Itinerary: Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania

We’re getting ready to kick off our road trip through the Baltics! We’ve been planning this one for a while and had to dig deep on the research as it’s not a super popular travel destination, yet. We’re starting things off in Tallinn Estonia. All of the photos I’ve seen of this city are gorgeous and I can’t wait to see it in person. We’re also planning a day trip to the nearby Lahemaa National Park for some nature time. 

Next, we’re driving south towards Pärnu, Estonia. Along the way we hope to check out some odd sites like the ruins of an old monastery and a prison – two separate places to be clear! We’ll check out yet another national park nearby before heading down to Riga, Latvia. There are a few things we’d like to check out while in town, like the photography museum.

From Riga we’ll pop down into Lithuania for about 24 hours to visit the Hill of Crosses, which is the stop I’m most looking forward to at the moment. I’ve been wanting to go there for many years. Then we’re back up in Latvia, driving over to the coastal town of Liepāja for the night. 

From Liepāja, we’re driving south into the Lithuanian section of the Curonian Spit, a little sliver of land currently shared with Russian province, Kaliningrad. While there, we’ll visit the tallest migrating sand dunes in Europe and an outdoor sculpture trail ominously called the Hill of Witches! If we make it out of there unscathed, we’ll head inland to the second largest Lithuania city, Kaunas. We’ll be saying at a nearby spa for some rest and relaxation. Spa culture is big in this part of the world! 

We’ll end the trip in Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius. While there, I also hope to connect with some very distant relatives that I’ve never met. That may prove to be the biggest adventure of this whole trip! 

Tanzania! Mt Kilimanjaro, a safari, and a little bit of Zanzibar

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Very soon we'll be taking off for Tanzania.

It's been about 10 months since I first began digging into the planning for this trip. First it was deciding which route to take up Mt Kilimanjaro. There are 7 established routes, each with some pros and cons. We ultimately decided on the Lemosho route. It's one of the longer routes, 7 or 8 days (we picked 7), on the mountain. The scenery is supposed to be spectacular and the longer route will give us extra time to acclimate to the high altitude.

Hiking Kilimanjaro doesn't require any technical ability, but still something like 50 percent of people who attempt the hike do not summit. This is mostly due to the high altitude and how well the body handles the lack of oxygen. Through some research I've learned some key things that can help your body adjust. Going slowly is a big one which is why we picked the Lemosho route - it would suck to go so far and not make it to the summit - and I also picked up a prescription for Acetazolamide, commonly referred to as Diamox. The drug helps prevent altitude sickness. I opted not to take it for the Inca Trail, but Mt Kilimanjaro is considerably higher at 19,341 ft (5,895m). By contrast, the highest point on the Inca trail is 13,828 ft (4,215m) and we just passed through it, on Kili we'll be well over 13,000 ft for a considerable amount of time. My body definitely felt the altitude on the Inca Trail. So let's just say, this time I'm not fooling around - hand me the drugs. 

After we picked our route, it was an agonizing few months sifting through all the various tour companies to book the hike and safari. Like the Inca Trail, Mt Kilimanjaro is highly regulated by the government and you have to hike with a registered guide and team of porters. The market is flooded with companies, prices vary wildly, some people warned of fake reviews on sites like Trip Advisor, some companies were better for the hike, others were better for the safari, some local companies, and some foreign. We searched high and low, asked for advice and recommendations from friends and family, and vetted multiple companies. Ultimately we booked with two different tour operators, we just couldn't find one we liked that specialized in both the hike and safari that remained within our price point. 

We booked the hike through Karibu Adventures. They are a a Tanzanian company which means all our money will go towards supporting the locals, which was important to us. They have high safety standards (clearly important), good reviews, over 10 years of experience, and were the right price. However, they did not seem as experienced for the safari and did not offer the type of mid level accommodations we were looking for - many safari companies offered either a really low budget public campground option or a super lux option, neither of which worked for us.

Ultimately, we booked a 5 day safari with Good Earth Tours. They consider themselves to be one of the most ethically-responsible tour operators in East Africa and expressly state the importance of animal welfare on their site, which is something that was really important to us for a safari tour operator. They also offered the mid level accommodations we were looking for and came personally recommended from a family member who did a safari with them a few years ago. Choosing to book with two different tour companies created a bit more logistics to sort out but ultimately worth it for us. 

After our 18 hours onboard two airplanes we'll arrive in at the Kilimanjaro Airport and have one day in Moshi before starting our 7 day Kilimanjaro hike via the Lemosho route. After the hike we'll spend a much needed night in a hotel in Moshi (we'll be looking forward to a bed and showers by this point!). Then we'll head to Arusha, about an hour away. We'll have a day to recoup and then we start our 5 day safari. We'll head to Tarangire, the Serengeti, and the Ngorongoro Crater. After summiting the world's tallest freestanding mountain (hopefully) and starring in awe at epic wild animals (most likely), we'll fly over to Zanzibar to check out Stone Town and enjoy a little R&R by the beach. 

Put me on the plane. 

Cambodia!

Unlike most of my trips, we put this one together relatively quickly. We only just solidified our plans and we depart in less than two weeks.

Some people were surprised to hear that we’ll be spending our full two week vacation in Cambodia. While the temptation to fit in a neighboring country is strong, I also love the idea of giving Cambodia our full attention.

While we tried hard to fit in some time at an elephant sanctuary, it unfortunately wasn’t in the cards for this trip. They were either too remote, weren’t a true sanctuary, or required too long of a stay to be feasible. I’ll miss them, I have such fond memories of my time at the Elephant Nature Park during a 2014 trip to Thailand.   

On my previous trip to the region I popped into Siem Reap for a just a couple days to see the temples. Having been before, however briefly, takes some of the edge off. I’m less concerned about fitting everything in and instead am looking forward to a much more relaxed pace. It will be nice to be there for a much longer stretch.

After a long flight, with a brief layover in Guangzhou China, we’ll arrive Siem Reap around 7pm local time. We’ll have the evening to recoup and adjust to the new time zone. Then in the morning we’ll be hitting it hard with a full day of temple exploration at Angkor Wat. However, I’m certain we’ll find time for massages once we’re back in town that evening - we’ll need it! Day two is another temple day, and on one of these days we’ll aim to catch the famous sunrise over Angkor Wat. When I was in Siem Reap back in 2014 the sunrise left a lot to be desired, it was more like a gradual lightening of an overcast sky. Hopefully this time we’ll have more luck. The following day we’ll explore in and around town, and shopping and kitschy mini golf might also be on the menu, along with some more r&r.

The next day we plan to head over to Banteay Srei for a homestay with a local family, we’re not quite sure what to expect but it will be an adventure. After that, we’ll make our way back to Siem Reap to catch a flight and subsequent ferry ride over to Koh Rong Sanloem for a few glorious days relaxing in a beachfront bungalow.

From there it’s another ferry ride back to the mainland and a short bus ride over to Kampot. We’ve got what sounds like an excellent little riverside bungalow booked over there. We plan to have some fun on the river with a stand-up paddle board tour and to explore the town for a couple days before heading up to Phnom Penh. 

We’ll be in Phnom Penh for a long weekend, meeting up with friends before flying back home. I can't wait!