I'm currently working for a semester at a university in the port city of Klaipeda, Lithuania. Many Americans would think this is downright crazy, leaving the US and all, but I'm usually up for an adventure. Therefore, I was pretty excited to get on a plane and take the longest (in terms of time) trip I've ever been on. I've been outside the US several times before, but two weeks was pretty much my limit.
Since the theme of this site is travel, you'd probably guess that this is one of my biggest hobbies. You'd be right. While traveling to Lithuania is related to my work, there are also quite a few cool things to visit in the Baltic region. If they're free or really cheap, the cool meter goes up even more.
The Curonian Spit
Right across a lagoon from the port of Klaipeda is a 50-mile-plus peninsula that's basically a giant sandbar. This sandbar is known as the Curonian Spit, named after one of the Baltic tribes that used to inhabit the region. A ferry travels across the lagoon at regular intervals during the day, and many Germans and Lithuanians like to vacation (or is it holiday?) on the beaches on the Baltic side of the Spit.
The lagoon that separates Lithuania's mainland from the Curonian Spit (Photo by Author)
As you can probably see from the image above, Klaipeda is actually becoming a fairly popular destination for Baltic cruise ships. Note the Lithuanian flag to the left of the big boat. This image was taken from one of the spots that the ferry uses to dock on the Spit side of the lagoon.
From this spot, it's just a little over a hundred meters to Nerija, a restaurant that offers Lithuanian fare. I've already eaten here a couple of times, and I've really enjoyed the šašlykus, which is basically a grilled pork kebab. It's pretty tasty.
Pork Kebabs and French Fries on the Curonian Spit
While the restaurant is not free, getting to the Spit is about as close to free as you can get. From our apartment, a trip requires a round-trip bus ride and a round-trip ferry ride. The bus costs €1 each way for adults if you buy on-board. It drops to about €0.58 if you use an electronic bus pass that you can reload. Kids are one-half of the adult price when riding the bus. Like most European cities, there is a robust public transportation network that only requires a walk of a few blocks from most stops to your ultimate destination.
The ferry ride costs only €1 for a two-way trip. That's what I would call cheap in my book. After disembarking from the ferry, it's about a 15- to 20-minute walk across the Spit to one of the nicest beaches I've ever visited. There's also another ferry a little bit further up the lagoon, and it also carries vehicles across. Since I'm relying on my feet and public transportation while in Europe, I don't foresee using this ferry during my stay.
I've been to several beaches in the US and abroad. Of all of the beaches I've visited only Baby Beach in Aruba has as much sand as Smiltynė Beach. The sand is soft, and it is pretty white. The beach itself is quite wide, as well. The water temperature on the last day we visited was 19 degrees C, which is about 66.2 F, according to Google's conversion. Not as warm as the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic of the Southeastern US at this time of year (early September), but not too bad.
The Beach at the Curonian Spit is pretty wide (Photo by Author)
The Beach at Smiltynė, right across from Klaipeda--This was the sunniest that it was while we were here (Photo by Author)
We actually walked from the tip of the Spit near the entrance to the port to Smiltynė. The walk was a nice trek along the sand while the tide rolled in. Then we hiked through the forest to Nerija Restaurant for a late lunch. It was a fun day that was pretty cheap overall. Packing a picnic lunch would have made it even cheaper, but the lunch at Nerija was for a birthday celebration.
For those who would want to explore more of the Curonian Spit, the resort town of Nida, Lithuania, is just about 50 km down the coast. This is about as far as Americans can go, however. Just to the south of Nida is the isolated Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
A visa, and an expensive one at that, would be necessary for people traveling on a US passport to enter Russian territory. I may try to head down to Nida at some point during my stay, but do not plan to try and enter Kaliningrad Oblast. Nida is accessible by bus from Smiltynė, and apparently by ferry from Klaipeda from what I've read.
Of course, Americans would have to pay quite a bit to get to the Baltic states. That is, unless they used frequent flyer miles or a card that allowed them to utilize travel credits like the Capital One Venture card. The general cost in miles for a trip across the pond would be 60,000 miles with United, Delta, or American, and there are lots of partner airlines to make it happen. There are several options to earn the miles that are necessary, most of which do not actually involve flying.
The partners airlines are necessary to reach the Curonian Spit for people from the Western Hemisphere, because direct flights to the Baltic are pretty much nonexistent. I actually wound up flying AirBaltic from Brussels to get to Riga. Then it was a four-hour bus ride down to Klaipeda from there. Therefore, you'd need to connect to a partner somewhere else in Europe to get to Riga, Vilnius, or Palanga to reach this part of the world.
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