Highlights of the Baltics & Scandinavia

After meeting at London St Pancras, we board the Eurostar to Brussels. Here, we change trains, continuing to Bremen for the night.

• Dinner
• Eurostar Meal

We take the high-speed service to Copenhagen for two nights, travelling via Hamburg.

• Breakfast, Dinner

We enjoy a sightseeing tour of the Danish capital today, seeing the Amalienborg Palace, a large octagonal structure surrounded by four identical Rococo palaces, one of which is still home to the reigning monarch, Queen Margrethe II. We also visit the famous statue of the Little Mermaid and take a cruise through the colourful canal area of Nyhavn, breaking for lunch to sample a typical Danish delicacy, smorrebrod. These tasty open sandwiches are made using traditional rye bread and come with a variety of fillings, including fish, beef, and egg.

• Breakfast

We catch the high-speed train to Stockholm, passing over the scenic Øresund Bridge along the way. Checking into our hotel for two nights.

• Breakfast, Dinner

We head out to start exploring with a visit to city hall, situated on the eastern shores of Kungsholmen island and boasting views of Riddarholmen and Södermalm, this is where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held annually.

We continue our sightseeing with a guided coach tour of Stockholm. Built across 14 islands, connected together by no fewer than 57 bridges, Stockholm has a fascinating 750-year history and rich cultural life and is filled with a wide selection of world-class museums and attractions. We see the Royal Palace in Gamla Stan, Stockholm's Old Town and one of the best-preserved medieval city centres in the world. Here, the small winding streets reveal stores full of handicrafts, antiques, art galleries and cafés. The impressive Cathedral is also found in this historic area.

• Breakfast

We rise early for our flight to Riga. On arrival, our coach meets us for a day of sightseeing around Latvia's charming capital. Led by an expert local guide, we discover the city's 900-year history, with entrance to the cathedral included. We continue to our base for the next three nights, the Hotel Islande Riga, where we enjoy a relaxing dinner.

You're free to keep exploring Riga at leisure, perhaps delving more into the winding streets of Old Riga or visiting the fascinating House of the Black Heads museum. In the evening, we dine at Salve - a renowned local restaurant serving traditional Latvian faire in historic surroundings.

• Breakfast, Dinner

Regarded as one of the most dynamic capitals within the Baltic States, Riga is a vibrant city of broad avenues, majestic palaces and trendy cafés. Riga is, above all, famous for its spectacular Art Nouveau architecture; there's no other European destination with so many buildings featuring that particular 19th-century style. Heading back to the Old Town, you can discover up to 150 historical and architectural monuments at your own pace, the oldest of which date from the 13th century. Wandering the historic streets, you'll also see the Freedom Monument, a symbol of Latvia's freedom and independence that sits on the city boundary between the old and new towns. The tower's honour guard change shifts every hour on the hour during the day.

• Breakfast

We travel by coach along the Gulf of Riga to the Estonian capital of Tallinn for two nights. At the heart of this rich city is the hill of Toompea, a maze of cobbled streets and alleyways filled with medieval houses and, on arrival, we enjoy a guided tour of the city that includes the Dome Church, the Town Hall Square and Toompea Castle - Estonia's seat of power. We also discover Lower Tallinn, known as An-Linn, which is arguably as beautiful as Toompea with its cobbled streets, limestone buildings and terracotta-tiled roofs.

• Day 9 - Breakfast, Dinner
• Day 10 - Breakfast

Your day is free to explore. You could make a visit to the House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads, the only preserved Renaissance building in Tallinn, or call in at the unusually named 'Keik in de Kok', which means 'peek into the kitchen'. This ancient tower got its name thanks to its height, which allowed those inside to see through the windows of the surrounding buildings, although today it's home to a permanent exhibition of Tallinn's military history and serves as an entrance to the Bastion Tunnels, a network of hidden tunnels built in the 17th century during Swedish rule.

• Breakfast

We take the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki, our base for the next two nights. Travelling across the Gulf of Finland, we enjoy a guided coach tour on arrival, taking in many of the Finnish capital's main attractions. We visit the Rock Church, a modern building hewn out of solid rock, the Senate Square, the University and Library of Helsinki, the Sibelius Monument, the Olympic stadium and the new Opera House. We continue to the Seurasaari Open Air Museum on an island just outside the city centre, where you can explore traditional Finnish buildings set among the island's dense forest landscape. After our visit, we transfer to our hotel.

• Breakfast, Dinner

Helsinki lies on an archipelago and is surrounded by hundreds of tiny islands, many of which are connected by regular ferry services and scenic boat cruises. Another attraction that lies off shore is the Suomenlinna Maritime Fortress, which has UNESCO World Heritage status and is built on an island featuring bastion walls, tunnels, cannons and an array of historic exhibits. The city is also filled with public parks and open spaces which make for the perfect spot to sit back, relax and watch the world go by.

• Breakfast

If you choose the fly return option of this tour, today sees you transfer to the airport for your flight back to London Heathrow or Manchester. If you're returning to the UK by rail, however, we board the train back to Helsinki, continuing to the city's port for our overnight ferry crossing to Travemünde, in Germany.

Please note: your luggage will travel on the flight or on the ferry with you, rather than it travelling via our luggage service.

• Breakfast, Dinner

Disembark the ferry, we transfer to our hotel in Lubeck for the night.

Travelling by coach to Hamburg, we board the train to Cologne for an overnight stay.

• Breakfast, Dinner

The final leg of our return journey takes us by rail to Brussels, where we board the Eurostar to London St Pancras.