Welcome to my compact backpacker’s travel guide to Vilnius, Lithuania. Having spent much of the last six years in this fine Baltic capital I felt it was time to offer some advice and recommendations that I have built up over my time there.
Vilnius has long been by far my favourite city in the Baltic countries. The cheapest and least touristy of the Baltic capitals, Vilnius is a manageable size, easy to get around and fairly cheap to get to. Famous for a number of things including its unique history and its wonderful café culture, Vilnius is well worth a visit on any trip to eastern or north-eastern Europe.
Though to be honest I sometimes feel slightly alienated from the city these days since it has changed a lot in the years I’ve known it, it has always been a place I look forward to returning to. While it is certainly not the bargain it used to be, it still makes for a good choice for a city break or an addition to your Europe itinerary and your cash will still go a lot further there than it will in many Western European capitals.
I hope you will find this guide useful and please feel free to comment if you feel that there is anything I can add to it, since I will keep these guides updated on a fairly frequent basis.
How to Get There
Vilnius is one of the easier cities to get to in Eastern Europe, a dramatic change over how things were only a few years ago. There are regular busses from most major Polish cities including Warsaw, Gdańsk and Kraków. You can expect to spend approximately £25 on a trip from Warsaw and you normally get a ten percent discount if you are under 26. There are also about seven busses a day to Rīga which take about four hours and cost about £12. Tallinn is also well connected with a choice of day busses or overnighters. The average costs are about £25.
Getting to Vilnius by train is rarely practical, since Lithuania still uses the old Russian gauge railways and the connections between Vilnius and Poland no longer run. Though there are trains to St Petersburg and Moscow, I would generally recommend getting a bus from those cities too since they are cheaper and faster.
The bus and train stations are very conveniently located right next to the Old Town, making it unnecessary to take a taxi or any other form of transport to get to most of the places you are likely to be staying.
Vilnius is served by Vilnius International Airport which has recently expanded and now has flights to a number of European capitals including London. However, most of the cheap flights, such as those operated by Ryanair, land at Kaunas airport which is about an hour and a half away by bus from Vilnius. There you can typically find one way flights for around £50-£60 from London Stanstead.
Accommodation
As far as backpacker’s accommodation goes in Vilnius, there are really only two options worth considering, but they are quite satisfactory. The cheapest and most well established is Vilnius Old Town hostel, a short walk from the stations and easy to find on Aušros Vartų street. Just follow the HI signs from the station area. Make sure you book in advance though, especially in the summer, since it gets very busy and you may end up being put into their extension hostel which though nearby, is not quite the same thing. I’d recommend booking on hostelworld.com or hostelbookers.com for this one.
The other most popular hostel is Hostelgate, formerly VB Sleep Inn. It has a perfect location on Mikalojaus street, just off one of the main streets in the Old Town. It’s a bit more expensive but is a great place to meet other travellers. I have spent a great deal of time in both of these hostels.
If all else fails and you didn’t book or didn’t book far enough in advance, Filaretai hostel is another option. Located in the quirky district of Užupis, this is a bit of a hike from the stations and it is not the best place to meet people. Nonetheless, it’s clean and well run and a good backup option to have. You can find it on the street of the same name. I would recommend you get bus 34 from the station area to the eighth stop if you don’t want to walk the thirty minutes.
Eat & Drink
Lithuanian food, though nice if you haven’t had it before, does tend to be rather stodgy with copious quantities of potatoes, cabbage, pork mince and a sprinkle of dill on just about everything. However, you can get a good hearty meal quite cheaply. There are also plenty of expensive, world-class restaurants but you can expect to pay world-class prices for them too and likely be disappointed. Anyway, since this guide is more focussed to those on a budget, here are my personal recommendations:
Pizza Restaurants – OK, so you probably didn’t want to come to Vilnius and eat pizza, right? Well, Lithuania has a great obsession with (Lithuanian owned) pizza chain restaurants. However, these all serve good value and reasonable quality food and their menus always include a number of local dishes too. You are certainly not limited just to pizza and pasta. Also, these restaurants typically have special offers on all the time and they are also famous for some particularly delicious deserts. The most famous is Čili Pica and you will see them everywhere. Other good ones include Mambo Pizza and Cancan. In fact, if you stick to the chains, you are far less likely to be ripped off too.
Čili Kaimas – Owned by the same company which owns Čili Pica, this is a great place to experience Lithuanian traditional fare at a reasonable price. Located on Vokiečių street right in the heart of the Old Town, this place is both fun, enormous and unique and very popular amongst tourists and locals alike.
Busi Trečias – Though I believe they serve food there too, I haven’t tried it, but this is certainly a great place to drink. Popular with the locals as well as the expat crowd, this is a delightful pub with a wooden interior and some interesting flavoured beers. You can find it on Tortorių 18, in the heart of the Old Town. There’s a similar place next door called Transylvania which is also worth a look.
Užupio Kavinė – Though I have only been here a few times, this place is truly worth a visit. Just across the bridge into the district of Užupis, this place is a popular hangout for students, especially the artistic kind. It’s great fun but not particularly cheap.
Pilies Menė – A pleasant place on Pilies street 8, great for pancakes and other traditional Lithuanian fare. They also have an open air café just up the road on the Cathedral square where you can get some nice grills during the summer.
ŠMC – You can’t miss this place in one of the ugliest buildings in the Old Town (The Contemporary Arts Centre on Vokiečių street). However, in spite of its apparent hideousness, this is a highly popular student place which serves great food and has a fun atmosphere. It is especially good in the summer when you can sit outside.
Savas Kampas – I‘ve always liked this place right in the centre on Vokiečių street. It has a large island café open in the summer months and a pleasant, old fashioned interior. It does quite reasonable food at a good price though the service has always been terribly slow.
Nightlife
The nightlife in Vilnius is certainly not what it used to be since they have now banned smoking in all public places and prices have skyrocketed in recent years. However, there are still some enjoyable places to go and the scene is constantly changing with new nightclubs appearing and disappearing overnight.
Be aware that when drinking in Vilnius, you can pay through the nose, so avoid imported drinks as you will often pay London prices, especially in some of the nightclubs. (I’ve known people to be charged £25 for a double vodka and red bull!) Drink local beer, cider or mixes with the local Lietuviška vodka and a drink should not be more than about 7 Lt (£1.80). Here are my recommendations:
Brodvėjus – More commonly known amongst foreigners as Broadway, this is the legendary club that you just have to go to. Actually, it is more of a pub, with a dance floor which plays shockingly cheesy music through the night. You can also get some reasonable food there and there are frequent events such as concerts until the dance floor opens up at around 11 pm. This place has always been good fun and has been around for years too. You will find a plenitude of locals there, including delightful young Lithuanian women bumping and grinding amongst laughably sleazy old businessmen, Erasmus students, expats and tourists. Definitely worth a visit though, I swear! You can find it on Mesinių street, just off Vokiečių street.
Prospekto Pub – This place has always been good fun too but is certainly not cheap and not as busy as it used to be. Nonetheless, it’s also a pub cum club and can be great fun. It has a large dance floor and plenty of tables and comfortable seating and is located right on Gedemino Street near the cathedral in a beautiful old Tsarist era building.
Things to Do in Vilnius
Vilnius is a delightful city and great for walking around. The Old Town is one of the largest in Eastern Europe and you can spend many hours exploring it. The most notable places are the Town Hall Square and the Cathedral square, the latter leading to the magnificent two kilometre long boulevard of Gedemino. They are also in the process of rebuilding the castle near the cathedral and this is set to be complete and open to tourists next year.
Vilnius, having grown very quickly in the last few decades, has very little to see outside of the Old Town other than depressing concrete dormitory suburbs. However, there is the exception of Užupis and Antakalnis. The former is a kind of gimmicky self-declared republic and is famous for its Frank Zappa memorial, although it has far more of interest than that. A beautiful, quaint area of eighteenth and nineteenth century buildings, it is definitely worth a stroll around or a little bar crawl in the evenings.
It is also worth walking up to the magnificent St. Peter and Paul church at the edge of Antakalnis, just across the roundabout from the British Embassy. It has some particularly impressive artwork and sculptures in it – definitely worth a visit.
Another popular visit is the KGB museum, on Gedemino street. If you only see one museum in Lithuania, then I would recommend it be this one. Also, check out the TV tower if you have time, where you can get some interesting views of the city from the revolving restaurant or even go bungee jumping.
If you enjoy shopping, check out the enormous shopping and entertainment centre of Akropolis, a short bus ride out of the centre. There are loads of restaurants here too, a bowling alley, cinemas, a casino and an ice-skating rink. Definitely worth a visit on those rainy days.
I recommend a minimum of three days in Vilnius, depending on the amount of time you have available. I was there for a week the first time I came to Lithuania, and I absolutely loved it. Make sure you give yourself enough time to do a daytrip to Trakai, a beautiful village on the lakes with the famous Trakai castle only half an hour by bus from the city.
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