Vilnius, Lithuania – Spending the Day in the City

I’m so excited to have a guest blogger, Lila, sharing her trip to Vilnius, Lithuania – Spending the Day in the City. Lila Quintiliani is a military spouse and an Accredited Financial Counselor. She usually writes about personal finance topics, but her true love (other than her family) is travel, and so far she has been to 43 countries. She only occasionally misses free drink refills. 

Vilnius, Lithuania – Spending the Day in the City

Lithuania isn’t exactly a country that leaps to mind when you think of European travel. Which is one reason that we were drawn to the idea of visiting it: we are trying to get to as many off-the-beaten-path destinations as we can during our time over here. So when the discount Hungarian airline Wizz Air had a BOGO sale last summer, I jumped on the chance to buy tickets to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. We traveled there over a long weekend in October.

At the airport, which looks like a vintage communist train station, we rented a small car at Hertz through CarRentals.com (I clicked through Ebates.com to get cash back!). We were able to drive the car over the border to Latvia for the first part of our stay. But we had no problem finding an apartment in Vilnius’ Old Town that also included parking. The center of Vilnius was easily walkable, however, and once we parked at our downtown apartment (highly recommended), we did not move the car again until we left for the airport.
As with Latvia, everything here was about half to three quarters of the price it would be in Germany (or other Western European countries). Plus the people were super friendly and almost everyone could speak some English.

It was sunny, but cold. Fortunately, there are loads of small coffee shops with free wifi in the Old Town. We stopped for some coffee and hot chocolate at what turned out to be a Canadian coffee chain called My Second Cup.

A free tour of Vilnius meets each day in front of the historic Town Hall at noon. Our local guide, Milda, took us on a tour of the historic old town, passing through the old Jewish quarter Milda told us that in the centuries before WWII, Vilnius had been known as the “Jerusalem of Eastern Europe” because of their tolerant views toward the Jews. But sadly most were deported and killed during the war. Then Milda told us of Vilnius’ pagan past – they were one of the last European countries converted to Christianity. They were pagan even into the 14th century.

We then wandered over to the “Republic of Užupis,” a freewheeling artists’ colony and UNESCO World Heritage site on the river that has declared itself a separate entity from Vilnius and indeed the country of Lithuania. It has a mayor and parliament that meets in a bar. Its bill of rights basically says that everyone has the right to do whatever they want to do.

Most museums in the city were unfortunately closed because it was Monday (I would have liked to have seen the KGB museum!). We asked our guide for a lunch recommendation and headed to a traditional Lithuanian restaurant called Forto Dvaras. The food was super heavy, potato-based fare (we had potato pancakes, potato carrot pancakes, potato meat dumplings and some sort of potato chicken dish.) But it was good, and it was *cheap*: everything, including multiple drinks, for our family of 4 came to 21 euro.

After lunch, we climbed the hill behind Vilnius cathedral where the last remaining tower from the old castle stands. We got a great view of the city from the top of the hill (we didn’t bother paying to climb up the tower).

We left the apartment at the obscenely early hour of 4 am the next morning to get to our plane. However, all in all it was a GREAT trip. I’m really in love with Lithuania, and would love to go back and explore the country further one day.

Know Before You Go
What: Vilnius, capital of Lithuania
How To Get There: Fly via Wizz Air (Frankfurt Hahn) or RyanAir (Frankfurt Hahn)
Cost: Lithuania is on the euro, but much more affordable than Western European countries. A meal for four including multiple drinks was just 21 euro.
Traveling with little kids: The Old Town has cobblestones like most European cities. But there were plenty of people with strollers.
How long: A weekend trip. For a four day, could combine with Riga, Latvia or surrounding countryside.