Cycling in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania | On Your Bike - Lonely Planet Forum

ONLINE

Fri, 18 Apr 2014 17:48:20 +0000

What can anyone tell me about the tranquility and safety of cycling in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania? Cycle touring, with panniers, hybrid or comfort bike (so some 'reasonable surface' offroad OK)

1 Specifically, are there roads to be found with few cars?
2 Can one weave one's way on smaller roads, using a good map or GPS, avoiding heavy traffic most of the time?
3 Overall, how aware/careful of cyclists are the drivers? I have cycled all over Europe, Middle East, India and Pakistan--and I know for this trip I want reasonably safe and not a lot of traffic.
4 Anything else you can tell me about cycle touring in these countries?

This is a 60th-birthday grand hurrah for me--maybe 6-7 weeks of cycling.

Thanks in advance for your time

ONLINE

Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:38:41 +0000

In Estonia, you better avoid main highways Tallinn-Tartu, Tallinn-Narva and Tallinn-Pärnu. The traffic is very dense there, not much to see either. Majority of roads are cycle-able, so if you want to get from one city to another just pick any alternative route to major highway from your map, and you'll do just fine. Only very rural country roads are covered with gravel which is not that nice terrain for a cycler.

I suggest you look at the a thread in Estonian cyclists' forum where one Dutch man asked for routes and also advice. Although the forum is mostly in Estonian language, people speak and write English there as well. I give a link just because the thread is too long to copy its contents here. Here is a link to his page about Estonia and here about Latvia, some nice advice there as well.

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ONLINE

Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:51:22 +0000

Hi, you chose the most quiet countries to travel by bike
.. Forests, endless forests. These countries have so little inhabitants... In Lithuania and Latvia gravel roads are still common. Estonia has pretty good cycling roads system.
Overall safe just be careful in bigger cities and avoid places where you see drunk people-but this goes for everycountry.
Google Balticcycle-guys have experience and good maps.
Enjoy!

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