Experience the best of Kaunas

The old town sits at the point where the Neris joins the Nemunas, with a medieval castle, a cobbled Town Hall Square and the white Town Hall, nicknamed the White Swan, at its heart. Vilnius Street, lined with merchants' houses, runs through the old town, and the Gothic Vytautas the Great Church stands in brick close to the river.

Between the wars Kaunas was the temporary capital of Lithuania, and its centre has a notable group of Art Deco and modernist buildings, listed by UNESCO in 2023, along with Laisvės Alėja, a pedestrian avenue lined with trees and cafés. The funicular to the Žaliakalnis hill, the M. K. Čiurlionis art museum, the Ninth Fort and the Pažaislis Monastery, a baroque complex on the Kaunas lagoon, lie close.

Cepelinai, potato dumplings shaped like zeppelins and filled with minced meat, and šaltibarščiai, a cold pink beetroot soup, are the dishes to try, with dark rye bread and mead. Winters are cold and snowy, and summer evenings are long.