Lithuania

Climbing Gediminas Tower rewards visitors with panoramic views over the red rooftops of the Old Town and the modern skyline rising across the river. The self-declared artists’ republic of Uzupis, with its own tongue-in-cheek constitution posted on a wall, offers a quirky, bohemian detour. St. Anne’s Church, a small red-brick Gothic masterpiece, is said to have so impressed Napoleon that he wished he could carry it back to Paris. Vilnius’s density of churches and courtyards makes it one of the Baltic region’s most rewarding cities to wander.

Kaunas Castle, one of the oldest brick castles in Lithuania, sits at the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers where the old town begins. Laisves Aleja, a long pedestrian boulevard lined with cafes and shops, connects the old and new parts of the city. The Devil’s Museum, an unusual collection of thousands of devil-themed artworks and folk objects, is one of the city’s more offbeat attractions. Kaunas’s interwar architecture earned it UNESCO recognition and continues to draw architecture enthusiasts.

The Curonian Spit’s towering dunes and pine forests, reachable by a short ferry ride, offer some of the most striking coastal scenery in the Baltics. Klaipeda’s harbor and maritime museum reflect its centuries as a working port city. The city’s small but lively old town has increasingly filled with cafes and boutiques in restored timber-framed buildings. Klaipeda pairs port-city history with easy access to one of Europe’s most unusual coastal landscapes.