VILNIUS
General Info
Country: Lithuania | Language: Lithuanian, Russian | Currency: EURO (EUR) | Flag: 🇱🇹 | When visited: Oct. 2023
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🚗 How to commute
The best and cheapest way to reach the city centre is by bus. The bus stop is located just opposite the main airport entrance, and there are multiple buses: #88, #1, #2 or #3G which is the quickest (ca. 15-20 minutes to the city centre) and the most frequent one. 🚌
🏨 Where to stay
We haven't been staying overnight. But if we would, we would stay at the “Grand Hotel Kempinski Vilnius”. 😀
🍽️ What and where to eat
The range of inexpensive and tasty food is huge: from ready to eat dishes in the supermarket to cafés and restaurants with local cuisine 😋
Some highlights include:
– Narvesen (multiple locations around the city) where one can buy traditional for Baltic countries street food – hot dogs 🌭
– Maxima supermarkets where one can buy pastry, ready to eat salads, meat, fish, vegetable etc. The quality is great, prices are super affordable and it's tasty! 🍰
-Šnekutis (Šv. Mikolojaus g. 15, 01133 Vilnius) local pub with a great selection of the local beer and food 🍺
Of course, there are all familiar fast-food chains, and some local food/coffee chains like Vero caffee, Caif Cafe, Caffeine etc. and it is worth to notice that they have some local menu, like for example coleslaw burger in KFC or Halloween special coffee in Caffeine.
👀 What to do and what to see
Vilnius Old Town including Town Hall Square, multiple churches and cathedrals, Gates of Dawn, Angel of Užupis, Literatų g. street and more
Gediminas Castle Tower is worth a visit. It provides 2 amazing experiences: great viewpoint over the whole city, as well as interesting and new experience with the Funicular to the Gediminas Hill, which functions similar to an elevator! It costs just 1EUR, and one need to try it out for sure 😀
Historical architectural ensemble, including Vilnius Cathedral, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and some monuments around.
Baltasis tiltas bridge and area around on both river banks.
Lukiškės Square and area around including Interactive Fountains, Church of Apostles St. Philip and St. Jacob, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius District Court, Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights and so on.
💡 Some highlights
- It turned out that #1 foreign language there is Russian, so almost all people there speak Russian (or at least understand it).
- The city provides a captivating mixture of historical epochs: one can see a lot of Soviet Union buildings, from houses till Museums, which co-exist in harmony with old buildings common for European cities.
- In general, so many things around remind about Soviet Union: from sweets in supermarkets to buildings and public transport such as old trolleybuses.
- Tasty food, pretty inexpensive products, and a lot of familiar food in supermarkets and cafés from our childhood :)