According to best-medical-schools, Palanga is a “country” Lithuanian town, stretching for 25 km along the coast of the Baltic Sea. The charm of this resort is the Baltic landscapes with their pine groves, endless whitish dunes and coastal mixed forests full of aromas and fresh sea breeze. Despite its reputation as an aristocratic “health resort”, acquired at the end of the 19th century by the efforts of the counts Tyszkiewicz, Palanga remained a quiet, undersized country backwater, however, not without its gastronomic islands-shelters and hotel comforts.

Palanga is suitable for those who prefer a mild summer full of freshness and evening coolness, deserted beaches, hiking and cycling among pine forests, promenades with small craft and art shops, chamber jazz evenings on open verandas, sunsets on piers and raw smoked seafood delicacies.

This is an ideal place for families with children. A gentle climate will protect them from overheating in the sun, and sea air saturated with iodine will help you forget about runny noses and colds. In a luxurious botanical park that stretches for many kilometers along the coastline, children can feed swans, ducks and squirrels, and on the central Basanavičius promenade, they can find many local delicacies such as corrugated waffles in chocolate or pancakes with fresh berries and whipped cream, as well as attractions for every taste and age.

Palanga tourist information center is located at Vitauto, 106.

Palanga is a large balneological resort. Sea and chloride sodium-calcium baths and peat mud, in combination with programs of therapeutic exercises, massages and inhalations, are used here to treat problems of the musculoskeletal system, broncho-pulmonary, gynecological and neurological diseases.

How to get to Palanga

Palanga is located 26 km north of Klaipeda and 331 km northwest of Vilnius. The surest way is to get on a comfortable branded train to Vilnius (12 hours). A five-minute walk from the Vilnius railway station is the bus station, from which buses leave for Palanga. There is also a money exchange office with a good exchange rate. Tickets can be purchased without problems on the spot. Buses leave approximately every 1.5-2 hours, cost about 21 EUR per adult, there are benefits for children. The journey takes 4.5 hours with stops along the route and one 15-minute stop for “ventilation”. While waiting for the bus, you can leave your luggage in the luggage room and walk around the Old Town – it’s only 10-15 minutes on foot from the bus station.

Sometimes a special car is attached to the Moscow-Vilnius train, which, upon arrival in the Lithuanian capital, is transferred to the train to Klaipeda. From Klaipeda to Palanga – 30-40 minutes by taxi. But information on this route must be found out in advance at the box office of the railway station.

A flight connection between Moscow and Palanga is also planned, because the Lithuanian resort has its own international airport. As an option: already today you can get by plane to Riga and from there to Palanga (ticket price from 79.56 EUR, but there is a significant restriction on the size and weight of luggage: hand luggage 40x20x55 and no more than 8 kg, the excess will cost 60 EUR !). You can also fly to Kaliningrad and get to Klaipeda by bus along the Curonian Spit, but this is the most tiring route.

History

For the first time these lands are mentioned in written monuments of 1161. According to legend, the priestess-Videlot Biruta lived here, who became the wife of the ancestor of the family of Lithuanian princes Gediminas Keistut and the mother of Vytautas the Great, who from 1345 shared power in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with his elder brother Olgerd.

Until the beginning of the 19th century, the local settlement was no different from the many fishing villages of the Baltic coast, but in 1824 these lands, then belonging to the Courland province, were bought by the Lithuanian count Mykolas Tyshkevich. In the late 70s, his descendant Jozapas Tyshkevich decided to turn Palanga into a resort town in the manner of German health resorts popular at that time among the aristocracy. He builds the first hotel complex in the center of the city, including a restaurant, builds a summer theater, equips the beaches with changing cabins and marble baths with heated water. Special walking paths are laid in the forest coastal strip, and in 1884-1888 the main street of the town continues into the sea with a promenade pier and a pier that receives ships from Liepaja. (Over time, the pier was destroyed by storms and sand drifts.

In 1893, after the death of the count, his son Felix invited the famous French landscape architect Edouard Francois Andre, who, together with his son René Andre and the Belgian gardener Buissen de Coulomb, set up a luxurious English garden with a pond and a rose garden in the southern part of the village, numbering more than 200 today. plants and up to 60 species of birds. In 1897, according to the project of the German architect Franz Schwechten, the construction of the count’s residence with a chamber chapel began in the center of the park. The resort part of the town is replenished with hospitals, summer villas, sports and gymnastic grounds, tennis courts, riding arenas and warm baths with thermal water. Now famous doctors from Warsaw, Lodz and Vilnius work here. In this way.

Palanga Hotels

Palanga has the widest range of hotels, guest houses and private apartments of various comfort and cost: from the fashionable five-star Palanga hotel with an ultra-modern spa, located just fifty meters from the sea, to the most minimalist budget options like renting a house or a room in the private sector.

More expensive housing is concentrated near the central pedestrian zone – Basanavicius Street and in the nearby green quarter, stretching along the coastline to the botanical park. Living here is convenient and pleasant because all the highlights of the resort – the sea, park and promenade areas, cafes, restaurants, clubs, attractions, markets, etc. – are within walking distance, and small private villas, as a rule, have their own restaurants, offer very cozy rooms and apartments, decorated with a special local charm and color.

You can also go in the Soviet style – at random (if you have a valid Lithuanian visa, of course), during the holiday season, local residents come to the bus station to the arriving buses, offering rooms and apartments. A complete list of the most popular hotels in the city can be found on the Palanga hotels page.

Local kitchen

A notable feature of all local catering establishments, no matter what cuisine they specialize in and no matter what price segment they work in, is the offer of traditional Lithuanian dishes, such as potato pancakes with various fillings (vegetables, mushrooms, meat) – zeppelins, cold kefir borscht, fried potato zrazy stuffed with žemaičiu, soup with dumplings, etc. Also, you should definitely try smoked fish and, of course, eel, various types of dark bread, local pastries, confectionery masterpieces and, of course, the famous Lithuanian curd cheeses – sour, sweet, with cumin, hard, soft, which are eaten with honey.

The gastronomic center of the city is the central walking street of Basanaviciaus (J. Basanaviciaus). There are many cafes, barbecues, restaurants and fast food outlets with open verandas for every taste and budget. De Cuba restaurants with a courtyard and singing fountains, Cagino (Russian cuisine), Ukrainietiski vakarai (Ukrainian Evenings) have a particularly “pleasant” reputation. The elegant Zuvine fish restaurant with a secluded balcony terrace is one of the most luxurious establishments, which you will instantly feel in the interior, service and gastronomic delights of the fishhouse. A more peaceful contemplative atmosphere is offered by the seaside restaurant of Villa Smelio takas (15-20 minutes walk along the 10th bike path from Basanavičius Street) and the cafe-bar of the Meduza Hotel with a wooden playground for children.

Leisure

Beach rentals and marine entertainment offer water bikes, jet skis, and surfing. Volleyball courts are equipped on the beach north of the sea pier, 6 clay tennis courts are open in the city itself (for more details, call 8-460-528-28), bicycle rentals (there are two special tracks of 10 km each, laid in a forest along coast) and roller skates and minigolf for children. On the way to Klaipeda there is a stud farm that organizes horseback riding. In the city swimming pool (20 Vanagupes Street) an outdoor heated terraced swimming pool is open during the summer period – on a cloudy capricious day you can swim and bask in 36-degree water with pleasure.

Read more about museums, excursions and interesting places in the city on the Palanga attractions page.

Weather in Palanga

The climate of Palanga is suitable for people who prefer cool mild summers to sweltering heat. The climate here is very capricious and changeable, and it is almost impossible to guess for sure what the weather will be like on the days you have chosen. The months of July and August are considered the most stable: the air temperature stays at +25 °C, the water temperature is +17… +19 °С, there are many sunny days, which, however, can be replaced by short thunderstorms. The wind constantly walks along the coast, but you can sunbathe by hiding in the dunes. Bathing is for the most daring and hardened, but sneezing people and children, due to the sea air saturated with iodine vapors, are absent. See also the current weather forecast in Palanga for the next few days.