Vilnius Tourist Trap Tips by matcrazy1 Top 5 Page for this destination

Polish visitors and no vacancy!

During my second visit (by a car) to Lithuania I visited a few off the beaten paths and I wanted to spend a night at Trakai - lovely town close to Vilnius - but there was NO vacancy at any hotel there. By the way it was Thursday, not weekend.

So, I had to drive to Vilnius. I marked a few hotels on my Vilnius map, hotels easy to get to by a car before reaching city centre and...

1. I didn't find two first of them marked on Vilnius map: "Mano kelia" - hmm... the area of huge apartments buildings around didn't look nice in any way, so I stoped to look for it, I couldn't find Joalina hotel as well (night and no signs),

2. No way, I had to drive to city centre. Hmm... there was no vacancy in the first two hotels: Velga and Revis. I started to get a little bit nervous. In the third hotel: Hotel Zemaites which looked very nice but was fully booked as well, I asked the receptionist to call to any other hotel. She didn't want to do it, I think but she finally called to 3 or 4 other hotels and replied that there was no vacancy in any. She explained that all hotels were usually empty but that day they were fully booked by groups from Poland. And she adviced us to drive to Europa City hotel.

3. In Europa Hotel a very nice guy - receptionist said: "sorry, no vacancy but please wait a minute". He started to call somewhere and finally he asked whether we accepted the special prize of approx. 270 Lt (lower than regular price) in another, very good hotel. When we said yes he asked us about surname and called again to that hotel to make immediate reservation. Well, he explained us how to get to Crowne Plaza hotel by a car. Well, the prize 270 Lt was really below the regular prize for that very good hotel.

Unique Suggestions: Don't be nervous like me in the 5th hotel haha, keep smiling and drive/call to 6th... 15th etc. There are many, more and more hotels in Vilnius.

Vilnius was mostly visited by thousands of Polish visitors during Polish long weekends that was close to:
- 1-3 May,
- in June when Corpus Christi catholic holiday is (always on Thursday, I was just that time!)
- in August (15th is catholic holiday).
Expect no vacancy and book in advance for these days!

Fun Alternatives: Book in advance! More in my Hotels & Accommodations tips.

No direction signs...

Well, there were direction signs from Vilnius downtwn/centre to highway (signed as a freeway/motorway) A-1 (E85) to Kaunas although they were not repeated and along a few kilometers I didn't know whether I chose right way. Do NOT expect both in Vilnius and in Kaunas right put direction signs that is with distances and numbers of highways, put before, on and repeated after at least the main crossroads.

When I was driving to the TV Tower I got lost 3 times and it took me over 1 and a half hour! Finally with my limited time I had to skip it, more: I had to skip Trakai as well as it was too late to visit it.
There was one direction sign to the TV tower close to Vilnius downtown/centre and... nothing more. So, I tried to get there just looking at the tower. Well, I have only schematic map of Vilnius suburbs, my mistake. Next time...

Unique Suggestions: Hmm... at least I was lucky to see a few off the beaten paths more when I got lost... If it makes any difference for you, these things (signing roads) went worse (much worse) in the former Soviet Union and in Riga, Latvia even now in 2004.

Fun Alternatives: Buy detailed map of Vilnius with its suburbs and TV tower marked. And watch carefully your itinerary before you go. In case of problems stop and check your location on the map again and again. Keep smiling and... good luck :-) Try not to get to Belarus, it's only 35 km away.