Nearly two weeks off school, short days and real cold: the Christmas break needs plans for every kind of weather. Families spend Kūčios, Christmas Eve, at home over a twelve-dish supper, and many places keep holiday hours around it. Here's what we checked, from the Akropolis ice rink to the ski slopes at Liepkalnis, with plenty of indoor options for the coldest days.
Christmas Town is the Christmas market in Cathedral Square, in the heart of Vilnius Old Town. Kids browse the stalls with the city Christmas tree and a carousel on the same square.
It works as a come-and-go outing: drop in after school or after dark, walk the stalls, and head home when the kids get cold. Everything is outdoors, so dress for a Vilnius winter.
Vilnius Ice Rink (Vilniaus ledas) is the open-air Christmas skating rink set up in Town Hall Square, in the heart of the Old Town. Kids skate in timed sessions under the open sky.
Best for kids who have skated before, or who are happy holding a grown-up's hand on the ice.
The Ukrainian Classical Ballet brings Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet to Vilnius for the first time. Marie gets a wooden toy soldier from her uncle Drosselmeyer, and at night he comes alive, fights an army of mice and travels with her to a land of sweets.
One of the world's most performed ballets, it suits kids who can sit through two acts. Reading the story beforehand helps younger ones follow along.
An ice rink on the ground floor of the Akropolis mall, open all year for public skating in timed sessions. Cafes ring the rink, so parents can sit and watch, and the ice also hosts figure skating shows and hockey games.
New skaters can skate with a penguin aid to hold on to, and protective pads are lent free. Kids can join figure skating and hockey training.
Pramogų Arena is a covered ice rink that runs public skating sessions through the day, alongside ice hockey academies, figure skating classes and curling. Kids skate laps on open ice, rental skates come from the staff at the rink, and anyone unsure on skates can ask staff for pointers. The Ledo Kavinė café sits on site for a warm drink afterward.
Liepkalnis is the city's largest winter sports center: 10 slopes (2.6 km in all) from one green beginner run up to a black, and 10 lifts. Small children learn on a beginner slope with a magic carpet lift, and the ski school starts skiers at 3 to 4 and snowboarders at 6.
Snow cannons open the slopes once it freezes, and the snow park has 20 to 30 features.
A Polynesian-themed aqua park spread over several floors. There are nine slides, from family boat rides on the Ohana river to the 60 km/h Moreja volcano, plus the Dolphins' sea wave pool with waves up to 1.5 m and the 137 m Canoe river for floating on rings.
Smaller children get the Game island, eight platforms of tunnels and slides where they control the water jets, watched by lifeguards.
The museum fills the city's first public power plant. Downstairs are its original steam boilers, turbines and control panel. The 1,000 m² Transformation Hall puts the two largest Tesla coils in the Baltics inside a Faraday cage, and challenges at each exhibit earn points to swap for souvenirs.
The two top floors hold an interactive science zone with a Jacob's ladder, a Möbius strip and a Bernoulli ball.
The first museum in Lithuania devoted to LEGO, built from a private collection of more than 2,000 modern sets. Themed zones cover LEGO City, a medieval village, pirates and Vikings, the Wild West, Minecraft, dinosaurs and space, plus a giant minifigure wall.
Exhibits are look-only, but the construction wall lets kids build and add to a shared piece. Trains and lights run on a short program every hour.
The Museum of Illusions fills 600 m² of a historic building on Vokiečių Street with hands-on exhibits that mix optics, physics and art: optical illusions, installations, gravity and light experiments, and historical illusions.
Exhibits are interactive, photos are allowed everywhere, and guides on the floor explain how each trick works. Curious school-age kids who like asking why get the most out of it.
SkyPark fills the third floor of the Vilnius Outlet mall with a trampoline zone, trampoline dodgeball, and regular and interactive basketball hoops. Younger kids head for an 11-meter, five-level climbing playground with slides, an obstacle course and soft-ball cannons.
Between jumps there are bumper cars, mini bowling, table football, table tennis and touch-screen games. Craft Pizza, a pizzeria on site, serves thick-crust American pizza.
Adventica is a family play park on the 1B floor of the Ozas shopping center. It holds the largest single inflatable trampoline in the Baltics, plus a 100-meter Ninja Warrior obstacle course, a ropes course and a three-story play frame with trampolines.
There is also an 80-meter electric go-kart track, a games zone with interactive walls and building sets, and a separate area for under-3s beside the parents' seating.
Zoopark is the city's only indoor zoo, home to nearly 90 species from around the world, inside the Ogmios miestas complex. Kids can watch ring-tailed lemurs, meerkats, marmosets, tamarins, flying squirrels, tortoises, geckos and pythons up close.
Visitors can feed the rabbits, guinea pigs, koi and parrots, and keepers feed the meerkats, lemurs and monkeys several times a day.
Vilnius TV Tower is the tallest structure in Lithuania, at 326.4 meters. The observation deck sits 170 meters up on the 67th floor, with a bistro looking out over the city and an open terrace in the warm season.
At its foot, granite markers and the bronze "Sacrifice" sculpture remember the 14 people killed defending the tower on January 13, 1991, and a small park shows historic broadcast antennas.
Trakai's red-brick Gothic castle was built in the 14th and 15th centuries on an island in Lake Galvė, and a bridge leads to its gatehouse. Past the forecourt walls and a moat sits the ducal palace, with a 33-meter keep and wooden galleries around its inner yard.
The palace holds the Trakai History Museum. The western casemates add 16 halls of clocks, pipes, stamps, china, glass and hunting trophies.
Nearly two weeks off school, short days and real cold: the Christmas break needs plans for every kind of weather. Families spend Kūčios, Christmas Eve, at home over a twelve-dish supper, and many places keep holiday hours around it. Here's what we checked, from the Akropolis ice rink to the ski slopes at Liepkalnis, with plenty of indoor options for the coldest days.
Christmas Town is the Christmas market in Cathedral Square, in the heart of Vilnius Old Town. Kids browse the stalls with the city Christmas tree and a carousel on the same square.
It works as a come-and-go outing: drop in after school or after dark, walk the stalls, and head home when the kids get cold. Everything is outdoors, so dress for a Vilnius winter.
Vilnius Ice Rink (Vilniaus ledas) is the open-air Christmas skating rink set up in Town Hall Square, in the heart of the Old Town. Kids skate in timed sessions under the open sky.
Best for kids who have skated before, or who are happy holding a grown-up's hand on the ice.
The Ukrainian Classical Ballet brings Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet to Vilnius for the first time. Marie gets a wooden toy soldier from her uncle Drosselmeyer, and at night he comes alive, fights an army of mice and travels with her to a land of sweets.
One of the world's most performed ballets, it suits kids who can sit through two acts. Reading the story beforehand helps younger ones follow along.
An ice rink on the ground floor of the Akropolis mall, open all year for public skating in timed sessions. Cafes ring the rink, so parents can sit and watch, and the ice also hosts figure skating shows and hockey games.
New skaters can skate with a penguin aid to hold on to, and protective pads are lent free. Kids can join figure skating and hockey training.
Pramogų Arena is a covered ice rink that runs public skating sessions through the day, alongside ice hockey academies, figure skating classes and curling. Kids skate laps on open ice, rental skates come from the staff at the rink, and anyone unsure on skates can ask staff for pointers. The Ledo Kavinė café sits on site for a warm drink afterward.
Liepkalnis is the city's largest winter sports center: 10 slopes (2.6 km in all) from one green beginner run up to a black, and 10 lifts. Small children learn on a beginner slope with a magic carpet lift, and the ski school starts skiers at 3 to 4 and snowboarders at 6.
Snow cannons open the slopes once it freezes, and the snow park has 20 to 30 features.
A Polynesian-themed aqua park spread over several floors. There are nine slides, from family boat rides on the Ohana river to the 60 km/h Moreja volcano, plus the Dolphins' sea wave pool with waves up to 1.5 m and the 137 m Canoe river for floating on rings.
Smaller children get the Game island, eight platforms of tunnels and slides where they control the water jets, watched by lifeguards.
The museum fills the city's first public power plant. Downstairs are its original steam boilers, turbines and control panel. The 1,000 m² Transformation Hall puts the two largest Tesla coils in the Baltics inside a Faraday cage, and challenges at each exhibit earn points to swap for souvenirs.
The two top floors hold an interactive science zone with a Jacob's ladder, a Möbius strip and a Bernoulli ball.
The first museum in Lithuania devoted to LEGO, built from a private collection of more than 2,000 modern sets. Themed zones cover LEGO City, a medieval village, pirates and Vikings, the Wild West, Minecraft, dinosaurs and space, plus a giant minifigure wall.
Exhibits are look-only, but the construction wall lets kids build and add to a shared piece. Trains and lights run on a short program every hour.
The Museum of Illusions fills 600 m² of a historic building on Vokiečių Street with hands-on exhibits that mix optics, physics and art: optical illusions, installations, gravity and light experiments, and historical illusions.
Exhibits are interactive, photos are allowed everywhere, and guides on the floor explain how each trick works. Curious school-age kids who like asking why get the most out of it.
SkyPark fills the third floor of the Vilnius Outlet mall with a trampoline zone, trampoline dodgeball, and regular and interactive basketball hoops. Younger kids head for an 11-meter, five-level climbing playground with slides, an obstacle course and soft-ball cannons.
Between jumps there are bumper cars, mini bowling, table football, table tennis and touch-screen games. Craft Pizza, a pizzeria on site, serves thick-crust American pizza.
Adventica is a family play park on the 1B floor of the Ozas shopping center. It holds the largest single inflatable trampoline in the Baltics, plus a 100-meter Ninja Warrior obstacle course, a ropes course and a three-story play frame with trampolines.
There is also an 80-meter electric go-kart track, a games zone with interactive walls and building sets, and a separate area for under-3s beside the parents' seating.
Zoopark is the city's only indoor zoo, home to nearly 90 species from around the world, inside the Ogmios miestas complex. Kids can watch ring-tailed lemurs, meerkats, marmosets, tamarins, flying squirrels, tortoises, geckos and pythons up close.
Visitors can feed the rabbits, guinea pigs, koi and parrots, and keepers feed the meerkats, lemurs and monkeys several times a day.
Vilnius TV Tower is the tallest structure in Lithuania, at 326.4 meters. The observation deck sits 170 meters up on the 67th floor, with a bistro looking out over the city and an open terrace in the warm season.
At its foot, granite markers and the bronze "Sacrifice" sculpture remember the 14 people killed defending the tower on January 13, 1991, and a small park shows historic broadcast antennas.
Trakai's red-brick Gothic castle was built in the 14th and 15th centuries on an island in Lake Galvė, and a bridge leads to its gatehouse. Past the forecourt walls and a moat sits the ducal palace, with a 33-meter keep and wooden galleries around its inner yard.
The palace holds the Trakai History Museum. The western casemates add 16 halls of clocks, pipes, stamps, china, glass and hunting trophies.
