Lithuania
Sightseeing Tours

Vilnius city tour is a romantic 3-hour acquaintance with Vilnius Old Town where you can feel the atmosphere of the city’ s history of the 16th -19th centuries while walking along its narrow winding streets or visiting the most exciting architectural and historic monuments : Vilnius Cathedral, erected on the historic and legendary site where pagan gods were worshipped and where Vilnius was founded as far back as the 13th century, a nearby Gediminas Castle on the hill rising above the city centre, the gem of the Lithuanian Gothics - the elegant St. Anne’s Church, the Vilnius University- the famous centre of science and enlightenment since its very foundation in 1579, the Gate of Dawn with a miraculous icon of Virgin Mary, to mention a few.

The tour involves a driving part as well as walking in the Old Town.

A pleasant 4-hour tour to Trakai, 28 km from Vilnius- the ancient capital of the Lithuanian Grand Principality, famous for its red-brick Gothic castle of the early 15th century, built as a mighty fortress against the Crusaders and later serving as the residence of Lithuanian Dukes. Standing on an island in lake Galve, the Castle now houses an interesting museum relating a history of Lithuania, very famous in the times of the Grand Duke Vytautas when the country borders were stretching from the Baltics till the Black Sea. Enjoy a small town of Trakai situated mostly on a two km long peninsula with attractive old wooden houses, mostly built by Karaites, a Judaist sect brought by Duke Vytautas from the Crimea.

Situated en route from Vilnius to Kaunas (about 30 km from Kaunas). There lies a vast area of an impressive ethnographic open-air museum of the 18th-20th century Lithuanian peasant life. As Lithuania itself, it is divided into 4 ethnographic regions, each with distinct traditions of its own in architecture and customs. Rumsiskes farmsteads, furniture, farm tools, colors and patterns of woven fabrics inside the houses create a perfect picture of the country’ s rural life of many centuries ago.

Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city, located 100 km from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania between the two World Wars when Vilnius was invaded by Poland.

Kaunas city tour shows the the main attractions of the Old Town: Kaunas Castle, at the confluence of the two largest Lithuanian rivers - the Nemunas and the Neris where the town was founded, the Town Hall Square with the 15th-16th century merchants’ houses around and the 17th cent. white baroque Town Hall dominating in the centre of it, a nearby majestic Kaunas cathedral- the main sanctuary of Kaunas, the Gothic Vytautas Church built in 1400 on the Nemunas riverbank. A further drive will take you to the central part of Kaunas with a linden-tree lined Freedom Avenue, the most popular street of the city and to Unity Square with Eternal Flame and monuments to Lithuania’ s independence.

Chiurlionis Art Museum housing the paintings of the outstanding Lithuanian composer and artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Chiurlionis, a philosopher-in -art who painted and composed music at the turn of the 19th-20th cent.

Devils’ Museum with a large collection of devils’ art which was started by the painter Zmuidzinavicius as a hobby from the gifts- devils’ statuettes, the people gave him. In the Lithuanian folklore the devil is a ridiculous and awkward figure, very popular, so the museum’ s devils’ collection is constantly growing and always welcome.

Optional tour in Kaunas:
The Ninth Fort Museum located on the outskirts of Kaunas, a few kilometres from the city centre. Built as a military fort in the late 19th cent., during the World War II it was turned by the Nazis into a death camp where 80 thousand people, the most part of Kaunas’ Jewish population were murdered here. The museum exhibits testify to the crimes against humanity.

Klaipeda

The third biggest city in Lithuania, an important port, Lithuania’ s only gateway to the Baltic Sea, 300 km from Vilnius, 200 km from Kaunas. It has a long history since the times of a fishing village of ancient Balts and later arrival of German Crusaders who seized this land and built their castle there in 1252, later known as Memel.

Klaipeda city tour includes the Old Town with interesting merchants’warehouses of typical German style with ‘’ fachwerk’’ decorations, old Castle territory, Theatre Square with the Simon Dach Fountain , named after the 17th cent. German poet, born in Klaipeda, with a statue of a girl in the middle of the fountain, Annehen von Tharau, the subject of a famous German wedding and love song.

Optional tours in Klaipeda and its environs :
Clock Museum exhibiting the whole history of telling time - from ancient methods to astronomical advancements in this field , displaying the clocks from the Renaissance and Baroque times.

The Lithuanian Sea Museum and Aquarium located at the very end of the Curonian Spit, after crossing the Curonian Lagoon, in the 19th cent. military fortress. Visitors can see in open air pools Baltic seals, sea lions and penguins, in Aquarium - Baltic Sea and tropical sea fish. Marine fauna exhibition relates about the Baltic Sea geography, shows big models of ships, archeological findings, documents, anchors. Dolphinarium hall containing 1000 seats offers the visitors to watch dolphin and sea lions’ shows.

After a short crossing by ferry of the Curonian Lagoon, you reach the Curonian Spit, a sandy stretch of land, 98 km long and varying in width from 400m to just a few kilometres, between the waters of the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, a great holiday site, full of the sweet scent of pines, water and ozone. Formed some 6000 years ago as sand accumulated in shallow waters near the coast, it is an extremely romantic area today with its fishing villages developed as resorts, such as Juodkrante, famous for the Hill of Witches where one can see wooden statues of legendary heroes in a dense pine wood, or Nida, the resort of serene beauty, the main destination noted for its magnificent dunes 50-60m high, the Lithuanian Sakhara, attracting visitors since the middle of the 19th century. The German writer Thomas Mann had a summer house built here, which now houses a museum and has remained a meeting place for writers and intellectuals ever since.

Palanga

The most popular Lithuanian sea resort, just 25 km from Klaipeda, boasting miles of beautiful long white sand beaches, backed by dunes and pine woods. One of the most beautiful parks of Lithuania is also there, designed by the French architect Andre, with more than 150 different trees and shrubs planted there. In the centre of it there stands a neo-classical 19th century Palace of the noble Tiszkewicz family, now housing the Amber Museum, exhibiting a long history of amber, the ‘’Lithuanian gold’’, including large pieces of amber and some containing fossilized insects from million years ago.