Is Kaunas Europe’s Most Underrated City?
Before I forget, this is the video in case you prefer to watch a more complete version:
PART I: ORIENTATION
Kaunas is Lithuania’s second largest city (after Vilnius, the capital) situated in the centre of the country. It’s also an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. In fact, Kaunas was named European Capital of Culture of 2022.
We drove from Vilnius to Kaunas (around 100km) and stayed there for many days. Kristina’s family are from the Kaunas Region so it was also convenient to be around that area.
I was very open minded in terms of the places we were visiting but my only rule was to have coffee in Green Cafe to start the day. For some reason this is one of the places I love the most in Kaunas. They make delicious coffees in Laisvės alėja (Freedom avenue).
Also what you’ll notice a lot here is that Kaunas keeps the authentic spirit of the country as it’s not as international as Vilnius. In this video, a local friend expands on this.
PART II: GASTRONOMY
As mentioned before, Laisvės Alėja is the most iconic street in Kaunas, Lithuania. It stretches between the St. Michael the Archangel’s Byzantine-style church to the Central Post Office and Zoo Museum, around the Old Town.
Most of the gastronomy options are on that street or just nearby. In a future post I’d like to talk about the Restaurant Arrivée as we had a great time there.
There’s multiple options to eat and in many places you’ll feel more the Lithuanian culture whereas in Vilnius you’ll see more international options. In Kaunas, I always eat some kibinai (traditional pasties that are very well known in the city of Trakai). Typically get them in Kepyklėlė (bakery) but there’s always more options.
My recommendation is to walk all Laisvės Alėja first, see the places and then go to the Old Town and Akropolis area and surely there will be enough places to try some local cuisine specialities.
PART III: THE DISCOVERY
Kaunas doesn’t move as fast as Vilnius just because it’s not the capital. However, it’s worth mentioning that because they’re the European Capital of Culture of 2022, the city is performing a lot of improvements and hence there are a lot of roadworks.
If you visit Kaunas right now, you’ll see that in some places it’s hard to walk or there are a lot of construction blockages but this is for the best as the city is getting ready for next year.
If you’re into basketball (or not) you should 100% visit Žalgiris Arena (the stadium of the most important team in Kaunas and the Baltics). And if you can find tickets when the new season starts, it’s truly a unique experience. Lithuanians are big fans of basketball and they’re really good at it. No better place than Kaunas in the whole Baltics, to experience it!
Finally, if history is your thing, you’re in the right place. There’s a lot of museums, memorials, parks and multiple places honouring their history. Lithuania was the European pagan great power and converted to Christianity only in the 14th-15th centuries… so Paganism is still important in Lithuanian culture and Kaunas is one of those places where you can see that. We’ll leave for a future post my top recommendations to see the Pagan Lithuania not just in Kaunas but in the whole country.
If you missed my previous article about Vilnius, you can check it here.
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