Lithuania Travel Forum

Friends!

We are visiting Lithuania for a little over then a week, having a rather tight schedule and mostly set route of roads we need to stick to.

My mother had been born in Lithuania but only spent time there as a child in the 50’s when everything was different… We (she and us, her sons) would like to include between the well known sites, and places we are scheduled to visit, some visits of nature sites, forests and nice lakes as to “feel” Lithuanian nature the way locals are doing when just heading for a half day nature trip, or picnic. We arrive in August and have a rented car (family car).

Our route, hence places we will have time to visit close to the roads, are:

Riga-Birzai-Pasvalys-Siauliai: one day from 8AM, ending in Siauliai. I know the area of Birzai and its sites, but rest of places I don’t.

In another day we head from Siauliai to Seduva, so have a few extra hours.

On the way from Siauliai to Palanga, we stop at “Plunge” and have some time to wander around.

Generally speaking we would like to take 2 picnics and short walks “on route” so look for a nice combination of forest, nature and most of all: easy to find place! Not nationally known famous park, just pure nature for someone driving a VW Passat, not hiking shoes…

I have a detailed Michlin map and am good with navigating and maps.

BTW: is it generally safe (for your somewhat new car) to stop near a local road and walk to places that era not in full view?

Thank you for all your help!

Hi. In this area, as well as in most of other areas near the main roads, there are almost no any interesting natural places, I mean there is no them in general, but usually one can see some forests and some rivers and some river valleys en route, so you better expect that sooner or later you'll come across the one and then you'll be able to have a picnic. But: the area is totally agricultural and totally plane (except Samogitian Hights around Plunge), and no lakes in this part of the country. There are some reservoirs where locals swim etc, but not on your route. Birzai lake is the only real lake on your route.
So, bear that in your mind, and here are some suggestions for you:

It's good that you have a good map, but since i don't see it, I'll tell as if you have no map. From Birzai drive directly to Pakruojis (road No 150), turn to the town itself (it's not on the road)and go as if going to Linkuva (road No 151), i.e. turn right (North-East) in the centre. There is a park of Pakruojis manor estate, the link http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakruojo_dvaras , but not in English. And here you can see the other part of Pakruojis, in this case you need to turn left from the centre: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/lt/0/06/Pakruojis.JPG
Tne reservoir is almost in the centre, and as you can see, there probably not very good place for picnic, but at least you have large "amount" of water ;). And the manor estate is not in the centre, it's actually on the outskirts and near the road to Linkuva. Also, if you drive further on Linkuva direction, some 3-5 km, you'll reach an area for the recreation by the right side. But it's also not visible from the road: on the map there is marked a "garden area" by the road, and beyond it there is a former dolomite quarry, overgrown with forest and with numerous ponds, suitable for swimming. Between this place (called 'Petrashiunu karjeras') and the main road Birzai-Siauliai there is about 6 km, all the area is overgrown with forest.
So this place is worth to check out, at least not less than some other. And there is a nice "inn" on the crossroad to Pakruojis, it's next to the other side of that forest array I've mentioned.
From Siauliai drive to Plunge, there is no suitable places to rest, if I remember correcly (once i've hitch-hiked all that road), the main area for the recreation is more south: Kurtuvenai forest near Kurtuvenai village, you would have to drive Kelme direction a bit, then turn west to Kurtuvenai. And then you'd have to drive towars Telshiai via Saukenai and Luoke, to reach the main road, so it's probably not for you as your time is limited. Better consider to go to Plateliai: from Plunge turn north to Plateliai and go directly to the lake. But again: it's a hop aside. And near the road there is nothing special. Probably you can stop for a while in Kartena (between Plunge and Kretinga): there is a nice river valley, rather nice surroundings, once we drove thru, but didn't stop as our time was extremely limited :(.

Thank you very much for that!

BTW: I have a Michelin map, you can see how it looks also on their web site: www.viamichelin.com.

I guess that the forest (and dolomite quarry) you refer to is the free area where the writing “SIAULIU APSKRITIS” is shown (on the specific map in this site)?

As for the large forested between Siauliai and Kelme: it is actually definitely possible, as we stay for 2 days in Siauliai, and it looks as if you can reach there within 20 minutes drive. Is there a web site with pictures and some maps of the area? Don’t mind it not being in English, just for a general impression?

Regards

Not sure if i was searchig correctly (entered Lith... in the lower line on "find the map"), but the writting "SIAUL... APSKR..." is between Pakruojis and Šiauliai - no, enter Pakruojis above 'Lithuania' and you got a normal scheme of Pakruojis town, with the road numbers marked on. Road No 150 below and road No 151 North-East. Follow it up to Petrašiunai. There is a forest by the eastern side of the road, and 2 ponds North of the forest, written "Petrašiunu tv.", means 'ponds of Petrashiunai'.
Well, the map is good, especially satelite data (though need to zoom out), but i hate those online maps because you can't see the whole and the context. And you need to have an "equipment" to look at it :).
So, the free and narrow area between road 151 and the forest is "the gardens", i.e. the area built up with the summer houses and the gardens around. It is fenced up (though not necessarily), but one can enter it without the restrictions, just you need to get to the North-eastern corner - there may be a gate or something. And you'll be able to ask how to get in there or something. Actually, the main entrance is in Petrashiunai itself, in the north, and it is an 'industrial" entrance, i don't know where at the average visitors must get in. There was a cool report over TV with sort of invitation to visit it, but it's too far for me, so far :))). Last autumn we just passed it by, but it was a terrible rush from a funeral, and it was to cold anyway.
As for the maps, i use the maps of "Lithuania regions" (Lietuvos regionai), it is a series of the maps (1 cost about 14 Lits), and the good thing is that there is the tourist "objects" marked on, just the icons, like "manor", "wind-mill", "big tree", "big boulder", "fort-hill", etc. You can see how they look like: www.briedis.eu , at the top-right mark tick on "Pazintiniai:", then choose Formatas -> "Lankstyti", regionas -> "Lietuvos regionu", click "Ieškoti". You'll see them all, all red/green ones. If you decide to obtain some, you'll know how they look like.

Kurtuvenai website currently don't work, maybe due to crisis, mayby they decided to refuse to keep it for a while. Their e-mail was info@kurtuva.lt . One can book the dinner, horse riding, accomodation, etc. Here is an article and few photos: http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurtuv%C4%97n%C5%B3_regioninis_parkas , and here are more photos: http://www.travel.lt/turizmas/selectPage.do?docLocator=7DADF86189B511DA8602746164617373&inlanguage=lt

Some map should be here: http://www.travel.lt/turizmas/map.do?tool=16&id=5866&layerid=6&code=550120&xmin=426237.0&ymin=6178542.0&xmax=440903.0&ymax=6193208.0

There was a downloadable map, but since their website doesn't work it is not accesable now. One can buy it at the spot, there is an "Informacijos centras", and BTW, in Shiauliai there is an "Turizmo informacijos centras" too (closed on Sundays). They have some maps for free.

So this area (Kurtuvenai forest) is one of the coolest places, and you also can visit a Shatrija fort-hill on a way from Kurtuvenai toward Telshiai. http://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0atrija

. It is near Luoke village. "To visit" means to climb up. If the weather is good it surely worth. And one can have a picnic on the top (unless it will be occupied by others, but the site is rather large, i.e. it's enough place for many, so you can take some meal with you and just rest there for a while.) Šatrija is a genuine "witches hill", as it is built by witches, and the word "šatra" means 'withe', 'rod', etc.

Now i found the writting "Siaul.. apskr..." east of Pakruojis, right on the forest, but if i zoom in or out, it disappears, don't know if this elusive writting is the one you was talking about ;). Another reason to hate those online maps :))).

Hello,
just few ideas: if you are near Plunge, it means near Plateliai town, so Plateliai lake is the place to stop. Please look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Plateliai
There are also places for staying over night, picnic places, and not far there is a nice old town called "Zemaiciu kalvarija". It is known as a major site for Catholic pilgrimage, maybe it will be interesting to your mother to walk the old and most famoust piligrims road in Lithuania, visiting lot of small chappels in the nice nature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BDemai%C4%8Di%C5%B3_Kalvarija
I also would recomend you to install the Lithuanian Topo map to your navigation, because European map is not so exact.
When looking for map on internet, I use just a google map.http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10800360
This is lake near Seduva (5km), called Arimaiciu ezeras (lake)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quested/36113598/in/photostream/

there is a small hotel on the lake side, if you need to stay over night and to park your car safely: http://www.zirnelis.lt/lt/galerija/2/