Come to Vilnius: local guide to Vilnius and Lithuania

Need to know before you read!

Rave. The conception of rave held in my head is probably not the one you might find in a clubbing dictionary. It’s not a music style. I’m not being theoretical. I’m a practician. Rave is the thing you feel lifting your hands together with the crowd, dying to hear another beat. It is a time when you go home by taxi humming “THIS night a DJ saved my life”. It is a passion for night and dance. It is a pain of stinging legs the next morning. It is a secret smile at your work office as you have a flashback from the last weekend party. “That’s a rave, Dave!” Now when you know. Let’s get back to the story…More…

Last time I talked about the live music clubs in Vilnius, I mentioned club “Gravity”. It is probably club No. 1 in the capital in Lithuania. Unfortunately, not because of high quality, simply there is nothing better. Although for those, who like Berlin style raving, Gravity is a good place to spend a night. Having a capacity of around 400 people, the club is always strugling with the crowd trying to get in at the door.

“Gravity” came into market carrying international understanding of a real dance club with a concept built on combining style and quality in all aspects of the venue. Built in an ex-Soviet bomb shelter located below a shoe factory in the heart of the city. “Gravity’s” famed entrance is a rather long minimalist tunnel (60 metres) giving the hint of an amazing party only through the rippling bass lines that welcome the visitors. Inside the industrial nature of the location has lent itself perfectly as a backdrop to the strong minimalist design scheme.

It was the first club in Lithuania to really implement a “face control” policy, which helped to form a interesting and friendly crowd, who’s main ambition was to party all night long.

Gravity is the new rave – the definition in my understanding. It is a fine mix of the best exaples of every different style of music: old school, house, drum&bass, minimal, techno. You name it – it’s been there. Just be aware not to get into MTV Block parties – having hip-hop and r&b, or urban DJs. It’s not about the music. It just feels like babysitting in the preschool. But that happens only once a month. The rest of the weekends is for a real rave! I remember having “parties of the year” and leaving “Gravity” with the last few people, DJs, staff etc, still dancing on our way to the red light at the end of a tunnel…

Go to “Gravity” if you like rave, music and prefer dancing your head off rather than hoping to hook up somebody.

But if you do want to hook somebody – go to club “Helios”. It’s near the Town Hall of Vilnius, in the very centre of the old town. The club has quite nice interior, a little bit slacky sound system and… And they are not the club to implement a “face control” policy. Or if they do, my perseption of “party person” is 100% vice versus from the security guys or the club owners. It’s like me and them talking different languages. Anyway, you might find it as an enjoyable place for a stag weekend. Lithuania was always famous for good, cheap beer and beautiful (cheap?) girls. If not the first, than you will definitely find the second there. But perhaps this is the right place to mention that Lithuanians don’t usually drink beer in clubs. If they do – they aren’t real clubbers. The most popular are vodka (try Sobieski – that’s the best Lithuanian brand which has several perfect flavours), various shots or coctails – both containing vodka mostly. So if you need to start a chat up with a girl, never offer her beer. Better start with “Would you like to try my favorite coctail, it’s a bit feminine, so you gonna like it”.

Go to “Helios” if you want to hook up somebody and are quite brave trying to talk to a blond somebody’s grilfriend.

I know I’m beeing very subjective. I write only of those who I adore or hate. So the next stop is going be different – bar/club WOO is somewhere in between. It is a one lovely place in the centre of Vilnius, but quite confusing for foreigners to find. So don’t forget to write down the address (Vilniaus st. 22). It has opened with a big boom last year and has something interesting to offer for every weekend. The entrance is cheaper than the average, so mostly students and young profesionals (those who do not want to go to Gravity that night) are forming the main crowd. Oh yes, it’s crowdy. The place is too small to handle that much people, so rather often you can find better party happening at the door or at the parking lot near the club. Don’t be afraid to walk around. I heard some people found the love of their life just sitting on the pavement between the cars there…

The music in WOO is rather various. Once you might hit a super foreign DJ performance, Lithuanian idol show or plump into a Riot Girls splurge (the name says everything). So be aware to read the agenda before you go there.

Go to WOO if you look for warm and friendly people, quite clubbing, good drinks and atmosphere.

There are quite several places I should definitely recommend you to visit. But it’s gonna be the next topic. To be continued…

Few days ago we went to have lunch on Gusto blynine (Gustas Pankakes), a really nice place to have lunch and I just took some photos in the center of Vilnius and the oldtown. Now there are a lot of construction in Vilnius, therefore, some to the places were hard to take photos in.

First thing we went to the Hill of Crosses and took some photos of Vilnius scenery. Gediminas castle looks quite nice from this place. If You visit Vilnius, you can try to get up the hill to Gediminas Castle, there’s a museum in it and You can have some nice views of city oldtown when you climb on top of the castle. Read the rest

Recently I browsed through the statistics of tourism in Lithuania on the whole. As they provide only the data of how many foreigners were actualy living in the hotels, motels and other places, the numbers can be not very exact, but this shows the trends.

In year 2006 Lithuania had more that 750′000 foreign visitors living in hotels and motels. This number increased 11% from year 2005, which is quite good growth.

Biggest growth was in towns like Druskininkai, Palanga, Birstonas, up to 50% from year to year.

Vilnius only had 530′000 visitors in 2006, with a 12% increase from year 2005.

If we split the visitors by country, the first one is Germany, then goes Poland, Latvia, Russia, UK and Finland.

Probably they now the reasons why to come to Vilnius…

Today I took some photos in Trakai, a small town near Vilnius (about 20 kilometres). The weather was not so good, but one or two sunny moments gave me the opportunity to take some photos.

Main thing to see in Trakai is Trakai Island Castle. It has a museum inside and some of the things are not so boring to look at, so this one is recommended.

Trakai also has it’s national food, called Kibinai, so if you visit this city, do not miss it. They are something like dumplings with different kind of mean inside. If you would like sometihing more traditional, not too much national, there are a lot of cafes and some nice restaurants in Trakai, so if you want to spend a nice half of the day, Trakai is a good choice.

Read the rest

Looking in the keywords that are popular in Google I saw that many people are looking for a taxi numbers in Vilnius. I already mentioned in my previous post about transport in Vilnius, that it is better to call a taxi and ask them to come to the airport than use the taxi in front of the airport door.

So I thought it will be usefull for You to have these numbers.

If You will buy a Lithuanian calling card, You can use the number 1422. If you use your own mobile foreign number, use +370 5 240 00 04. If you are comming in a busy time, like Friday or Saturday evening, you can call a VIP number 1415, but this will cost you the same as the taxi standing outsite in the airport. But you might need this number when getting back from a club at night. VIP number is always free line and the taxi will come faster. Price per km - 3 LTL.

These all numbers are from one Taxi company. If you would want to use others: 1445, 1818, 1410.

I remember working as a barmaid at a cafe called Cozy a few years ago. I had foreigners coming to me and asking „Where could we go out tonight? We wanna dance!”. This question was even worse than asking for latte (which i didn’t know how to make…) because I couldn’t give them an answer. Later I created a system: “Do you like live music?”, i asked.

a) If the answer was “yes”, I suggested them live music club Tamsta in the old town.
b) If the answer was “no”, I pointed out club Gravity on the map and called them a cab.

Unfortunately, the situation has not much changed. Read the rest

1. Architecture. There are a lot of different architecture to see. The ones that like travelling to see the cities, old buildings, churches and hear some history behind it - Vilnius is the best place to be. Lithuanian history is very rich in stories, dating a thousand years back.

2. Nightlife. Vilnius is a new Prague or Paris. I read this in one of the blogs on internet, from the prople that came to Vilnius. There are a lot of clubs and pubs to have fun. You can choose from beer pubs with Lithuanian style, Irish pubs (Dubliner), strip clubs, dancing places and a lot more. Kaunas, a city 100km from Vilnius is more a clubbing city, there are parties with well-known Djs every weekend.

3. Celebrate your party in Vilnius: birthday or bachelor. Clubs and bars are already mentioned. But go fishing, skydiving, paragliding, drive 4×4 in the woods (if you find a normal team of off-roadsters, you will definitely never forget the experience, as they will let you do anything you want), have some incredible acrobatic flights, rent a sports car in the Rally track. And I can continue the list. Sure, you can do it in your own country, but then follow the post…

4. Prices. All of the above you can do very cheap. E.g. 15 minute flight with an acrobatic plane with all the programme will cost you something like 500 LT. 10 minutes with a European champion on a Rally track will cost you 350 LTL. 10 minutes go-karting will cost you only 50 LTL. Beer in an expensive pub will cost you 7 LTL (2 EUros).

5. Vilnius is changing and getting more expensive. After 5 years it will be different. See the change.

6. Visit all the nicest places in the country. Visit seashore. Visit Palanga, Nida, Juodkrante. These are the nicest places in Lithuania. See the dunes, one of the most amazing sights near the sea. Or just stay in a calm appartment just near the see. Palanga can be crowded during summer, but such places like Preila, Pervalka or Nida are very calm if you want to rest. Anyway, rent a car and see all those places. This would be the best way to travel, if you want to see more.

7. Come to Vilnius for business reason. Now is the best time to do business in Lithuania. The economy is booming, every business in Lithuania welcomes partnership and is really interested in expanding the borders to other countries. There are a lot of smart people in Lithuania. A lot of people are moving outsite the country, but these are mainly workers, people that work in construction. Intelligent business part stays, because there are plenty of things to do.

8. Continue your trip to other Baltic states. They all have places to see and parties to attend.

I will write more when I remember

Roaming costs are going down after European Commission requested this from mobile operators. But local cals anyway are cheaper and somethimes more convenient, as you can use all the local short numbers to call for a taxi. So if possible, take your old phone and use the pre-paid calling cards.

There are 3 operators in Lithuania: BITE, Omnitel and Tele2. They have several pre-paid brands. As the telecommunication competition in Lithuania is very high, the local calling prices are really very low. Based on the statistics, Lithuania was the cheapest telco country in the whole European Union.

You can choose from LABAS (operator BITE), Ežys (Omnitel), Extra (Omnitel) and Pildyk (Tele2). LABAS, Ežys and EXTRA would be best choices if you are planning to travel outside Vilnius, as the coverage of BITE and Omnitel is the best. But otherwise the prices are very similar.

If you will travel to Vilnius in a group, a good idea would be buy one brand pre-paid cards to keep in touch during the trip. Because inside (e.g. from LABAS to LABAS) calls cost almost nothing.

If your trip does not end with Vilnius and you will continue to the Baltic states - Latvia and Estonia, then I would recommend PILDYK, this would be the best choice, because it has roaming in all these countries. Traveling to other countries you will have to throw-out LABAS or Ežys cards.

Here are some tips about moving inside of the Vilnius city. You can choose from buses, troley-buses and taxi. When talking to foreigners I heard that public transport system is quite complicated. You can go a short distance with a troley or a simple bus, this should be easy, but if you would want to reach another part of the city I would recommend taxi. The transportation is really different from the one that is in Barcelona for example.

Troleys and buses in Vilnius and Lithuania are quite cheap, the prices are changing but it will cost you something like 1-2 LTL (about 0,3 Eur) per journey. The transportation is clean and quite new now, they renovated the most of the transport system few years ago. In the center you can easily use troley-buses, as they are quite often and will save you 10-15 minutes of walking if you want to get from one Gediminas ave. end to another. Do not use public transport at night. Vilnius is considered a safe city now, but you can never know whom you will meet in the evening.

The center of Vilnius is quite safe 24/7, but the outskirts of the city are not always that. This is a normal effect of a bigger city, so if you live somewhere outside the center, use a taxi to get home late.

Taxis in Lithuania are still cheap, compared to some of the Western Europe countries, where the trip from the airport costs something like 40 to 60 Euros. Price per kilometer in Lithuania is something like 1,5-1,8 LTL, so it is 0,5 Eur. Do not use the taxi when comming from airport. The ones standing near the airport are parked especially for tourists and costs twice (there you will pay more that 3 LTL per kilometer).

Better buy a pre-paid card and call short numbers like 1422, 1410 and ask for a taxi in the airport. Also use these numbers to call for a taxi in any place of the city. Show them that you know the prices. I heard stories that they put the maximum tariff possible on their old meters for drunk tourists.

I thought best way to start would be to gather some of the best comments already posted about Vilnius. So I browsed through internet and found some really nice and full stories about how people visited Vilnius and how they were surprised to see different view from the imagined Soviet ruins.

Also this will give you a different view form the people who already visited Vilnius and Lithuania.

http://realtravel.com/vilnius-journals-j5421465.html in this link an active traveler Zoe posted a story more about center of Vilnius and the old town experience. She visites Gate of Dawn, some of the nicest churches in the old town. Next day she tells a story about Trakai, a small but very visited city near Vilnius (only about 20 km).

http://realtravel.com/vilnius-journals-j4578424.html Kate here did some skydiving, making here stay more extreme in Lithuania. It is quite popular for the travelers from UK and USA to come to Lithuania for a set of extreme adventures - from paragliding and skydiving to 4-wheel motorcycles.

http://realtravel.com/vilnius-journals-j5123953.html Here another lover of historical monuments posts also some photos of the nicest places and churches. Personally I do not like to spend time walking in the city and watching nothing but so called “ruins” - churches, architecture. I prefer nature, but this will be reviewed in my next posts.

There are amazing old cities like say Florence, Italy or Krakow, Poland or I am sure Jerusalem in Israel which are never to forget because of their great historical soul and inspiring atmosphere. Now, I add Vilnius here. Why? You can read more in his post on Virtual Tourist: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/9ecb/6c780.

Carlo here gives a nice list of places to see in the old town (http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6ef36/6c780/4). Photos attached also, so it is up to you to decide which places to choose. The old town of Vilnius is quite small, you can visit almost all of the places in half a day including a short rest in a bar.

For quick comments on the night-places and clubs, please read this list of comments, done by different people.