Welcome to the
pall
, looking like a great trip you set yourself up there.
Let me introduce myself. I am EV (short for Evgenij) and am originally from Lithuania. I can tell you that it is a lovely little country that can be crossed from north to south in a day with a couple 30-45min breaks thrown in. I was born in the town of
Druskininkai situated in the southernmost part of the country, (about 30km from Poland & 10/15km from Belarus) which is lovely but more than ever has become a tourist destination for the mud spa treatments, still worth a visit, in fact I recommend it, and being close to Poland, will be your crossing point at Lazdijai. I do however recommend you bring something to fight them mosquitos.
Vilnius being the capital of Lithuania, is full of cultural experiance, great night life, history and so forth. All of which you can do if you have got the time.
Since by the look of it you will be entering Lithuania from the north via Latvia, then places to go to and visit might be such as Sea side resort of
Palanga, it has a general seaside ambiance about it but with a twist. However, if tourist crowds isn't your thing then it is best to be avoided.
Klaipeda is Lithuanias only sea port and at best worth spending a few hours mooching about but if you exclude it from your schedule, then you haven't lost much. However saying that I would recommend crossing over on a ferry (10 minutes) from Klaiped a to
Curonian Spit national Park and ride the road towards
Nida, It is one of the most beautiful single carriageway road through the forest and sand dunes you will come by in the country. When you arrive to Nida (by the way a Russian border to state of Kaliningrad is only a few minutes ride from there, if it something you interested in) you can take a walk to the top of the dunes, walk to the Baltic sea beach Stretching out to the north and to the south for miles, and enjoy a local cuisine made with freshly caught seafood and a local pint. Smoked fish is a bit of a specialty there. Then you can either stay the night or ride/cross over back to Klaipeda and head towards
Kaunas. Kaunas is pretty central to the country and has descent bit of history to it and from there it has a fairly straight forward road network, linking to
Trakai (a must visit), Vilnius, Druskinkai, Poland.
Roads are mostly quaet and have minimal traffic in comparison to UK, these are straight, with rolling hills and fair few blind summits and hidden dips can be found across most of the country. You will need to keep your wits about you and I would avoid riding in the dark, unless you are in the city/town, as there are no street lights outside of the cities/towns and generally speaking once you out of the town, you will find your self on the road cutting through either vast grassland, farmland or forest. Road types are majority single carriageways apart from the areas around big cities where traffic will become denser and dual carriageways are quite common. There is one motorway in the country from Vilnius - Kaunas- Klaipeda, stretching for around 320km (200 miles). Road conditions are quite good and in some areas are fantastic but once again you need to keep your wits about you as there will be some sweeping bends and some can be very sharp. Road signs and driving/riding rules are very similar to France and many other eastern European countries. You MUST HAVE your MAIN BEAM lights ON 24/7. Fuel and food is slightly cheaper than other EU countries and local currency is Euro.
I suggest you spend the night in Druskininkai (look up Granus appartments on
Airbnb.com. Wife and I stayed there last year in August and it was a very pleasant stay and very central, with everything you need within a few minutes walk. By now they should have their underground carpark built too) Take a nice dunk in one of many lakes (yes you can swim in them and no one can tell anything as they are there for that purpose and even have changing cabins with a shower) in the area, enjoy a pint at the local bar and have pleasant stroll down central promenade to the river "Nemunas" or a "musical fountain" (it plays music on request via SMS/Text service, so you can just sit and listen to music and watch fountain dance in tune, while ever-changing lights light up the surroundings)
I hope this will be of some helps and guidance on your trip and I wish you a very pleasant journey. Ride on safe :adv:.
EV
Hi guys This is my first thread to put up here after reading all trip-reports for the last few years. Im turning 50 in July so Im giving myself a present of a bike trip around Europe for 50 days. I just thought I would throw it up here and see what ye think, I will be starting on the 24th May and heading clockwise from the centre of Ireland and hopefully finishing back there 50 days later. Ive done 10 days around France before and a few 1500 mile trips around Ireland in 3 days so Im used to big miles if I have to. Ive worked it out roughly at around 200 miles per day but if i have to push it on I can do 400/600 if needed, the bike i will be using is an 01 ST 1100 pan, was hoping to change to a GS but funds wont stretch that far. So really why Im putting this post up is for advice on where to visit, where not to wast my time visiting, accommodation ect, I hope to using cheap hotels and camping a bit I have a budget of €40 for accommodation so a few nights camping can make up for a nice hotel now and then. Im open to all advice, any advice would be much appreciated and if I can join in on any ride outs or meetings somewhere along the trip that would be great . Feel free to comment Im open to changing the route if anyone has any suggestions
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