Vilnius Travel Forum

Hi there,
I will be in Baltic nations and Helsinki in August.
Can anyone help me the following?.
As for traveling from Vilnius to Riga, I would like to stop at Siauliai
to see the Hill of Crosses for a couple of hours along the way.

The possible choices of the routes I have in mind are:
1) Vilnius to Kaunas - Siauliai to Riga... two days trip
Staying over night at Kaunas and departing next morning from
Kaunas for Siauliai to visit the Hill of Crosses for a couple of hours,
then moving on to Riga in the same day.
2) Vilnius to Riga via Siauliai... one day trip:
Leaving Vilnius early morning for Siauliai to visit the Hill of Crosses
for a couple of hours and moving on to Riga to arrive in a day.

Can I take either choice without any problem?
I should take either buse or train for this itinerary. Which choice is
better? How can I find proper time schedule at website?

I've checked website and found the given information might not be
appropriate to my inquiry. There must be some place where I can
get proper information... I have not hit the right one yet??

Many thanks in advance
Kuniko

Hi, a few years ago we travelled from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn, we did it all by eurolines bus, that was easy, we prebooked the tickets via the eurolines website, we did not go to Siauliai, on the Rigabus info site they have a link for a trip to Siauliai, we did not go there and also have not visited Kaunas,
when in Riga please make a daytrip to Sigulda, this is such a beautiful place!! It is great if you are into walking and castles!
Vilnius is also great, if you like forests, nature and art, visit Europos Parkas: www.europosparkas.lt

here are links for the buses:

www.eurolines.com

www.rigabus.info

http://tic.siauliai.lt/article/archive/193/

Hello,
my recomendation is to go from Vilnius to Siauliai by buss. Then in Šiauliai buss station you can take a buss to Joniskis direction(every our starting at 7:25, last 15:40), you have to go by this buss to Domantai village. From the stop in Domantai you will have to walk 2 km to the hill of crosses. The same way is back. Then from Siauliai you will get the buss to Riga.
From Siauliai you can reach Cross hill also by special buss from the buss station, but it runs only on Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 10:25 and brings people back to Siauliai starting at 15:07 from Cross Hill.
I got this information from Siauliai turism center, if you need some details you could contact them for information : http://tic.siauliai.lt/en
Eurolines is a good choise for traveling to Riga.
Have a nice travel.

If you are few people, then maybe the best way is to get to Cross Hill by taxi from Siauliai, it is only twelve kilometers one way from the city. It will be most comfortable and really not expencive solution. If you are alone, then it will be more expencive than buss. You can always ask taxi driver what will be a price for going there, waiting for 30-40 minutes and comming back. Maybe you can contact Tourism info center to get advice for local taxi.

If you are interested to visit Sugihara house in Kaunas http://www.sugiharahouse.lt/index_jp.html, then you can go from the morning to Kaunas, then go to Siauliai ( I can tell you buss times, if you wish), visit Cross Hill and stay in Siauliai over night. Next morning you will go to Riga.

Hi,

In my personal view Hill of crosses is a waste of time. But if you really want to visit it you have take several things in account.

First, unless you are catholic and want to pray or take part in religious service there couple hours are too much. I imagine you can walk around for 30-60 minutes.

Second - as mentioned above to get there takes lots of time/coordination. No long-distance bus stops there, which means you have to go back to Siauliai and from there go to Riga. Also buses to Riga are not so frequent and leave in first half of the day. Some schedules you can find here:
http://www.busturas.lt/article/archive/283/
http://www.eurolines.ee/en/node/283
Do not think you can manage it without staying in Siauliai overnight.

Hi, Kuniko

you should check train and bus timetables at: www.litrail.lt and www.toks.lt
They have timetables in EN as well. I do not think that spending couple of hours in a hill of crosses is good idea... it inspires if you're staying there from half an hour to an hour, later it starts to press you... well all of us are different maybe you'll enjoy even longer stay. One suggestion to use a taxi from Siauliai is a good idea. As it was mentioned that it is only 12 km from the centre of Siauliai you can easily calculate the price of your trip to the hill of crosses as a price for 1 km by taxi in Lt starts from about 0,30 EUR and it is up to 0,60 Eur.
Have a nice trip!

Schedules for trains and buses inside LT:
http://www.118.lt/Pages/Transport/

about Trakai but I wanted to add one more place to stop enroute
Hi there,

To Lunaina:
Thank you for your useful information. Sigulda and Europos
Parkas sound interesting. If time allows I will definitely
stop by before leaving for Estonia.

To vaidotas:
Thank you for your useful advice. Yes, you are right,
Spending couple of hours in a hill of crosses is not worth.
It seems to be a waste of time. So, I decided to skip the
Hill of Crosses and am thinking of going to Trakai instead.

To Animosity123:
Appreciate your kind information. It really helps!

Thank you all nice guys above!!
Kuniko

Hi there,

Sorry!! I made a stupid error. Just forget about the
first line of my last message "about Trakai but I wanted
to add one more place to stop enroute" It means nothing.
The following is correct.

To Lunaina:
Thank you for your useful information. Sigulda and Europos
Parkas sound interesting. If time allows I will definitely
stop by before leaving for Estonia.

To vaidotas:
Thank you for your useful advice. Yes, you are right,
Spending couple of hours in a hill of crosses is not worth.
It seems to be a waste of time. So, I decided to skip the
Hill of Crosses and am thinking of going to Trakai instead.

To Animosity123:
Appreciate your kind information. It really helps!

Thank you all nice guys above!!
Kuniko