurmala and Parnu. While the fine beaches attract thousands of sun lovers in hot summer days, the unique masterpiece by nature 98 meters long white sand dune Curonian Spit ensures the piece and quietness.

13.The Europe`s widest waterfall

Latvian town Kuldīga boasts Europe’s widest waterfall (249 m, up to 270 m during spring floods). Despite a height of only two meters, the waterfall called Ventas Rapid is spectacular scenic during the spring, when fishes are jumping up to the river.

14.The first online voting

Estonia was the first country ever to introduce online voting in 2005. Even more, 96% of Estonians file taxes online and 98% of Estonians conduct banking online, and over 98% of new businesses are registered online, which make Estonia the great example for the most effective country management.

15.Skype

Skype doesn’t ask the comments. Invented by two Estonians  Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn in cooperation with the Swedish and Danish programmers in 2003, sold for 2,6 billion to E-Bay and later on resold to Microsoft for 8,5 billion nowadays it is used by 50 million people around the globe, while almost the half of Skype staff still are operating from  the Estonian capital Tallinn and university town Tartu.

16.Free Wifi at many points

In the Baltic states, you will never feel alone because the WiFi is almost everywhere – in bus stops, cafes, parks, streets and even in bogs. Stay connected with your family and friends while discovering the Baltic countries.

17.Beautiful girls

Travelers, who once have been visiting the Baltics, mention one more great reason – the most beautiful girls in the world. Can we have even greater argumentation?

Do you agree with our list? If you think there are more reasons to add, write a comment and share the list with friends and loved ones and book your Baltic tour already this summer.