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The Curonian Spit is one of the places I would like to visit. As an EU citizen, the obvious approach is to focus on the Lithuanian side.

Nevertheless, I wonder if it is worthwhile to pay a visit to the Russian side of the spit in particular and to Kaliningrad in general. Is it worth incurring the additional hassle, such as e.g. obtaining a Russian visa? If yes, how much time would you allow? Is it something that could be done on a day trip from Lithuania or is it better to spend a couple of days in the Kaliningrad oblast?

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    [Russia expert mode on] When will you travel?[Russia expert mode off]
    – VMAtm
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 1:31
  • Not yet decided: travel.stackexchange.com/q/3826/766
    – user766
    Commented Dec 4, 2011 at 15:23
  • In 1994, I met two American foreign exchange students who were living in Kaliningrad, but who were taking a day trip to Gdansk (where I was also visiting). Like you, I'm really interested in visiting the oblast - but they were telling me that its an industrial pit, with all of the interesting stuff having been blown up in WWII (Amber Room, anyone?). I also remember it was a fairly expensive visa at the time...
    – Affable Geek
    Commented Dec 8, 2011 at 17:52
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    @Affable Geek Amber Room was in Pavlovsk, near Saint-Petersburg, and never were in Kaliningrad. In 2003 it had been reconstructed
    – VMAtm
    Commented Dec 9, 2011 at 5:57

2 Answers 2

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I think, the Curonian split is the same from both sides, Lithuanian and Russian side. So, if you are interested in only Split - you should not bother about visit the Kaliningrad. But:

As I've already said here, my mother is from Kaliningrad, and I've been there near half of my life, especially during summer holidays. I love this town, and my opinion is what you should visit it near for week. And what's why:

  1. The symbol of the town is the Königsberg_Cathedral:
    In 1982: enter image description here Nowadays:
    Cathedral enter image description here It is reconstructed now (and some work is still being made, but economic crisis brought some problems for this process), it's works as catolic and orthodox church, and has two museums inside - the Kant's museum and Cathedral history museum.
    Also there is the Kant's Tomb: enter image description here

  2. The fishers's district - this a small place near the Cathedral where you can get funny photoes, try some sea food and so on:
    enter image description here
    Door to nothere
    Romantic bench
    Pirate with monkey
    Modern sculpture
    Money bird

  3. the Amber museum. Very beatiful, amazing work inside.
    enter image description here

  4. City near Kaliningrad - Svetlogorsk. Small beautyfull city with many great places to walk and huge amount for the buying something made in amber.
    enter image description here
  5. If you are sea-interested person, or you are traveling with kids, you could be interested in visiting the Zoo enter image description here and Sea museum
    enter image description here
  6. A lot of ships are available for visiting, such as
    Vityaz:
    Vityaz
    Submarine B-413:
    enter image description here
    Cosmic ship:
    enter image description here
  7. Marine base in Baltiisk: enter image description here
  8. Reconstructered King's Gate (museum inside):
    enter image description here
  9. Restaurants inside old forts all over the town (on photo - Wrangel's cafe): enter image description here enter image description here
  10. Fort Friedrich Wilhelm III - memorial of the Second World War - for the extreme trip. If you can, find locals to get inside the memorial. It is awesome! enter image description here enter image description here
  11. And a lot lot more. You can even made a trip to the Gdansk - the buses are regular, 6 hours - and you are on place.

Some reports with more photoes (in Russian):

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  • You mention Baltijsk, but I'm quite sure that non-Russians are forbidden to visit. Is that no longer the case?
    – MrMartin
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 13:39
  • @MrMartin This city is no longer in "borders" zone, but one still need a permission to visit Baltijsk, which can be got (with some preparation and paperwork)
    – VMAtm
    Commented May 28, 2019 at 13:54
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VMAtm made a perfect answer about Kaliningrad, here are my two cents about Curonian Spit.

First of all, for me the Russia part and Lithuanian part do differ a lot. On the Russian part you could find:

  • Ornitological station, where you could see how ornitologists catch birds during their season migrations and put rings on them (last years you need to book a tour to get into it, and season migrations are in spring and autumn, of course)

  • 4-5 "eco-routes" that are very interesting to walk through. They are listed on the russian Wikipedia at but I hope you could translate it with Google Translate. See also: Dancing Forest.

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  • We liked trails very much when we were there.
    – alamar
    Commented May 17, 2018 at 16:40

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