Vilnius — Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, doesn't get the attention it deserves. The city's surprising Old Town is a dazzling assemblage of bright baroque houses, inviting alleyways, and colourful churches built around quiet courtyards. But this is no museum piece. The city's cosmopolitan heritage, enriched by Polish, Jewish, and Russian influences, lends a sophisticated vibe, and thousands of students keep the energy level high. Push through big wooden doors to find lively pubs and bars, hidden terraces, and romantic restaurants. Tumbledown buildings hide designer boutiques and high-end handicraft shops.

Trakai — With its picturesque red-brick castle occupying a small island in Lake Galvė, Karaite culture, quaint wooden houses, and pretty lakeside location, Trakai is a highly recommended day trip, within easy reach of the capital.

Kaunas — Lithuania's second city has a compact Old Town, an entertaining array of museums, and plenty of vibrant, youthful energy provided by its large student population. A good time to visit is in late April, during the Kaunas Jazz Festival (www.kaunasjazz.lt), when homegrown and international artists perform in venues across the city.

Klaipėda — Lithuania's main seaport, is known mainly as the gateway to the Curonian Spit, though it has a fascinating history as the East Prussian city of Memel long before it was incorporated into modern Lithuania in the 1920s. It was founded in 1252 by the Teutonic Order, who built the city’s first castle, and has served as a key trading port through the centuries to modern times. It was retaken by Nazi Germany in WWII and housed a German submarine base. Though it was heavily bombed in the war, it retains a unique Prussian feel, particularly in the quiet backstreets of the historic Old Town.

Hill of Crosses — site of religious significance, north of Šiauliai city.

Curonian Spit — a unique peninsula in the Baltic sea with sand dunes, seaboard forest, white-sanded beaches, and old ethnographic villages. A UNESCO World Heritage Site this magical sliver of land hosts some of Europe's most precious sand dunes and a menagerie of elk, deer, and avian wildlife. The fragile spit is divided evenly between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad region, with Lithuania's half protected as Curonian Spit National Park.

Paneriai - During WWII the Nazis – aided by Lithuanian accomplices – murdered 100,000 people, around 70,000 of them Jews, at this site in the forest, 8km southwest of Vilnius.