Top 12 things to do in Vilnius, Lithuania

What springs to mind when you think of Vilnius? Don’t blush if you draw a blank. The reputation of Lithuania’s capital city does not precede it, and the locals know it. The tourist board even launched a campaign with the playful slogan: ‘Vilnius: amazing… wherever you think it is’.

Maybe the word is starting to spread. International visits to Lithuania have tripled in the last 20 years, and most people make Vilnius their first port of call. The biggest city in the Baltic states is still relatively small, allowing you to flit on foot between the sights – and there is plenty to see.

Read on to discover the best things to do in Vilnius, and why the city is amazing… wherever you think it is.

Take a walking tour of Old Town

The Old Town of Vilnius is one of Europe’s biggest and best-preserved historic centres, with architecture running the style gamut of baroque, gothic and neoclassical. Many of the city’s great landmarks lie within this walkable 3.5-square-kilometre area, from Vilnius Cathedral to Gediminas’ Castle, alongside boutiques, coffee shops, markets, and charming bistros that spill out onto the cobbled streets.

The Glass Quarter of Old Town has its own tragic story. Jews migrated to Lithuania for over six centuries, establishing a neighbourhood of glassblowers, jewellers and bankers. The Holocaust left the Small Ghetto of Vilnius a ghost town. While the Jewish community has gone, the area preserves this heritage in its old buildings and reputation as a neighbourhood of artisans.

The Old Town is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the perfect place to begin your holiday in Vilnius. Cox & Kings guests explore the Old Town on our Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Find inspiration in the art district of Užupis

With tongue firmly in cheek, the bohemian neighbourhood of Užupis declared itself an independent republic in 1997, complete with a constitution, currency, cabinet, anthem, flag, and army of 11 men. Not uncoincidentally, residents mark this moment every 1 April.

Transformed by a collective of art students in the 1990s, Užupis is a magnet for free-spirited creatives and intellectuals. Cross the Užupis Bridge from Old Town to browse an ever-changing melange of open-air sculptures and art installations, sprinkled around attractively timeworn buildings and along leafy avenues. As you cross, keep an eye out for Užupis’s bronze Mermaid, who perches in an alcove along the riverbank, tail dangling over the dark water.

Cox & Kings guests tour the art district of Užupis on the seven-night Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Enjoy a day trip to Trakai

Trakai offers an idyllic detour from Vilnius. The lake resort lies about 28 kilometres west of the capital city, and is most famous for Trakai Island Castle, once a residence of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Originally built in the 14th century, the gothic castle has been successively restored, and these phases of restoration are visible in the differing layers of stone and brick. The castle’s red conical roofs overlook the mirror-like Lake Galvė, and a bridge over untroubled water brings you to the entrance gate. From the inner courtyard, you can ascend wooden stairs to artefact-filled rooms.

In addition to the castle, Trakai is popular for leisure activities including kayaking and boating. The small town close to the lake is home to a historical community of Karaites, an ethnoreligious group who settled in the 14th century. Their colourful houses are distinctive for their three windows – one dedicated to god, one to the owner, and one to the ruler of the land.

Cox & Kings guests visit Trakai on the seven-night Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Tour Lukiškės Prison

Going to prison probably isn’t top of your bucket list. The Lukiškės Prison in Vilnius is no ordinary prison, however. Opened in 1837, the institution persisted through periods of rule by various powers, including the Nazis and Soviets, and only closed in 2019. Its design was inspired by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s infamous panopticon concept, whereby prisoners can be observed at all times. The expression ‘If walls could talk…’ comes to mind, and graffiti left by inmates does some of the talking.

Today, Lukiškės is an arts hub, a filming location, and surely among the world’s most eccentric concert venues. Yet the building remains barely altered. Guided tours let you glimpse behind closed cell doors, visit the chapel, and wander the wards.

Try authentic Lithuanian food & drink

Pink soup, airship dumplings, tree cakes and honey wine: Lithuanian cuisine might surprise you. But tucking into local fare is one way to take your tastebuds on their own adventure.

Vilnius has hundreds of restaurants and cafés to choose from, serving everything from gourmet tasting menus to hearty, unfussy plates. Savoury Lithuanian dishes include saltibarščiai, a tangy, vividly pink beetroot soup similar to borscht and served cold; cepelinai potato dumplings, whose name derives from ‘zeppelin’ in reference to their airship shape; and kibinai, pasty-like pastries filled with mutton and a tradition of the Karaite people.

To satisfy your sweet tooth, try šakotis, spit-cooked dough piled into a tree shape and often served with fresh fruit or melted chocolate; varškėčiai, plump cottage-cheese pancakes that are typically paired with jam and cream; and beetroot ice cream, as sweet as it is colourful. For a novel digestif, sip some Lithuanian mead – an ancient honey wine with an ABV of anywhere between 15 per cent and 50 per cent.

You can also pick up authentic local produce from shops and street markets across Vilnius. Hales Market in the Old Town is especially recommended, with well-stocked indoor stalls full of fresh ingredients and quintessentially Lithuanian produce.

Visit the best museums & galleries in Vilnius

Museums in Vilnius plumb the depths of national history, celebrate art old and new, and delve into niche specialities. Most are clustered in the centre of the city, making it easy to combine two or more in one excursion.

The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is a reconstruction of a 15th-century palace destroyed by the Russian Empire. Its large rooms exhibit ornate tapestries, portraits, antique furniture and historic artefacts associated with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – once the largest country in Europe. At ground level, the museum preserves the archaeological ruins of the original palace.

For more history, visit the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, known simply as the KGB Museum and housed in the former KGB headquarters. It details the brutality of Lithuanian life and resistance under Soviet occupation. It isn’t for the faint hearted; exhibits include holding cells and execution rooms. Cox & Kings guests visit the KGB Museum on our Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

For something lighter, try the Museum of Illusions, with its fun, interactive installations designed to play with your perception. Meanwhile, the MO Museum, a bold white wedge of a building, showcases modern and contemporary Lithuanian art, as does the larger and equally angular National Art Gallery.

Admire Vilnius’s churches

In 1387, Lithuania became Europe’s last pagan country to officially convert to Christianity. Churches of increasing grandeur popped up across Vilnius, some of which are now national landmarks.

You could mistake Vilnius Cathedral for a Greek temple… if it weren’t for the florid baroque adornments. Above its Doric pillars, a pediment encloses relief sculptures of Biblical scenes, while three saints stand on the roof, one – St Casimir – clutching a golden cross. The belltower stands 57 metres tall and 25 metres in front of the cathedral building, with a design suggestive of a lighthouse. You can easily visit this landmark at Cathedral Square within the Old Town.

A ten-minute walk away lies St Anne’s Church. Built at the turn of the 16th century, the church will catch your eye with its red-brick gothic façade and trio of spires. Its interior is baroque, with stellar and cross vaults decorating the ceiling like spider webs, and portraits of saints dressing the walls. One fanciful tale has it that Napoleon was so struck by the building, he declared: “I will take this church to Paris in the palm of my hand!”

Other churches worth admiring up close include the beautiful baroque Church of St Casimir; the Church of St Peter and St Paul, with its ornate white interior and ship-shaped chandelier; and the Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit, notable for its pastel-pink neoclassical exterior and pine-green altarpiece.
Cox & Kings guests visit Vilnius Cathedral and St Casimir’s Church on our Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Climb the hill to Gediminas’ Tower

The legend goes that Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, was resting on a hill after a hunt, when he dreamt of an iron wolf howling on the very same hill. Taking it as a sign from the gods, he decided to found a city here, named after the nearby river of Vilnia with a castle at its centre. And voilà: Vilnius.

Today, only the remnants of this 13th-century hilltop castle survive, alongside a red-brick tower containing an archaeological museum, and these form an important national landmark. Ascend the hill on foot or by convenient cable car for rewarding views across Vilnius and overlooking the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

Cox & Kings guests visit Gediminas’ Tower on the seven-night Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Pilgrimage to the Gate of Dawn

In the 16th century, a defensive wall of stone surrounded Vilnius, designed to frustrate attacks by the Crimean Khanate. Nine gates along the fortifications allowed access to the city, each containing religious icons to offer divine protection to residents and blessings to visitors.

Today, only the Gate of Dawn remains. Above its archway is an 18th-century chapel housing Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, a gilded painting of the Virgin Mary with her arms crossed. The portrait can be seen through a glass window over the gate, and – canonically crowned by Pope Pius XI – it remains an important pilgrimage site for Catholics.

Cox & Kings guests visit the Gate of Dawn on our Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Visit the Hill of Three Crosses

Three white crosses overlook Vilnius’s Old Town from high on a hill. They commemorate the site where medieval pagans are reputed to have crucified Franciscan friars for preaching the gospel. Built in 1989, the current monument restores three concrete crosses that were demolished by the Soviets in 1950, which had in turn replaced wooden crosses that collapsed in the 19th century. As well as its religious significance, the Hill of Three Crosses affords you an excellent view of Vilnius.

Cox & Kings guests visit the Hill of Three Crosses on the seven-night Journey through the Baltic States group tour.

Watch Lithuanian basketball with the locals

It might surprise you to know that Lithuanians relegated football to second division in the 1930s. Here, basketball is champion, and described as the country’s second religion.

Many bars and pubs across Vilnius show major games on their big screens, so it’s a slam-dunk for cultural immersion. You could even attend a game in person; Vilnius is home to the second-largest basketball stadium in Lithuania, the Twinsbet Arena, which hosts events throughout the year.

Scale the sky-high TV Tower

Look west from the centre of Vilnius, over the Tetris-like tower blocks, the silver ribbon of the Neris river, and the sprawl of spruce and maple. There, standing taller than anything else in the country, you will see the Vilnius TV Tower. This needle-like structure rises 326.5 metres to be the 29th tallest self-supporting tower in the world.

It is now a literal point of pride for Lithuanians; this was where 14 civilians died and hundreds were injured while attempting to resist Soviet soldiers in 1991. The tragedy is commemorated on the ground floor of the tower, while a lift to the top will take you to the observation deck complete with rotating restaurant. The more courageous can book an edge walk, where – safely secured by harness and rope – they can pace the rim of the concrete saucer 170 metres above ground. Your bravery is rewarded with one of the best panoramas of the city.

Many of these activities are featured on our Journey through the Baltic States tour. Alternatively, Cox & Kings can design a private holiday to Lithuania that suits your passions and preferences. Speak to our Europe specialists today.