Experience the best of Klaipėda

Klaipėda lies where the Curonian Lagoon opens into the Baltic Sea, and it has been a harbour since the Teutonic Knights built a castle here in the thirteenth century. As Memel it belonged to Prussia and later Germany until the end of the First World War, and the half-timbered houses of the old town recall that era. In Theatre Square, the Simon Dach Fountain is topped by a figure of Ännchen of Tharau.

A short ferry crosses the strait to the Curonian Spit, a long, thin peninsula of white dunes, pine forest and fishing villages, shared with Russia and listed by UNESCO. Nida, near its far end, was the summer home of the writer Thomas Mann, and the Parnidis dune above it looks out over the lagoon and the pine-covered spit. Juodkrantė has a hill of wooden witches, and Palanga, a beach resort with an amber museum, lies to the north.

Smoked fish from the lagoon, potato dumplings called cepelinai stuffed with meat, cold pink beetroot soup and fried rye bread with garlic are the Lithuanian classics. The Sea Festival fills the harbour in July. June to August is the warm season, and the winters are cold and windy.