After visiting Belarus, we flew to Palanga in Lithuania to visit the Curonian Spit, a beautiful area that I have wanted to visit for a long time and I was excited to have the opportunity.
We got the bus from Palanga Airport straight to Klaipeda bus station and left our luggage there. Then we got another bus to the old port which is where our journey begins.
We boarded the ferry after getting a ticket from the nearby machine.
As you can see, it was very busy on the ferry! The crowds soon dispersed once we got there and the boat crosses regularly.
Klaipeda has some lovely tall ships and I though this one was particularly magnificent!
The port isn’t just for tourists as you can see from all the ships and cranes in the dock.
It was totally worth it for the beach! I loved every second of it. There were beaches divided up by gender but we went on the mixed one. It was a gorgeously sunny day.
The sand was so white, it was incredible. We didn’t venture into the Baltic Sea as I imagine its cold and pretty rough. Not quite the same as swimming in the warm Mediterranean.
The great thing about the spit is that it is easy to lose the crowds on a long stretch of land, not to mention the wildlife and the scenery. It is mainly tourists from the Baltic states and Russia that visit, so it is an undiscovered gem in many ways. That may change as more flights go to Palanga nowadays!
When we walked on this path over the dunes, there were butterflies galore. There is also deer, elk and wild boar but you’d have to be lucky to discover them.
The ecosystems of the spit like the forest and the dunes are so important to wildlife which is why the area is a designated UNESCO heritage site.
I’d love to go back and see the Russian side of the Curonian spit, hopefully they will relax the visa requirements so we can hop over the border again. They did do that for a while as a trial but I had no idea so I never visited. Kaliningrad I’m coming for you!