shonamac

Next month we (2 adults) are planning to visit Lithuania (first time there) and Latvia (our second visit). The trip involves going overland from Klaipeda in Lithuania to Riga in Latvia.

I understand there are regular buses on this route; does anybody know whether it is necessary to pre-book the bus (we will be travelling on a weekend at the end of July, when there is a festival going on in Klaipeda)?

Valgamaa

First post here and nice to be able to help others, having benefited from posts previously.
I would book the coaches as they are the main transport method in the region, and generally get quite full. Many popular routes will sell-out a couple of days before travel too, in my experience.

Fanjet

Are you going by ferry to Klaipeda? I know Polski Bus (Poland) has a sister company in the Baltics. I think it is called Super Bus. Not sure if Klaipeda is one of their station stops, though. And you do have to buy your tickets online with them. You can't pay the driver and board. But there has to be scheduled train service between Klaipeda and Riga. Actually, the Deutsche Bahn website (db.de) is quite efficient. It will list train times between two cities in Europe even if they have nothing to do with Germany. You just can't buy the tickets from them.

Edit: It looks like the train service is very inconvenient. You have to go deep into the interior of Lithuania (near Belarus) before connecting to a train up towards Riga. Stick with the buses.

mules

Check to see if Luxexpress http://www.luxexpress.eu/en works for you. We used them a couple of years ago for Riga-Tallinn and were very happy with it. I was able to reserve and pay from the States.