Once the unrivalled imperial powerhouse of northern Europe, the compact nation of Lithuania still packs a punch in terms of culture and class, exuding an ever-independent Baltic charm that sets it apart from other post-communist states in the Polish Corridor.
Culturally, Lithuania is a woven patchwork of a great many regional traditions; a place where the remnants of the country’s various historical epochs can still be spied on street corners or unearthed in the local character.
At the capital of Vilnius, the UNESCO-inscribed Old Town district is a montage of baroque facades, onion-domed orthodox churches, grand residential palaces and mysteriously enticing cobbled streets, ducking and diving between the medieval archways and ancient city gates. What’s more, the urban centres here are now famed for their hedonistic nightlife and bubbling café culture, not to mention some of the best alternative bohemian clubs in all of Eastern Europe.
But away from the capital, and Lithuania offers up a range of natural gems, from the country’s largest national park at Dzukija, to the iconic Curonian Spit, where great lengths of the Baltic seaboard are now protected by that much-coveted UNESCO epithet. Nearby, the city of Klaipeda is also often recommended by Lithuania tour guides as a great stopover, noted for its rich offering of wartime history and fantastic array of classic Prussian architecture.