Saturday 9th August – Vilnius, Lithuania

• Arrive at your own leisure into Vilnius – the capital city of Lithuania is well connected with many European countries. Self-transfer to our centrally located hotel.
• Pre-tour meeting will be held at the lobby of our hotel at 6:00pm to discuss the tour itinerary and to meet your fellow travellers and YPT guide.
• We’ll head out for dinner to a traditional restaurant, which serves delicious local cuisine. We recommend trying pierogi, a stuffed dumpling filled with meat or vegetables, or Kotlet Schabowy similar to the Vienna schnitzel.
• For those inclined, we’ll check out the beautiful Old Town, the oldest part of the city, and grab a few locally brewed beers and vodka.
• Overnight stay in Vilnius.

Sunday 10th August – Vilnius – Kaliningrad, Russia

Morning

• Early morning start with breakfast at our hotel before we meet our local guides and depart to the Russian exclave by private transportation. The scenic journey takes around 4 hours. Once we reach the border your guides will assist with the immigration process.
• On arrival to Kaliningrad, we’ll check into our hotel before we head out to discover the exclave. Kaliningrad derives from the original Germans city name of Königsberg – you’ll notice the rich German architectural heritage here.
• Your first stop will be the Nazi command bunker museum, technically called the Blindage Museum. It tells the harrowing history of the last days of the Second World War. These are the last days of Königsberg and inside you can see how the city fell to Soviet Forces on the rampage of vengeance towards Berlin. Built by slave labour, the bunker’s gate is made of thick steel wire and is covered in runic symbols supposedly meant to give supernatural defence to the German forces inside it.
• We will then visit fort 11, part of a series of Prussian forts that were a significant part of the unrelenting battle between the Soviets and the Nazis. Those forts are now museums and still littered with war damage, artillery pieces and Soviet monuments dedicated to WW2.

Afternoon

• You’ll then have the rare chance to roam around significant piece of Cold War history: an excellently maintained Foxtrot-class Soviet nuclear submarine.
• See an original Nazi Kreigsmarine ship. Vityaz is a research vessel that was built in 1939 and served with the Kriegsmarine during World War II until she was seized by the British in 1945.
• The House of Soviets nearby is worth a look. You’ll see why the locals often refer to it as the “buried robot”.
• See Victory Square with its hulking Soviet monument and The Brandenburg Gate which is one of seven surviving city gates from the former German city of Königsberg.
• After a busy day, we’ll head out for dinner at a local restaurant which serves Zeppelins – giant balls of mashed potato stuffed with various fillings and drenched in cheese sauce.
• For those inclined we’ll head for some drinks and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
• Overnight stay in Kaliningrad

Monday 11th August – Baltiysk – Baltics Split – Kaliningrad

Morning

• Breakfast at our hotel before we explore Mother Russia’s westernmost edge!
• We’ll take the ferry to get to the mysterious wild Baltic Spit where your guide will tell you stories about Great Patriotic War.
• On the way, we’ll explore some destroyed and abandoned German era buildings and a typical soviet town called Svetliy.
• You’ll be visiting the Heart of the Baltic fleet in the city Baltiysk. It is a huge Russian navy base located on the Baltic Sea and has only been opened to foreigners since 1995 – this is dependent on the security situation.
• Lunch at a local café. There are very few tourists visiting this region so it’s a perfect opportunity to interact with the friendly locals.

Afternoon

• Back to the city, we’ll be taking in sights such as the pentagonal Pillau Citadel, founded by the Swedes in 1626, completed by the Prussians in 1670, renovated in 1870 and currently holding an impressive naval museum.
• We’ll visit the ruins of the 13th-century Lochstadt Castle; a maze of 19th-century naval fortifications; the Naval Cathedral of St. George the 32-metre Expressionist observation tower the Gothic Revival building of the Baltic Fleet Museum, and an elegant Lighthouse, dating from 1813. A stone cross, erected in 1830 to commemorate the supposed spot of St. Adalbert of Prague’s martyrdom, was destroyed by the Soviets and restored a millennium after the event, in 1997.
• Return back to Kaliningrad for dinner followed by drinks at a local bar.
• Overnight stay in Kaliningrad

Tuesday 12th August – Curonian spit – Kaliningrad

Morning

• Breakfast at the hotel before we travel to the Curonian spit.
• It took several thousand years for the spit to shape out from the sands blown by the wind and dragged by the sea waves and to finally form a narrow sandy neck of land that separates the Curonian Gulf from the Baltic Sea and connects the Kaliningrad region with Lithuania. Its widest part is 3.8 km and the narrowest point is 400 meters.
• For lunch, we’ll head to a local restaurant overlooking the Spit. We recommend trying Königsberger meatballs alongside potatoes. There are also plenty of vegetarian options to choose from.

Afternoon

• Your next stop will be Raul’s battery route, a fortification built on the Curonian Spit on the eve of the Second World War.
• This place has no rivals in the world. Try to cross the spit from gulf to sea and you will notice how the landscape changes from a bare desert to a pine forest. The size of the Curonian spit is astonishing, it has no analogies in the world; its majestic scenery and the lavishness of the flora and fauna is simply amazing, varying from the taiga-like plants, mountain pines, and alder-trees to the tumbleweeds rolling in the deserts of the sand dunes rising to 70 meters high.
• Return to Kaliningrad city for our last dinner in the enclave and celebrate our time here with a few drinks.
• Overnight stay in Kaliningrad.

Wednesday 13th August – Kaliningrad – Vilnius, Lithuania

• Last breakfast at our hotel before we depart Kaliningrad and head towards Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania.
• Including the border crossing, we’ll arrive in the early afternoon at the earliest.
• Tour concludes with private transportation to Vilnius.
• Continue your Soviet adventure to Belarus: Back in the USSR Tour!
• YPT can arrange additional nights in Vilnius and airport drop off for a fee. We are more than happy to provide advice for ongoing flight.

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