Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit. Holidays on the Curonian Spit in Lithuania with photos. City of Klaipeda, Neringa and Nida. New ferry crossing
A sandy strip of land in the Baltic Sea with fantastic nature and endangered species of flora and fauna. An excellent holiday destination for those who love nature. I think everyone knows about Scythe.
The border between Russia and Lithuania runs in the middle of the 100-kilometer spit.
I won’t show you sand dunes and dancing forests, let’s rather see how people live and relax on both sides of the border.
1 You will have to pay for entry. The Curonian Spit is a national park, both on the Russian and Lithuanian sides. For us it costs 150 rubles per car and another 150 for each passenger. Lithuanians will take twenty euros, regardless of how many people are in the car.
2 You will see the road along the entire length of the spit. To the left and right there is a forest, further away there is the sea and the bay, but you won’t see them from the car. Pay attention to cyclists, we will return to them later.
3 People come here for nature. Beauty must be caught like Pokemon. There are several points along the fifty kilometers of road where you need to get there on foot. Sand dunes or the famous dancing forest. I was neither here nor there, as time was running out.
4 On the Russian side, there are three villages on the spit: Lesnoye, Rybachye and Morskoye. For Kaliningrad residents, these protected places have long become something like Rublyovka: real estate on the spit is expensive.
5 Restaurants and the beach are what attract tourists here.
6 Sometimes there are restaurants on the beach, but this is rather an exception.
7 The road is picturesque, but monotonous.
8 You will not find antiquity and antiquity here. Compared to the rest of the Kaliningrad region, there are almost no significant monuments of East Prussia.
9 Rybachy is the largest village on the spit. 800 people live here. That's noticeable.
10 Nothing has changed since Soviet times.
11 A nice restaurant “Rybny Dvor”, but since it is the only one in the village, there are a lot of people there.
12 The not-so-vibrant life of an ordinary Russian village flows on the streets.
13 But there is no destruction here. Even the poor houses of the “indigenous” inhabitants of the spit are neat, there are many flowers in the courtyards, everything is fragrant!
15 A children's playground with a stone fireman who came from nowhere...
16 And an indispensable monument to the Great Patriotic War. On the Curonian Spit he is represented as a copy of the Bronze Soldier from Tallinn, who bows his head and holds a helmet in his hand. But the sculptors miscalculated the size, and the soldier turned out to be a grotesque dwarf.
18 A fence is generally an invariable attribute of any house in Russia. I would be surprised if they weren't here.
19 Beware, evil master!
20 Behind another chain-link fence is a yacht marina.
21 It’s easy to get into the territory through a hole in the fence, but there’s nothing to do there: you won’t see any yachts, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to watch an old motor boat being pulled out of the water by an SUV and taken away.
22 On the Russian side of the spit there is a single gas station, between Rybachy and Morskoye. Please note that they do not accept cards there. However, in Lithuania they will take any cards: only the price of fuel is twice as high!
23 Marine. The last village of the Curonian Spit from the Russian side. There is nothing to tell about him. To be honest, I had been planning to travel this route for a long time, but in the end I was somewhat disappointed: it is very difficult to write about the life of three villages, since almost no one lives here permanently, these are more like summer cottages.
24 People don’t litter, and people don’t take out garbage.
25 There is nothing else to do on the Russian side of the spit, so we went to Lithuania.
26 Lucky, there wouldn’t be a queue at the border. We passed both the Russian and Lithuanian sides in about thirty minutes. No surprises, even boring.
27 On the Lithuanian side, the Curonian Spit is the same road through the forest. There are two villages here, Nida and Juodkrante. Further on, the city of Klaipeda, which you need to get to by ferry, in one place the spit was washed away. So, the road is exactly the same. But on the Lithuanian side, bicycle paths suddenly appear in the middle of the forest. Now remember the beginning of the report!
28 Nida itself is a resort village. 1,200 people live here, a little more than in Rybachy.
29 Here is the same Curonian Lagoon as in Russian villages.
30 But there is a real marina with a bunch of yachts.
31 I found myself in Nida on a day off, when some kind of open-air festival was being held near the port. Stage, beer in plastic cups, title sponsors.
32 The village itself is almost as quiet as Rybachye or Morskoye. There are electric tuk-tuks on the main street.
33 Just a few kilometers from the border, but what a difference it makes. Neat wooden houses, red tiles, completely pedestrian streets...
34 Girls at the market catch Pokemon.
35 While their mother is peeling potatoes.
36 And then you realize that something is wrong on this side of the spit. Bike paths again. This Europe will not lead to any good!
37 Not only are there public toilets, they are also marked. There are paths for pedestrians and roads for cars, and no one bothers anyone.
38 Nida even has a fishing pier, and restaurants serve fresh Baltic fish.
39 It’s dangerous to let Russians out here. The border is close, easy to get into. But they might like all this!
40 Before I found myself on the spit, I imagined everything approximately this way. Why can't it be like this for us?
41 It’s simple: in Russia, the spit is a nature reserve, where you can’t even sneeze for no reason. Tourists are allowed in almost out of pity, so as not to cause harm. For example, you can’t even walk on sand dunes - the nature is too harsh. For Lithuanians, Kosa is a resort. A place where people come to hang out, take a walk, and eat in a restaurant on the shore.
43 On the way back I finally got out to the sea. I left the car in a parking lot near the road and walked along the boardwalks. They led me to a nudist beach, and I got ready to undress.
44 This was not necessary, it was not hot outside, and everyone around was dressed. We met the Baltic Sea for five minutes: we managed to capture the last bright colors of the sunset.
I wonder if it was the same during the Soviet years?
Yesterday I talked about the horrors of a Russian resort on the Baltic Sea. The people of Kaliningrad were excited, but they didn’t smell like their own.
Very close, an hour and a half drive from the kebab town of Svetlogorsk, there is the village of Nida.
He is the complete opposite. Lithuania's answer to what an inexpensive resort on the Baltic should be like.
1 Let's see what the Svetlogorsk embankment looks like. Already, the strip of the promenade is crowded with all sorts of merchants who interfere with the passage.
2 In Nida there are more than enough places for celebrations. If only for the sake of these endless pedestrian paths, you can cross the border, and at the same time see the beautiful Curonian Spit from both sides.
3 You can rent a bike and go explore the surrounding area. As far as I remember, there are also bikes in Svetlogorsk, but the terrain does not allow riding.
4 Let’s not idealize, there’s plenty of shit here too. The same advertising umbrellas with draft beer in plastic cups. Two weeks later I had already “forgotten” the photographs, and only then discovered that this was not Lithuania, but the same Svetlogorsk.
5 In fact, I saw a couple of burrs in Nida. The rest of the restaurants are not disgusting.
6 This is how street menus are designed in Russia. It’s generally unclear to the car what they forgot here - this is a pedestrian zone.
7 The same “inviting” menu in Lithuania. The meaning is the same, the difference is in the details. Well, they won’t go to this restaurant if they make a mistake. This is disrespect for clients.
8 And the umbrellas can be removed altogether! If it rains, people will move inside, there is enough space for everyone. In winter they won’t eat outside, this is the Baltic! It became interesting, do people generally not come to Svetlogorsk out of season?
9 Restaurant with a claim to design. At the same time, it is not at all expensive. And in general, it was set up in a Soviet building.
10 Children's corner.
11 The interior is simple. The decoration uses furniture from IKEA and wooden boxes, a lot of glass. It's inexpensive, looks stylish, what more do you need?
12 We need to come up with a concept. The “Vorona” restaurant appeared here not by chance.
13 The indigenous inhabitants of the Curonian Spit ate these birds and did not see anything indecent in it. They were called “crow biters”. Now such a dish will not be served to you openly, but a certain mystery remains.
14 There are many restaurants, all to suit a wide range of pockets. But none can compare with Svetlogorsk.
15 They also sell gifts for grandmothers - beads with amber. Where would we be without him?
16 Yantar is not only for pensioners. A man made of a wooden ball decided to prove this. He also sells the famous Baltic stone.
17 But his amber is special. Beads and bracelets are made of pressed black amber, interspersed with regular amber. The man said something about nanotechnology, but I honestly forgot. This trinket looks much more modern. Costs twenty euros.
18 This is the Nida resort that our Svetlogorsk is located in. Despite the fact that they don’t even have a sea, only a bay.
If interested, here are recent photos of the Curonian Spit from the Lithuanian side (for comparison).
1. By ferry from Klaipeda (the spit is not adjacent to “mainland” Lithuania). The plans are to ride around Neringa and return to Palanga the same day. Ferries run approximately every 20 minutes.
2. This is the Lithuanian road on the spit. It feels like a “4” plus. For the ferry in both directions we paid 40 litas (€ 11.6) + 2.6 litas (€ 0.75) per person + 20 litas (€ 5.8) environmental fee when entering the spit. (No receipt, maybe I made a slight mistake.) 
3. Town "Juodkrante". Small and cute. We had breakfast at a cafe near the road. 
4.
5. Sculpture on the embankment of the bay in Juodkrante. 
6. Village of Pervalka. Cute little houses. 
7.
8. Lighthouse in Pervalka. We stopped by for him, but he was far away. We didn't swim. 
9. City of Nida. The main flow of vacationers on Neringa is directed here. The main problem in Nida is parking.
Embankment. 
10. View of the Curonian Lagoon (Nida). 
11. Traditional fishing weather vanes in Lithuania. 
12. Parnidžio dune - observation deck with views of the dunes, bay and Russia. 
13.
14.
15. Let's return. Docks of Klaipeda. 
I’m not sure if you got the impression of Neringa from 15 photos, but we liked it there. Civilized, beautiful and cozy. We hope to write about Lithuania soon on
The Curonian Spit is a natural reserve in which several worlds are combined in miniature. Scientists call the Curonian Spit “a museum of diverse natural zones,” since on the territory of the spit visitors can encounter various landscapes: from birch forests to sandy deserts.
At its widest point, the Curonian Spit reaches 3.8 kilometers, and at its narrowest only 400 meters, the total length of the spit is 98 kilometers, the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit stretches 50 kilometers to the north and south.
It is almost impossible to visit Lithuania and not visit the Lithuanian part of the reserve: literally on every kilometer of the spit there are endless coniferous and deciduous forests, bird colonies, sand dunes, as well as historical, cultural and natural attractions, museums, villages, campsites, hotels, a national park and sea. The territory of the Curonian Spit even has its own anomalous zone.
History of the Curonian Spit
In the 9th century, pagan Curonian tribes lived on the territory of the spit - hence the name of the spit. According to legends, tribes worshiped ancient trees and danced around them. The forest was a real shrine for the Curonians - one of the Christian missionaries from Prague, Wojciech Adalbert, even lost his life for entering the sacred forest.
In the 12th century, Vikings settled on the Curonian Spit and used trees to build their light and fast drakars. But even then the sacred groves of the Curonian Spit remained untouched. The threat to the forests appeared only in the 16th century, when the lands went to the Prussians: Prussian kings and nobles hunted in the groves, the forests on the spit began to be barbarically cut down, which led to catastrophic consequences - by the end of the 18th century, sand began to cover roads and deserts, and the spit became turn into desert. By decision of the Prussian administration, the sands were stabilized by planting bushes, then scientists, surveyors and foresters came to the territory of the spit.
After World War II, the Curonian Spit was transferred to the Soviet Union and domestic foresters continued work to restore the territory of the spit. Since 2000, the Curonian Spit has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Attractions Smiltyne
In the northern part of the Curonian Spit in the Smiltyne region there is the Maritime Aquarium Museum, which is located in an ancient German bastion fortress of the 19th century. The Museum complex includes many thematic exhibitions dedicated to marine fauna and flora, the history of Lithuanian shipbuilding, shipping, merchant and military fleets. The Museum houses picturesque aquariums containing:
- More than 40 species of fish from Lithuanian lakes, rivers and the Baltic Sea (catfish, barbel, chub, grayling, whitefish, eels, saberfish).
- Tropical freshwater fish (including the huge moray eel).
- Invertebrate inhabitants of coral reefs (molluscs, starfish and urchins).
The exhibition of prepared animals includes the entire spectrum of marine life: from sponges to mammals or birds. In the outdoor pools, visitors can see penguins, seals and sea lions.
On the territory of the Museum there is also a collection of ancient anchors collected throughout the country; the life of Lithuanian fishermen is shown in an ethnographic exhibition located on the territory of a former fishing village - there are national huts and ships on which fishermen went to the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic.
There is a dolphinarium next to the museum. In summer, the dolphinarium hosts colorful performances with the participation of California sea lions and Black Sea dolphins. The dolphinarium also houses a special dolphin therapy center for adults and children. 
Southern villages of the Curonian Spit
Near the southern village of the spit - Juodkrante, there is the Mountain of Witches, which was a sacred place of the Curonians. During the Inquisition, pagans from all over Europe came to the mountain, located on a small island and protected from the guardians of law and order, to worship the Mother Goddess and natural forces. Now on Witch Mountain there is a theme park decorated with carved wooden sculptures. Attentive visitors to the park will even be able to spot the devil frolicking at a village party. On the territory of the embankment itself there are already collected stone sculptures. 
Even further south are other small villages - Pervalka and Preila, founded by residents of villages buried under the dunes. From these southern settlements you can easily reach the Naglu nature reserve, the Jirgu lighthouse or climb to the top of the fifty-meter Skirpstas dune.
The next southern settlement of the Curonian Spit is Nida, the largest settlement in the Lithuanian part of the spit, which existed during the times of the Crusaders. Nida is home to several historical and ethnographic museums, the famous Nida Lighthouse and the Amber Museum. In the vicinity of the village there are the highest dunes of the Curonian Spit, and at the top of the Parniggio dune there is a huge sundial.
Miniature Amber Museum, located at: st. Pamario, 20, Nida, talks about the origin of Baltic amber and its morphology, the history of the development of local fishing.
In the museum, visitors can see a unique collection of inclusions - minerals with insects inside. The museum's gallery contains designer jewelry and accessories with unusual, original, modern designs.
In the exhibition hall of the Nida cultural center “Agila”, visitors can view and buy graphic, painting, sculptural works and photographs of artists.
Dancing Forest
From Nida the road leads to the famous dancing, drunken forest of the Curonian Spit. In the area of the village of Rybachy, ancient pines, planted back in the 60s of the last century, have taken on very strange forms: they are tied in knots, bending, reminiscent of wildly dancing people. Scientists do not have a clear answer about the reasons for this anomalous natural phenomenon. To many, the grove seems mysterious and mystical.
Not many people know that on the lands of the grove there was a gliding school of the Third Reich, since on the territory of the Curonian Spit there are ideal conditions for gliders - even winds and landing strips made of sand. It was here that pilots from Germany set their glider flight range and altitude records.
The main attraction of the Curonian Spit, its wealth and calling card, which attracts many curious tourists and visitors here, are the white sand dunes, the same dunes that once destroyed the houses of residents of local villages and which were successfully stopped by the efforts of scientists and wildlife. A walk along the sand dunes gives the impression of the unreality of what is happening, since after a few steps tourists completely forget about the sea and the bay located on either side of the dunes, they have an incomparable feeling of desert loneliness and melancholy.
The movement of sand dunes these days is strictly limited, since the Curonian Spit is reliably protected by bushes, pine forests, and grasses. However, in 2 natural reserves, scientists left the dunes free, where they can move freely across the entire Curonian Spit, being born near the sea shore, crossing the spit and ending their existence in the bay.
Ferries of the Curonian Spit
The territory of the Curonian Spit can only be reached by ferry, of which there are two on the spit:
- The old crossing only carries cyclists and pedestrians.
- The new ferry crossing is already transporting cars.
The Curonian Spit is very popular among cyclists, since part of the European cycling route R1 runs along the Lithuanian part of the spit from Nida to Smiltyne, and there are local bicycle paths in the vicinity of other villages. There are also routes Nida - Klaipeda, Klaipeda - Palanga-Latvian border and Klaipeda - Silute - Rusne.
Ferry schedule
The old ferry operates according to the following schedule (Lithuanian time):
- Departure from Klaipeda: first flight at 07:00, last at 21:00 (ferry runs every 30 minutes).
- Departure from Smiltyne: first flight at 07:15, and last at 21:15 (every half hour).
The new ferry operates on the following schedule:
- Departure from Klaipeda: first ferry departure at 05:40, last departure at 00:10 (every 40 minutes).
- Departure from Smiltyne: first flight at 06:00, last at 00:30 (every 40 minutes).
Ticket prices
For those traveling with their own car, only the new ferry service is suitable. From Smiltyne to the southernmost village of the Curonian Spit - Nida, tourists can get:
- By local bus.
- By your car.
- By taxi.
Visitors to the spit should keep in mind that there is a fee for cars to enter the territory of the Curonian Spit National Park: payment is made at the tenth kilometer of the only highway on the Curonian Spit.
The Alksnine post is equipped with special payment machines that only accept cash bills of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 litas; change for tourists is given in coins. During payment on the machine panel, you must select one of the buttons corresponding to the vehicle.
Thus, the passage of a passenger car with a capacity of up to 9 people in the summer will cost visitors 20 litas. The nearest ATMs are located near the crossing.
The cost of the ferry crossing is as follows:
- Crossing a pedestrian or cyclist: 2.9 lit.
- Ferry crossing of a small animal (for example, a dog): 5 litas.
- Scooter crossing: from 5 to 18 litas.
- Cost of transporting a car by ferry: 40 litas.
Every tourist who comes to Lithuania must visit the Lithuanian part of the unique nature reserve - the Curonian Spit. It should be noted that you can get to Vilnius by train and. Russians require a visa when visiting Lithuania. Read how to arrange it yourself.
Curonian Spit is a 97-kilometer strip of land between the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. More than 5,000 years ago, it was formed by sea waves and currents, sand and wind. Today it is a unique natural monument. A light strip of land, the unique relief of which is formed by the sea and wind, the highest sand dunes in northern Europe. Humans have a lot to do with true uniqueness. In the XV-XVII centuries. Forests were cut down, and the sand dunes that covered the villages began to move. After the ruthless destruction of forests on the Curonian Spit, man himself began restoration work. Two hundred years ago they began to form a protective dune embankment and plant forests. Only deliberate human activity could protect against natural disasters. The restoration process was long and difficult, so the real vegetation, rare plants characteristic only of this region, require special care and great and constant attention.
The flora of the Curonian Spit National Park includes about 900 species of plants (of which 31 are listed in the Red Book of Lithuania), about 40 species of mammals and about 300 species of birds are found. In 2000 The Curonian Spit National Park was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural landscape object in the system of natural and cultural heritage values. Currently, the Curonian Spit is equal to such national parks as Iguazu (Argentina), Kakadu (Australia), Kaziranga (India), Tongariro (New Zealand).
The northern and largest part of the Curonian Spit belongs to the Republic of Lithuania. The rest belongs to the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation. In 1923, the northern part of the Curonian Spit (an area 52 km long) went to the Republic of Lithuania. In 1939-1945, all of Neringa belonged to Germany. The summer of 1944 was decisive for the Curonian Spit. As the front approached, all local residents were forced to retreat into the depths of Germany and many of them never returned. The centuries-old cultural tradition of the Curonian Spit, where the German, Lithuanian languages, the language of the Kurshininki tribe, and their customs were intertwined, was cut short. The natives of Neringa, who for several centuries created a unique ethnic society of fishermen, disappeared. All that remained were dunes, forests and deserted fishermen's villages. In the post-war period, the territory was inhabited by newcomers from Greater Lithuania and other republics that belonged to the then Soviet Union.
After World War II, the northern part of the peninsula again passed to Lithuania. The part of Neringa currently belonging to the Republic of Lithuania (0.8 thousand hectares) is administered by the municipality of the city of Klaipeda, and the rest (about 25.6 thousand hectares) by the municipality of Neringa. The southern part of the spit belongs to the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation.
Basic facts about the Curonian Spit:
area - 180 km 2
length - about 98 km
beach width - from 10 to 50 meters
the widest point is at Cape Bulvikis (4 km northwest of Nida) - 3.8 km
the narrowest place is near the village of Sharkuva, in the Karaliauchus region - 380 m.
in Neringa there are only about 2 km 3 sand
forests occupy 6852 hectares (70% of the land)
arable land - 5 hectares, pastures, meadows - 17 hectares, inland waters - 1 hectares, roads - 232 hectares, sands - 2485 hectares, buildings - 152 hectares, swamps - 28 hectares, gardens - 2 hectares.
USEFUL INFORMATION about Neringa
- Lithuanian Maritime Museum
Interesting. Not everyone knows that Lithuanian dunes are the highest in Eastern Europe. Another local attraction is wild beggar boars. They are so used to people that they come out of the forest onto the road and stop cars in the hope of getting food.