🇱🇹Lithuania

The Schengen arithmetic

• 90 days in any rolling 180. Not 90 days per visit and not 90 days per country. Every day anywhere in the Schengen area counts against the same allowance.
• Lithuania is a full Schengen member. Arriving from Latvia or Poland involves no passport check at all.
• The Baltic states are one trip for most visitors and they share your 90 days between them.
• The passport must have been issued within the last 10 years and be valid for 3 months beyond your intended departure.

The eastern borders

• The border with Belarus is not a practical route. Crossings have been progressively restricted and the FCDO advises against all travel to Belarus in any case.
• Kaliningrad transit is heavily restricted. The old road and rail transit arrangements across Lithuania have been curtailed; do not plan on them.
• The Polish border is the working land route in and out, and it is an ordinary Schengen internal crossing.
• The border regions themselves are safe to visit. It is the crossings that have stopped functioning normally.

EES: no more stamps

• The EU Entry/Exit System has been fully operational since 10 April 2026.
• Your face and fingerprints are registered on first entry at a Schengen external border, and reused on later trips.
• No stamp goes in your passport. The system computes your 90/180 balance itself.

ETIAS: not yet, and no date

• ETIAS has not launched and there is no announced launch date.
• Applications are not open. Any website selling you an ETIAS today is a scam.
• When it comes, the fee is EUR 20, free for under-18s and over-70s.

Where your nationality lands

• The Schengen short stay visa fee is EUR 90, EUR 45 for children aged 6 to 11.

• Between EU countries there is no duty-free limit. Goods bought tax-paid in another member state travel with you; customs may only ask what a very large quantity is for, against indicative figures of 800 cigarettes and 10 litres of spirits.
• The tobacco allowance is the lower one for land and sea arrivals: 40 cigarettes rather than 200. The rest of the allowance is the EU standard - 1 litre of spirits over 22 % (or 2 litres of fortified or sparkling wine), 4 litres of still wine and 16 litres of beer.
• Other goods are capped by value - EUR 430 arriving by air or sea, EUR 300 by land - and the allowance cannot be pooled between travellers for a single item.
• Cash of EUR 10,000 or more must be declared, counting notes, coins, cheques and prepaid cards together. The money is seized for not declaring it, not for carrying it.
• The Belarus and Kaliningrad crossings are external EU borders, and tobacco is the specific thing checked at both.

Cover

• EU and EEA visitors: carry your EHIC. UK visitors: the GHIC does the same job. Neither is travel insurance.
• Travel insurance still matters for repatriation and private clinics.
• Private clinics in Vilnius are quick and inexpensive by western European standards if you would rather not wait.

Ticks: the one to take seriously

• Lithuania has one of the highest rates of tick-borne encephalitis in Europe. This is not a marginal risk here, and it is the single most useful thing on this page if you are going anywhere green.
• The season runs roughly April to October and the whole country is a risk area.
• The vaccine is genuinely worth having if you are hiking, camping, cycling the spit or spending any real time outdoors. Discuss it with a travel clinic well before you go - the course takes weeks.
• Lyme disease is the commoner infection. Cover up in long grass and woodland, use repellent, and check yourself every evening.
• Remove a tick promptly with fine tweezers, straight out, without twisting or burning.

Everyday health

• Tap water is safe to drink.
• Pharmacies (vaistine) are well stocked and pharmacists advise on minor problems.
• Care is good in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda, thinner in rural areas.
• Bring enough prescription medicine for the trip plus a margin, in original packaging with a copy of the prescription.

Vilnius

• The old town is one of the largest in eastern Europe and staying inside it is affordable in a way that Prague or Tallinn no longer are.
• Uzupis, the self-declared artists' republic across the river, is walking distance and quieter.
• Vilnius does not have Riga's stag-party problem to anything like the same degree, so old town noise is less of a booking risk.

The coast

• Nida and the Curonian Spit are a July and August proposition. Prices double in season and much of it closes out of it.
• Book months ahead for the season - the spit has limited accommodation and it is protected land, so no more is being built.
• Palanga is the busier, louder resort; Nida is the quiet, expensive one.

Practicalities

• You will be asked for your passport at check-in.
• Rural homesteads (sodybos) are a real category and often include a sauna and a lake, at prices that seem improbable.
• Winter is very cheap and Vilnius is genuinely atmospheric under snow.

If you have an EU plan, stop reading

• Roam-like-at-home applies. A SIM from any EU or EEA country works in Lithuania at your domestic rates.
• UK plans are not covered any more. Check whether your network reintroduced EU roaming charges.

The reason a local number is useful here

• Several Lithuanian apps require a Lithuanian phone number, including the m.Ticket and Trafi transport ticketing apps that every guide recommends.
• A local prepaid SIM solves it, and it is cheap. If you were on the fence about buying one, this is the argument.
• If you would rather not, contactless bank cards on the validators work perfectly - see the airport section.

Local prepaid SIM

• Three networks: Telia, Bite and Tele2. Coverage is good nationwide.
• Starter packs are sold in kiosks, supermarkets and operator shops and cost very little.
• Bring your passport - registration applies.

eSIM

• An eSIM is live before you land and is the right answer if you only need data.
• It will not give you a Lithuanian number for app registration unless the plan explicitly includes one, which most do not. That is the trade-off.

Practical points

• Free wi-fi is widespread in cafes, hotels and public transport.
• Keep your home number reachable for two-factor codes.

Sockets in Lithuania are Type C and F at 230 V, 50 Hz - the round Schuko outlet.

• A Europlug fits every socket in the country.
• Latvia, Estonia and Poland match for a two-pin plug; Poland's earthed sockets use the French earth pin instead of clips.
• British, American and Australian plugs need an adapter.
• 230 V, so only American 120 V-only equipment needs a converter.
• Unearthed sockets are still common in Soviet-era housing, identical from the front to the earthed version.
• A trip on to Poland needs nothing extra for a Europlug, but a bare Schuko plug can fail on a Polish earthed socket, which has a pin in the middle instead of clips on the rim.

Power

• 230 V, 50 Hz, sockets type F (Schuko). The same round two-pin plugs as Germany and most of continental Europe.
• UK, US, Irish and Australian plugs need an adapter.

Language

• Lithuanian is one of the most archaic living Indo-European languages and is related only to Latvian. It is not Slavic.
• English is widely spoken by younger people and throughout Vilnius.
• Russian is understood by older people, Polish in the southeast, but English is the neutral choice.
• "Labas" is hello, "aciu" is thank you - pronounced roughly "ah-choo", which is easy to remember.

Religion and history

• Lithuania is strongly Catholic and the church is a living institution. Dress respectfully in churches, which are working buildings rather than exhibits.
• The Hill of Crosses near Siauliai is a genuine pilgrimage site, not a tourist curiosity.
• The Soviet occupation is living memory. The Museum of Occupations in Vilnius is the KGB's own former building. Treat the subject seriously.

Practicalities

• Shops open late and on Sundays in the cities.
• Basketball is the national obsession and mentioning it is an instant conversation.
• Restaurants serve early by southern European standards; kitchens close around 22:00.

Manners

• Lithuanians are reserved at first and warm once you are past that.
• Take your shoes off indoors in someone's home.
• Shake hands on meeting, and do not do it across a threshold - it is a genuine superstition here.

The currency

• Lithuania uses the euro and has since 2015 - the last of the three Baltic states to adopt it. The litas is gone.

Cards and cash

• Cards work nearly everywhere and contactless is standard, including on public transport.
• Carry a little cash for markets, small rural shops and the Curonian Spit ferry booths.
• Lithuania is a fintech hub and card acceptance is better than the country's income levels would suggest.

ATMs

• Always refuse the machine's offer to charge you in your own currency. Dynamic currency conversion costs several per cent every time.
• Use bank ATMs - Swedbank, SEB, Luminor - rather than independent machines in tourist areas.

Prices

• Vilnius is among the cheapest eurozone capitals, and the gap between the old town square and a street two blocks away is large.
• Eat where the queue is Lithuanian. The cepelinai in a cafeteria costs a third of what the same dish costs on Pilies Street.

Tipping

• Around ten per cent in a restaurant for good service. Service is not usually added, and rounding up is fine elsewhere.

Buses and trains

• Buses cover more of the country than trains and are the default for intercity travel.
• LTG Link runs the railways and the main line Vilnius to Kaunas to Klaipeda is comfortable and cheap. Vilnius to Kaunas takes about an hour.
• Book online for the coach network through the national system; walk-up is possible but weekend services fill.
• Vilnius to Riga or Warsaw is a straightforward coach journey of four to six hours.

The Curonian Spit

• Klaipeda to Neringa is a ferry crossing - there is no bridge, and the ferry is the only way on with a vehicle.
• The Curonian Spit National Park charges a vehicle entry fee. Pay it at the barrier; enforcement is real.
• Book the ferry ahead in July and August if you are taking a car. Foot passengers and cyclists rarely have a problem.
• Cycling the spit is the better option anyway - it is flat, forested and the road is quiet.

Driving

• Winter tyres are compulsory from 10 November to 1 April.
• Headlights on at all times, all year.
• The drink-drive limit is effectively zero and enforcement is strict.
• Speed cameras are common on the Vilnius to Kaunas and Kaunas to Klaipeda motorways.
• There is no motorway vignette for cars - unlike Slovakia, Czechia or Austria, Lithuania does not charge private cars for motorway use.

In the cities

• Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda all run on JUDU-style contactless ticketing.
• Vilnius old town is walkable end to end and is a UNESCO site; you will not need a bus inside it.

Free for cars, a long winter tyre season, and a limit lower than most of Europe.

• There is no car vignette; the road charge applies to heavy vehicles.
• Winter tyres are compulsory from 10 November to 1 April, one of the longest seasons in Europe.
• The alcohol limit is 0.4 g/l, and zero for professional and new drivers.
• Dipped headlights are compulsory day and night, all year.
• The Hill of Crosses, the Curonian Spit and the lakes are the reason to have a car; Vilnius old town is not, and its streets are narrow and one-way.
• A green card is not needed inside the EU, but the Kaliningrad and Belarus borders are a different matter and hire cars are barred from both.

GPS interference

• Satellite navigation is unreliable across the region and Lithuania has publicly attributed a large rise in GPS jamming incidents to Russia.
• It affects your phone, not just aircraft. Map apps can misplace you or refuse to lock on, particularly near the Kaliningrad and Belarus borders and on the coast.
• Download offline maps before you travel, and carry a paper map if you are cycling the spit or walking in the forests.
• Do not build a route that depends on live GPS in the national parks.

Crime

• Lithuania is a low-crime country and violent crime against visitors is rare.
• Pickpocketing happens in Vilnius old town, at the bus and railway stations and in crowds. Ordinary precautions are enough.
• Vilnius station area is scruffier than the rest of the city at night, though not dangerous.
• Card skimming has been reported at independent ATMs - use bank machines.

The borders

• Do not attempt to travel to or through Belarus. The FCDO advises against all travel there and there are no consular services.
• Kaliningrad transit is heavily restricted and is not a route you should plan.
• The border regions of Lithuania itself are safe to visit - it is the crossings that no longer work.

Nature

• Ticks are a genuine risk - see the health section. Lithuania is heavily forested and the season runs spring to autumn.
• Winter cold is serious, with weeks below freezing and a hard wind off the Baltic.
• The Baltic has rip currents on the open coast. Beaches are flagged; take the flags seriously.
• The Curonian Spit is a protected dune system. Walking off the boardwalks is both damaging and fineable.

The numbers

• 112 is the only number. Lithuania consolidated police, ambulance and fire onto it, and operators handle English.
• It works from any phone, free, with no credit and no SIM.
• You can also reach 112 by SMS if you cannot speak - useful and not widely known.

Say where you are

• GPS interference is a live problem in Lithuania - see the safety section - so do not assume your phone can report your position.
• Note your accommodation's address and the nearest junction.
• Lithuanian place names are long and hard to relay if you have not written them down. Have the address in text, not in memory.

If you need help

• Report a theft to the police and get a written record. Your insurer will require it.
• A lost passport means the police first, then your embassy.
• Your embassy cannot pay your bills or get you out of jail, but it can issue emergency travel documents and provide lists of lawyers and doctors.
• Several countries cover Lithuania from Warsaw or Riga rather than having an embassy in Vilnius - check before you need to know.