Vilnius!!

jobless

hey,

just wondering if any one has been here.... thinking of visiting for a weekend as a change from the norm of visiting the uk...
is it worth a visit?.... is it expensive?..... any info appreciated... am fairly in the dark about the place

killbillvol2

Beautiful city, lots of good restaurants, bars and nightclubs, friendly people. Relatively inexpensive. Highly recommended.

deecom

Yes been there a few times, great place, really fun to go out and as the last poster said, inexpensive. If you can rent an apartment, its cheap enough, and better than a hotel. Will post a link when i find the place i stayed in the last time.

jobless

thanks for the replies guys... much appreciated.... d if u could post that link that wuld be great... looks like its due a visit then

cailinoBAC

I've been there a few times but never spent a long time, as I'm usually going through to somewhere else. It seems very pleasant though. There are a lot of good tips here -
http://www.inyourpocket.com/lithuania/city/vilnius.html

Delorian

Stayed here, found it very good.
http://www.vilniushotels.lt/cgi/hotel.cgi?vars=Barbacan_Palace
The under-floor heating in the bathroom was super and there's a bar connected to the back and a bowling alley downstairs.

Re. Vilnius itself, it's a good old city alright, very cheap and nice around this time of year. Just be aware, like a lot of cities, 4 nights would be more than enough, 3 would be fine.

jobless

thanks for that.....

as regards prices of things.... how much is a pint?.... meal out etc?

Delorian

Seem to remember pint being about a euro, you can buy litres as well, which are cool looking. Meals generally tend to be closer to the prices you'd be used to. I think a three course could be about €20.

Tours are decent enough although the great view (apparently) from the TV tower, with a meal and rolling pin of alcohol, is expensive enough. I say apparently as we went in Nov and might as well have been looking at an off-while wallpaper with the cloud / fog directly outside the tower. It revolves though! Only go there on a clear day.

Taxis with meters aren't too bad but they look so because it goes up about 2 cent every 10 seconds. A lovely lady shared a taxi with us from the airport (I think it's not the easiest to get a bus) and I think she paid about €20 for as far as we got. However, on the way back, we booked a cab through the hotel (link in previous post) and when we got to the airport, the driver took the note we gave him and didn't give any change. Think that was about €35 or so. So, like anywhere I guess, ask someone how much it should cost, then ask the driver before you get in.

Lastly, there are cool 24hr café's, can't remember what they're called, but there's lots of them. They serve lovely cakes and cocktails at a decent(-ish) price.

jobless

thanks for the info del... much appreciated.... sounds like its worth a visit...
the thoughts of 1 euro a pint sound good ... did you get to sample the nightlife at all?

Delorian

From what I saw, I can safely say do not expect a clubbing, stag-doo, Temple Bar like city. I may have missed some happening area, but from what I've heard of Riga, this is not the same. In saying that, it's generally not my reason for going on holiday, so I wasn't looking out for a major nightlife.

I was advised by some young fellows of a place they were going that was walkable from within the city but not sure where. There are sports bars around, but these are quiet by Dublin standards. It's a young population though and ppl dress very well and are very fashion-conscious, so I'm sure there are some glitzy nightclubs somewhere.

gary the great

Im going tere next year, hopefully its nothing like Riga - what an awful horrible place with a lot of horrible people mixed in with tonnes of drunken irish and Brits....