I am currently visiting Poland (I am in Gdansk at the moment) and I was hoping to visit Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, but when I looked into getting TO and AROUND the baltic states, I struggled to find a good solution on my own.
Since I have a Eurail (Interrail) pass for the month, my first choice would be to take a train. I also like how much space there is on trains. I feel like I can get up and use the restroom, stretch and walk around if I want. However, the trains seem to run very slowly and not very often. There are few direct connections, from the looks of it. It would take 16.5 hours to get from Gdansk to Vilnius (via Warsaw), 4 hours from Vilnius to Riga, and 6.25 hours from Riga to Talinn.
Flixbus could be a second option, However, the route from Gdansk to Vilnius would still take 10 to 13 hours. Also, there is no Flixbus routes to/from Klaipeda. That being said, the routes between Riga and Vilnius and Talinn are all fairly fast and efficient and only marginally slower than driving my own car.
As a third option, I could rent a car. Driving seems quite a bit faster and I like the flexibility (not being tied to train schedules). It would only be a 7 hour drive from Gdansk to Vilnius (9 hours faster than train, 3 to 6 hours faster than flixbus), 3.25 hours from Vilnius to Klaipeda (45 minutes faster than train, flixbus not available), 3.75 hours from Klaipeda to Riga (30 minutes faster than train, flixbus not available), and 4 hours from Riga to Talinn (2 hours faster than train, same time as flixbus). Rentals seem pretty cheap in the baltic states / Poland as well. The main problem is that then I would need to drive the car all the way back to Gdansk from Talinn (14.5 hours), which really kills the time efficiency aspect. This is especially obnoxious since I was thinking of going to Stockholm or Helsinki afterwards. Even if I did a hybrid approach where I took a train to Vilnius then rented a car, I would still need to drive the car back from Talinn, which would take 7.5 hours.
My fourth idea was to fly from Gdansk to Vilnius, but there isn't a direct flight. I feel like with luggage fees and transfer times, it would end up still taking a lot of time and cost significantly more.
I have about 9 days. I was hoping to see Vilnius, Klaipeda, Riga, and Talinn. Are those good choices? Is this enough time? Are there any other stops that you would recommend? I know that it's February but I kinda want to spend some time hunting for Baltic Amber on the Curonian spit near Klaipeda and also Jurmala near Riga. I think it'll be fun even if I don't find anything.
Has anyone had experience with any/all of these approaches and have any feedback on what worked for them?