Kaunas Travel Forum

We are travelling to Kaunas in June 2008 to trace family roots. Can anyone please advise how easy or difficult it is to travel by bus from Kaunas to Luksiai( Sakiai ), length of journey and rough prices. Grandfather born there and ggrandparents buried there somewhere.
Many thanks

Although I have never went to Sakiai I have been to Kaunas. I am sure there are coaches (Autobuses) to Sakiai. It would be about 1 hour ride and should not cost more than 2 or 3 GBP (10 LTL).
Since you are flying into Kaunas, it is most likely is on Ryanair that gets there at 21:00 or later. By the time you go thru passport control and get luggage it is too late to get city bus to the AUTOBUS station. Even if you did, there would be no coach or bus to Sakiai until morning. If you are going to stay in a hotel in Kaunas overnight, you will need to call a taxi if there is none waiting at the airport. If you do not plan on staying in a hotel, I would stay in the Airport until the first city bus at 05:15 or so. The Autobus Stotis
(Coach Station) is cold and may not be the safest place at night. Of course the Airport is not very warm either, but in June it will not be too bad. At least there is a Police presence at the airport all night. Please don't get me wrong, Kaunas is not a bad place, but one never knows about characters in a bus station
anywhere. I wonder if you have a place to stay in Sakiai or vicinity? There may not be many hotels there? Good luck on your quest. If you have difficulty locating family records, try the local Catholic Churches. They sometimes have records going back 100 years or so.

Thanks for your response. We are indeed flying with Ryanair, but we intend staying in Kaunas as a base and exploring from there, so any ideas are gratefully recieved. Thanks again

Hello,
how many people will come? I will look for the best posibility for you when I know how big is your team ;-)
have a nice day

Hello,
There will only be my husband and myself coming to Kaunas. His family (S^lapikas and Orent) came from Luksiai in Sakiai area. We would like to know how difficult it is to get to Luksiai from Kaunas as that is where we will have to search the graveyard and church records for his family.
Any advise would be very helpful
Thank you

It should be easy to get to Lukšiai, just try to do it as early as possible. Kaunas bus station's website currently is in "updating process" (temporary don't work), so i can't say the exact schedule. www.kautra.lt
If you stay in Kaunas first, you have 2 options to get the accurate info: Kaunas Tourism Information Centre, their office in the city's centre, address Laisves al.(the main street, "Freedom's Lane")36, info@kaunastic.lt (closed at weekends)
, and another option - at the Bus Station ("Autobusu stotis") information window "informacija".
Now i don't remember precisely the directions at the bus station, but the system is rather simple: each platform is a separate direction towards the large towns around, thus you have to look for the direction ("kryptis") to either Šakiai or Kudirkos Naumiestis, you can look at this map to get the impression about the route: http://www.supertravelnet.com/map/1/201_5054_7.jpg
The bus destination will be either to Kybartai (via Šakiai), or to Kudirkos Naumiestis, or to Šakiai. Just ask the driver "Shuckay?" (stress on the ending, exactly like in the words 'way', 'day', 'may', o letter 'K').
Now you have 2 options again: either go to Šakiai (it's a district centre), then take a local bus (can be confusing) or a taxi to Lukšiai, or buy a ticket to Lukšiai itself, it's on the way to Šakiai and driver can drop you there in any case. But keep in mind, it's a small town (village), there can be dificult to find the taxi, and the bus schedulle to Kaunas may exist just in the mind of the locals. It's more reasonable to look for the transport back to Kaunas in the district centres, in this case in Šakiai.
Here is a map/scheme of šakiai town (ignore that red arrow): http://www.sakiai.rvb.lt/images/zemelap.jpg
, the bus station mark you can see near the lake's bottom - the "A" in the circle.
Oh, and Lukšiai sounds like "look-shay", stress also on the ending. Here is the website on Lukšiai http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luk%C5%A1iai

brrr
Thank you so very much for your reply, we really appreciate it. Your directions and the links for maps are great.
thanks