Lithuania travel tips

Is Lithuania safe?

5 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.

5.0 average across 5 guides · Very safe
Vilnius, LithuaniaKaunas, LithuaniaKlaipėda, LithuaniaCuronian Spit, LithuaniaTrakai, Lithuania

Vilnius Very safe

Very comfortable, and the old town is walked late. Pickpockets in the summer crowds on Pilies street; the station area late is unlovely rather than unsafe. Ice on the cobbles in winter.

Comfortable: the old town · Užupis · the new town along Gedimino

  • Pilies street crowds in summer — pickpockets
  • the station area late — unlovely rather than unsafe
  • the cobbles in winter — ice

Kaunas Very safe

Very comfortable. Pickpockets at the station and in the summer crowds; the riverbanks are unlit at night. That is the list.

Comfortable: the old town · Laisvės alėja · Žaliakalnis

  • the station — pickpockets
  • the riverbanks at night — unlit

Klaipėda Very safe

Very comfortable. The port area at night is industrial and empty; the sea has rips in a west wind. Nothing else.

Comfortable: the old town · the river promenade

  • the port area at night — industrial and empty
  • the sea in a west wind — rips

Curonian Spit Very safe

Very comfortable. The dunes are walked on the marked paths only, because they move and the park fines; the sea side has rips; the Kaliningrad border is at the south end of the spit and is closed. That is all.

Comfortable: Nida · the cycle path

  • off the marked dune paths — the dunes move, and the park fines
  • the sea side in a west wind — rips
  • the south end of the spit — the Kaliningrad border, closed

Trakai Very safe

Very comfortable and small. The lake is deep and cold; the ice in winter is walked on by those who know it. The castle bridge is a bottleneck at noon in summer.

Comfortable: the town · the lake shore

  • the lake ice — walked on by those who know it

The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.

The guides in Lithuania

Vilnius from the river, the old town spires and the new towers beyondVilniusLithuaniaA baroque old town on a scale no one expects, a self-declared republic of artists across the river, and a hot-air balloon over it all on a summer eveningThe Vytis horseman statue in front of Kaunas castleKaunasLithuaniaThe interwar capital, a whole city of modernism between two rivers, with a castle, a funicular, a devil museum and a basketball obsessionWaves breaking on the Baltic shore near Klaipėda, from aboveKlaipėdaLithuaniaThe port that was Memel: a German old town of timber warehouses, the ferry to the Curonian Spit, and the country’s only seaThe Parnidis dune at Nida from the air, sand between the lagoon and the forestCuronian SpitLithuaniaA ninety-kilometre sandbar between the sea and a lagoon, with dunes the height of a cathedral, a fishing village of painted wooden houses and Thomas Mann’s summer houseTrakai island castle across the lake with a boat in frontTrakaiLithuaniaA red-brick castle on an island in a lake, a Karaim community that has been here six hundred years and bakes the country’s favourite pastry, and Vilnius half an hour away