Train Advice?? -- Kaunas, Lithuania to Vilnius
 

The Vilnius airport is closed for several weeks in August, 2017, so our plane has been redirected to Kaunas. We weren't happy about this... but will just settle into Kaunas for a couple of nights to catch our breath, then plan to take a train to Vilnius. Thinking we would like to buy the tickets in advance... and see that we can buy them on www.traukiniobilietas.lt .

Anybody have experience with this? Is this a good place to get the tickets at the going rate?

Also... anyone have advice on 2nd class vs first class? Thoughts??

And If you are familiar with the area, anything you feel is a must-see, must-do, must-eat in either town?? Thanks for any advice. Totally new to the area.

(BTW... off to Riga after Vilnius by bus. Any advice here appreciated as well!)
Thanks Fodorites!! kawh

I visited Lithuania (and Latvia) last year. Lithuania's trains are modern and clean. I am pretty sure the trains are not reserved. I don't even recall if there is a first class on their trains - but second class was nice enough that it was just fine. I took the train from Vilnius to/from Trakai and then later from Vilnius to Kaunas. None of my trains was very full - they were mostly empty.

(By contrast, Latvia's trains, if you ride them, are very old - not bad but quite a contrast to Lithuania's modern vehicles!)

I bought tickets at the Vilnius train station from an agent - and from Trakai back to Vilnius from the conductor on the train. There could be a small penalty for buying on the train if the station is open but not much. In any case, don't worry about buying tickets in advance. Buy them in Kaunas. Trains are cheap, and there is no huge savings (if any) to buying them in advance like in Italy or France.

I didn't have to deal with the Kaunas airport, but I know there is a local city bus that will take you into Kaunas if you wish. You can dig up the local Kaunas bus schedules on the webs. (Google Maps didn't have Kaunas's bus system in its database last year.) Actually, can you can probably just take a shuttle from Kaunas airport to Vilnius too unless you really want to spend time in Kaunas.

I spent a night in Kaunas mostly to photograph the Vytautas the Great Bridge (I love bridges) at night and just to see the town. One thing I can recommend for sure is to climb the Aleksotas Hill for the view down on Kaunas. Kaunas is a decent town, but it wasn't my favorite place to visit (but it seemed like a laid-back town with a good quality of life for residents). Personally, I wouldn't feel a compelling need to spend two nights there.

I visited Vilnius first, then Kaunas by train, then Riga from there. I took a bus from Kaunas to Šiauliai to see the Hill of Crosses, then a bus (more of an uncomfortable mini-bus) from Šiauliai on to Riga. If you plan to visit Šiauliai, you can take the train from Vilnius if you prefer.

You can also take a local mini-bus from the center of Kaunas to the train station, which is not really walk-able from the center of Kaunas. If you wind up taking the bus, the (new?) Kaunas bus station is also not really in town - it's on the way to the train station. I took a mini-bus both ways. You should be able to dig up the local bus schedules online.

You can read my 2016 trip report by clicking on my name.

Andrew-- thanks for taking the time to give us so much good info. The "2 nights in Kaunas" is a bit misleading... we arrive from our long-stopover flight from California at Midnight... so will just sleep there, have a day, and leave the next afternoon for Vilnius. So really just 1 full day.

I will take your advice and just wait to get our train ticket. My thinking was that it's so much more pleasant to have these things taken care of, rather than spend our one full day getting our train travel arranged... but I'm thinking we can just wait until the day-of. There seem to be several time choices that work, so I'll relax on getting to Vilnius.

((we are just taking an arranged ride to our hotel... expensive at 20E , but arriving very tired in the middle of the night, we decided to splurge for the airport welcome signage!!))

Took note of all of your suggestions. Thanks again. kawh

There are also nonstop buses that go from Kaunas to Vilnius.

quick update:
We ended up getting into Kaunas by private driver from our hotel (about $20) which was great because we arrived past midnight.

we took a train from Kaunas to Vilnius and it was easy and comfortable. the train station in Kaunas is quite small and super easy to navigate.

from Vilnius, we later took a bus to Riga. we bought our tickets online and all went very easily. the bus had a little (free) coffee machine, free and good internet, and decent movies on a individual seat-back screen. it was better than most planes. We used Ecolines and highly recommend.

Glad to hear it!

I hope you write a proper trip report...but, how did you like these places?

Andrew... thanks again for the guidance early on. I don't think I'll write a trip report this time... it was a full month and like 10 vacations in one. Just too much to say... I'll check in and comment when I see a relevant posted question. (I did already post a cautionary tale about our Nutshell trip in Norway...)

Kaunas had exactly the feel that you mentioned above.. laid back, and like the people were happy enough. We had some GREAT meals here and discovered our first "grey peas" which i am obsessed with now. We enjoyed walking the long, totally local shopping street. So rare to see almost no chain stores. We also enjoyed the beautiful and active park out by the Castle. Seemed like every family in Kaunas was out walking there each evening.

Vilnius is a great city-- has a young feel with so many educational institutions. Great buildings. Super walkable center. We took the Jewish History tour and that was pretty depressing... just nothing left! (though we were lucky to be at the location of the old temple-- now an ugly school-- where they had just completed digging up a mikvah and kosher butcher shop... the press was there because they were going to fill it all in again that afternoon.) Also great food!! (the dish sort of like a calzone, but with sour dough and savory filling... forget the name.)

Loved Riga too. The deco buildings did not disappoint and lots of young people out in the evenings drinking beer. Lots to say... but just thanks for pitching in here when I was very unsure.