Contents
This guide is mainly focused on how to get from one country to another, so it includes borders all the way from Finland – Estonia – Latvia – Lithuania to Poland.
Generally train tickets in Baltic states are inexpensive. It can be cheaper to buy a regular train ticket instead of using a travel day. Tickets are available online and at the stations. For Youth the price of travel day with Interrail pass is 35€ with 7 days in one month pass and about 16€ with one month continuous pass. You should compare the prices of regular train tickets and Interrail travel days.
All prices and timetables mentioned in this post were valid in January 2024.
Timetables are available on each country’s own website. Tickets in the Baltics usually come to sale only few weeks before travel day. But do not worry – you can assume that the timetable will remain same after that. Timetables change twice a year, and mainly there are only small changes in timetables then. But it is always good to double-check the timetables before traveling to just make sure your plans will work out.
Most of these countries don’t send their timetable data to Interrail/Eurail, so you cannot find the timetables from their website or in the Rail Planner app. Your Interrail Pass is still valid on these countries, you just need to add the trains manually to your pass.
Estonia
If you are using travel day, there is generally lots of space in the trains and no seat reservations are possible to make. Hop on, add the connection to the travel log or to the trip in the app and show your pass when asked.
Map of railway lines and stops in Estonia
The Elron site has a railway map of Estonia and map of stations in Tallinn and Tartu. Railway station in Tallinn has 9 tracks, being the largest railway station in Estonia, and Tartu has only 3 tracks.
Locations of replacement busses
https://elron.ee/en/soiduinfo/peatused
Trains of Estonia on a live map
https://elron.ee/en/soiduinfo/soiduplaanid#trainmap
Trains between Estonia and Latvia
From Estonia to Latvia and vice versa, you need to change trains at the border in Valga/Valka. Trains in Estonia don’t show up in the Interrail/Eurail web site or in the planner. Use elron.ee to check timetables (and tickets) in Estonia.
There are four trains per day between Tallinn and Valga, but only one or two of them is usefull is you are going to/from Riga.
| From Tallinn to Riga | Weekdays | Weekends |
| Tallinn, departure | 07:42 | 07:42 & 12:52 |
| Valga, arrival | 11:21 | 11:21 & 16:39 |
| Change of trains in Valga | ||
| Valga, departure | 14:52 | 16:52 |
| Riga, arrival | 17:47 | 19:47 |
| From Riga to Tallinn | Every day |
| Riga, departure | 11:00 |
| Valga, arrival | 13:59 |
| Change of trains in Valga | |
| Valga, departure | 17:29 |
| Tallinn, arrival | 21:06 |
Tallinn-Valga: 3,5-4 hours. Tickets are 17.34€ in second class and 22,10€ in first class when you buy them online. Also avaible in train, but they are about 20 % more expensive then.
Valga – Riga is little bit under 3 hours and costs 5,22 €. Only second class avaible.
Ferries between Estonia and Finland
There is no train connection between Estonia and Finland, you need to take a ferry instead. The fastest connections will take you across in 2h, there are also slower overnight ferries. Overnight ferries will make the journey in 2-3 hours, but they will let you sleep in the ferry until morning, when you have purchased a cabin. Multiple companies serve this route, some offer discounts for Interrail pass holders. The ferries aren’t expensive anyway, cheapest daytime ferries are around €21 and night ferries €80 when it is not peak season. The Ferries go between Tallinn (Estonia) and Helsinki (Finland). Companies that offer this route are: Eckerö Line, Viking Line and Tallink Silja.
Day ferries start at 19 euro, night ferries are 80+ euro. Prices depend on the season and how early you book your trip. There are minimal differences between the ferry companies, I would suggest you choose the cheapest one or that one that suits your timetables the best. Remember to check from which ferry terminal your boat departs, as there are multiple ones in both cities. Depending on the company, you should be at the port 20-40 minutes before departure time usually.
Check discount codes from Interrail/Eurail Discounts & Benefits portal:
https://www.interrail.eu/en/plan-your-trip/pass-benefits
From Helsinki there are trains to every part of Finland. Timetables available at https://vr.fi, reservations can be done by phone to long distance trains (Intercity and Pendolino). Commuter trains (named with single letters) don’t have an option to reserve seats.
Latvia
Ticket and timetables available at https://vivi.lv/en, no option to make a reservation with Interrail Pass. Just hop on, add connection to the travel log or to the trip, and show your pass when asked (or buy a regular ticket to save your travel day).
The baggage policy generally allows you to carry 60 * 40 * 20 cm bag for free. Extra ticket for a bigger bag can be bought for under 2€ for the journey to Valga-Riga.
Read the whole policy here: https://www.pv.lv/en/information-for-passengers/baggage-transportation-conditions/
Lithuania
Note: to search a connection to Białystok, you have to write “Balstoge”.
No reservations needed, but recommended on the route to/from Klaipeda according to Interrail.
Trains between Lithuania and Latvia
In December 2023, daily direct service started running.
| From Riga (Latvia) to Vilnius (Lithuania) | Every day |
| Riga, departure | 15:28 |
| Vilnius, arrival | 19:51 |
| From Vilnius (Lithuania) to Riga (Latvia) | Every day |
| Vilnius, departure | 06:30 |
| Riga, arrival | 10:43 |
Travel time is around 4,5 hours. Trip costs €34 in first class and €24 in second class. Tickets are available from https://ltglink.lt. This train has been sold out in weekends week before travel time. So do not leave booking this train for too late.
If you would like to use a travel day, you can purchase seat reservations from https://ltglink.lt. Select the number of passenger, and choose “I have Eurail/Interrail pass” at the bottom of the dialog. It will cost €5 for either 2nd or 1st class seat reservation.
Trains between Lithuania and Poland
Starting 11 December 2022, a new daily service links Krakow & Warsaw with Kaunas & Vilnius.
Lithuanian train route is Vilnius – Kaunas – Mockava. You need to change trains in Mockava, even when Ltglink sells you the ticket as a one train and do not always mention about the change. Timetables are well synced for change, you have about half hour time to change from train to another in same platform. Polish train goes from Mockava to Krakow Glowny via Warsaw Central.
Check always the most current timetables from operators website. Currently on January 2024 the timetables is following on a route from Lithuania to Poland. Note that there is one hour time difference between Lithuania and Poland. All times are in local time.
| From Vilnius (Lithuania) to Krakow (Poland) | Every day |
| Vilnius, departure | 12:30 |
| Kaunas | 13:37 |
| Mockava, arrival | 14:57 |
| Mockava, departure | 15:25 |
| Trakiszki (Poland) | 15:15 |
| Bialystok | 17:29 |
| Warszawa Central | 20:15 |
| Krakow Glowny, arrival | 23:32 |
| From to Krakow (Poland) to Vilnius (Lithuania) | Every day |
| Krakow Glowny, departure | 04:14 |
| Warszawa Centralna, departure | 07:45 |
| Bialystok, departure | 10:30 |
| Suwalki, departure | 12:45 |
| Mockava, arrival | 14:35 |
| Mockava, departure | 15:10 |
| Kaunas | 16:28 |
| Vilnius, arrival | 17:34 |
Underlined means that you need to change trains in Mockava. The whole journeys is long, 12,5 hours. It costs only €30 and you can purchase it as a single ticket from https://ltglink.lt/.
Seat reservations
You can also purchase a seat reservation going from Warsaw to Mockava to at the stations in Warsaw (and Mockava to Vilnius from LTG Link noted below). If purchasing at Warsaw Central, note that you need to skip going to the open-air queue for purchasing tickets, and go into the air-conditioned room for international services.
A seat reservation costs 15.29 PLN (as of September 2024) for a 1st class reservation from Warsaw to Mockava. Note that reservation from Mockava to Vilnius is not possible with PKP. So you will need to purchase a seat reservation from ltglink.lt. It will cost €5 for either 2nd class or 1st class seat reservation.
More on trains in Poland: Poland.
Updated 01/2024. This article is based on a post by u/vignoniana. Thank you for your contribution.