Lithuania

The best time to visit Lithuania is in August – October.  The lakes stay pleasant for swimming well into bobo vasara (Indian summer) thanks to warm fall days.  The nights are crisp for sleeping and the trees turn a spectacular array of reds, oranges and yellows.  Make sure to visit Nida, by September all the Lithuanian tourists will be back at work or school leaving the white sandy beaches blissfully empty and accommodation is much cheaper too after September 1st.

Getting Here

Ok, so Lithuania is not the most accessible country in Europe.  On the other hand, it’s not the least either.  There are several daily flights from many European cities, bus and train connections from Poland, Belarus, Latvia and Russia, and ferries from Germany and Sweden.

By air:

Air Baltic – most flights are routed through Riga.
Czech Airlines – good connections through Prague.
SAS - flights from Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm.
Lufthansa - also offering a cargo service.
KLM - flights routed through Amsterdam.
Norwegian.no – a low-cost airline with flights to Vilnius from Oslo.
Ryan Air – flies to Kaunas, with bus connections to Vilnius.

By car:

Vilnius is a 6h drive from Warsaw, and 4h from Riga.  Via Michelin gives good driving directions in Europe.  For driving directions inside Lithuania, try Maps.lt.

By bus:

Eurolines offers several connections from Riga and other smaller cities in Latvia to Siauliai, Palanga, Klaipeda, Kaunas, Vilnius and Panevezys. From Poland, their are two buses per day from Warsaw, and one bus per day from Krakow and Gdansk to Kaunas and Vilnius. Buses from Estonia generally pass through Riga.

By train:

This is the least efficient way of traveling to Lithuania. Because the tracks in Poland are on a different gauge than in the countries of the former Soviet Union, you’re guaranteed to have to change at least once at the boarder, if not more. In 1999, my father insisted that we take the train to Kaunas from where I was living in France.  It took 48 hours and ended with a train traveling the 150km from the Polish boarder to Kaunas that took FIVE hours and had wooden park benches. We were only a few passengers on board when we left Šeštokai, but the train stopped every 15 minutes in the middle of a field so an old woman with a bucket of potatoes could get on. By the time we reached Kaunas, the train was standing room only.

And PS – you can’t get a train directly to Vilnius from Poland that doesn’t go through Belarus (that 30km requires a visa you must get in advance).

Ok, that said, if you still want to travel to Lithuania by train I’ll let you in on a little secret: The train company also offers an overnight bus that connects at the train station in Warsaw (saving you a hassle trying to get to the bus station), it’s cheaper than Eurolines and takes you directly to the train station in Vilnius which is across the street from the bus station. This is actually my favorite way to travel from Warsaw to Vilnius.

PSS – Bahn.de is my favorite place to get train schedules anywhere in Europe, even if you can’t necessarily book the ticket online.