Lithuania holidays

Lithuania is the southernmost Baltic country and the largest by area — Vilnius has the largest UNESCO-listed baroque old town in Europe (the Cathedral Square, the Gates of Dawn miracle-icon, Gediminas Tower, the Užupis bohemian republic-within-a-city with its tongue-in-cheek constitution); Kaunas (the interwar capital, where Lithuania's 1919-1939 government sat) has one of the world's most-distinctive collections of inter-war architectural-Modernism (the Resurrection Church, the Devil's Museum, the Christ's Resurrection Church on the hill); the Curonian Spit (UNESCO) is a 98km-long sand-dune peninsula with traditional fishing villages and dramatic Parnidis dune at sunset; the medieval Trakai Castle sits on its own island in Lake Galvė (a 30-minute drive from Vilnius); and the country's tradition of basketball, beer-brewing and a quietly distinctive cuisine has begun to attract attention.

A 5-7 day Lithuania trip: Vilnius (3-4 nights — Cathedral Square, the Vilnius University courtyards, the Hill of Three Crosses viewpoint, Užupis bohemian quarter walk, the KGB Museum / Museum of Occupations, the Trakai Castle day-trip — book ahead during summer high season — and dinner at Lokys or Sweet Root) → Kaunas (1-2 nights — the Old Town, Laisvės Alėja main pedestrian boulevard, the Ninth Fort Holocaust memorial, the modernist architecture circuit) → Curonian Spit at Nida (2 nights — the Thomas Mann House, the Parnidis Sand Dune at sunset, the Witches' Hill sculpture trail, the Curonian Lagoon fishing villages) → optional Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai (1 day — the iconic site with over 200,000 crosses planted as a pilgrimage tradition) and the Soviet-era nuclear-bunker tour at Nemenčinė.