A Journey from Minsk to Kaliningrad

Fly to Minsk and transfer to your hotel. Check in for 3 nights.

Dig deep to discover the fun and charm of Minsk. Follow a route from Independence Square to October Square and get your fill of Stalin-era grandiose gems including the Post Office, GUM Department Store and Palace of Culture. The city comes alive at night where you will be pleasantly surprised by its fine restaurants and buzzing live music venues. (B)

Free day to explore Minsk or perhaps head out to the open-air museum of Dudutki and learn everything about Belarusian traditions. Explore farmsteads, mills and handicraft shops. (B)

Take the train from Minsk to Vilnius. There are several departures daily and the journey takes around 4½ hours. Arrive in Vilnius and check in to the hotel for 2 nights. (B)

Discover unspoiled winding streets and a church on every corner in the picturesque Baroque Old Town. Take the funicular from the Lower to the Higher Castle for views across the rooftops. To learn more of the country’s recent history, pay a visit to the Museum of Genocide Victims in the former KGB headquarters. (B)

Take a bus from Vilnius to Nida. There are several departures a day and the journey takes around 5 hours. Check in to the hotel for 2 nights. (B)

This ancient fishing town is brimming with quaint, timber houses painted in a variety of bright colours and boasts a lovely, cosmopolitan beach perfect for some relaxing bathing. The quaint fishing village of Nida is an ideal base from which to explore places further afield such as Thomas Mann’s summer house and the eerie ‘Hill of Witches’. (B)

Take a private transfer from Nida to Kaliningrad. Under Soviet rule the former wealthy port of Konigsberg changed dramatically to the present day Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, separated from the motherland by Lithuania and Belarus. Check in to the hotel for 3 nights. (B)

Today explore Kaliningrad. perhaps not the prettiest of cities on first glance, but Kaliningrad has its own charm. Discover surviving remnants of the city’s German heritage and an interesting selection of war time monuments and museums. Visit the painstakingly restored red brick Cathedral and the Immanuel Kant Museum, which located inside. Make sure to visit to the World Ocean Museum housed in a former Soviet research vessel, and an old Foxtrot-class Soviet submarine. (B)

Perhaps take an excursion out of Kaliningrad to the Zamland Peninsula and explore the port town of Baltiysk, the westernmost point of Russia and home of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. It was closed to visitors during the Soviet period and even now a permit in needed to enter. Visit the Citadel, which was built during the brief Swedish occupation of the area. See the impressive 32-metre high lighthouse, an iconic symbol of the town. (B)

Free morning before transfer from the hotel to the airport for the flight back to the UK. (B)