Cold, wet afternoon and the kids need somewhere to go? Start here. This list pulls together the city's museums, from hands-on science rooms to castle towers, old trains and vintage cars, plus a few heavier history museums that suit older kids and teens best. Check each page for opening days, prices and ages before you head out.
Castellan's House is the newest branch of the National Museum of Lithuania, and it tells the country's story through ideas and people rather than cases of artifacts. Six rooms each take one theme: creativity, beliefs, struggles, fractures, global links and faces.
The building looks like an old Gothic or Renaissance townhouse, set back from the street with a quiet courtyard. It suits school-age kids with some curiosity about history.
The museum fills the building where the Soviet NKVD and KGB worked from 1940 to 1991, opposite Lukiškės Square. Upstairs, rooms of documents, photos, maps and personal belongings cover deportations to the gulags and the partisan war in the forests.
The basement holds the preserved prison: the cells, a padded isolation cell and the former execution room. The subject is heavy, so it suits teens more than younger kids.
The National Gallery of Art shows Lithuanian painting, sculpture, prints, photography, installations and video from the 20th and 21st centuries, drawn from a collection of more than 46,000 works. A permanent display of the collection runs alongside changing exhibitions.
The education center runs guided tours, hands-on workshops and summer camps for children and families. The building is set up for wheelchairs and strollers.
The museum fills the Small Radziwiłł Palace, a 17th-century building in the Old Town whose wing held the Vilnius City Theatre from 1796. The collection covers Lithuanian stage, music and film: costumes, set designs and models, posters, musical instruments, and film cameras made between the 1930s and 1970s. Exhibitions rotate. Workshops for kids cover animation, sound effects for film and set design.
A small museum in a baroque Old Town house, devoted to 50-million-year-old Baltic amber. Kids can hunt for insects trapped in the resin (a mosquito, a grasshopper leg), find amber in white, green and even blue, and see a 3-kilogram piece.
Stairs lead down to a cellar with 15th-century kilns and a patch of street paved 500 years ago. Upstairs is an amber jewelry gallery and shop.
The Treasury of Vilnius Cathedral fills the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and the former Bernardine Convent beside it. Golden chalices and monstrances from the 14th century, set with pearls and gemstones, sit next to richly patterned church textiles.
The whole treasury was hidden before World War II and stayed missing until 1985. Best for school-age kids with patience for display cases.
An interactive exhibition run by Lithuania's State Service for Protected Areas, built as a way into the country's national and regional parks and reserves. The main hall is styled as a meadow, with grasses, birds and grasshoppers all around and clouds overhead.
Kids can listen to bird calls, handle real specimens, try the quiz table and touch screens, and watch nature films in a bat-themed cinema room.
The State Knowledge Centre fills three floors of the Presidential Palace complex with interactive exhibits on how Lithuania works: its territory, its people and the institutions that run it. Visitors pick their own topics at interactive stands and follow more than 700 scannable codes.
A family activity booklet, "Pažink Lietuvą", gives preschoolers tasks: voting on shared rules, checking the President's schedule and making their own state decoration.
Vilnius Auto Museum fills a former taxi depot with over 100 historic cars and motorcycles from 10 countries. Exhibits run from the first cars of the late 1800s through interwar Lithuania and World War II vehicles to race cars and cars that carried Lithuanian presidents.
Younger kids can try a Ford Model T and hunt for secret doors in cars, and a children's area has toy cars, coloring and books.
MO Museum holds more than 6,000 works of Lithuanian modern and contemporary art from the 1950s to today: painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation. The Studio Libeskind building stands on the site of the old Lietuva Cinema, with a sculpture garden and terrace beside it that are always open.
Family Sundays bring theater games and shows for babies and toddlers, plus workshops for older kids inside the main exhibition.
The bastion is a 16th-century piece of the old city wall: a tower, a horseshoe-shaped artillery platform, and a tunnel joining them. Inside, the exhibition shows how the city defended itself, from early grenades and mortars to 17th- and 18th-century cannons. Kids can spot the winged hussars and hear the legend of the Basilisk, said to have lived in a cave in the bastion hill.
House of Histories is the newest branch of the National Museum of Lithuania, opened in 2021 in an 18th-century building. A large exhibition fills the ground floor and a smaller one sits upstairs, and each comes with workshops, both live and online.
The current major show traces Lithuanian high tech, from lasers and biotechnology to space technology and robotics.
The Old Arsenal holds the National Museum of Lithuania's archaeology collection, a 12,000-year walk from the first people after the ice melted to the Baltic tribes of the Iron Age.
The ground floor has Stone Age tools and weapons and replicas of seven key finds. Upstairs covers the 1st to 13th centuries: farming, metalwork, weapons and ceramics.
The last tower of Vilnius's medieval Upper Castle, on top of Gediminas Hill. Inside, narrow steps climb past castle models, armor, Baltic jewelry and an interactive timeline where kids can picture a Crusader attack. The observation deck looks out over the red roofs and church towers of the Old Town.
Legend says Grand Duke Gediminas dreamed of an iron wolf howling on this hill and founded the city here.
The national railway museum fills part of the second floor of Vilnius station, with almost 900 exhibits on how Lithuania's trains run: passenger travel, track maintenance and signaling.
Outside, the Rail Park (Bėgių parkas) spreads 12 exhibits over 7,100 square meters: locomotives, wagons, a water steam pump and a wagon heating boiler. It suits train-mad kids who want to see the real thing up close.
The residence of Lithuania's grand dukes, gone from the mid-1600s and rebuilt this century, is now a national museum. Four routes run through it: surviving castle walls and archaeological finds, furnished Renaissance and Baroque state rooms, weapons and palace kitchen displays, and temporary exhibitions.
The state rooms route climbs an observation tower with views over the city. Outside are a Renaissance garden and bas-reliefs.
The Bank of Lithuania's Money Museum tells the story of money across five halls, about 300 square meters in all. It starts with the oldest forms of exchange, such as grain, fur and amber (long traded in this region), and ends with digital currency.
The exhibits are interactive, and audio guides come in several languages, so kids who don't read Lithuanian can still follow along.
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.
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.
Žaislų muziejus tells the story of Lithuanian toys, and kids are invited to pick up and try many of the exhibits. Four permanent exhibitions run from medieval toys rebuilt from archaeological finds, through a hands-on Stone Age room of stone, wood and sand, to toys from a century ago and 20th-century toys and arcade machines.
Most of the 5,000-plus items in the collection were donated by visitors.
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.
Cold, wet afternoon and the kids need somewhere to go? Start here. This list pulls together the city's museums, from hands-on science rooms to castle towers, old trains and vintage cars, plus a few heavier history museums that suit older kids and teens best. Check each page for opening days, prices and ages before you head out.
Castellan's House is the newest branch of the National Museum of Lithuania, and it tells the country's story through ideas and people rather than cases of artifacts. Six rooms each take one theme: creativity, beliefs, struggles, fractures, global links and faces.
The building looks like an old Gothic or Renaissance townhouse, set back from the street with a quiet courtyard. It suits school-age kids with some curiosity about history.
The museum fills the building where the Soviet NKVD and KGB worked from 1940 to 1991, opposite Lukiškės Square. Upstairs, rooms of documents, photos, maps and personal belongings cover deportations to the gulags and the partisan war in the forests.
The basement holds the preserved prison: the cells, a padded isolation cell and the former execution room. The subject is heavy, so it suits teens more than younger kids.
The National Gallery of Art shows Lithuanian painting, sculpture, prints, photography, installations and video from the 20th and 21st centuries, drawn from a collection of more than 46,000 works. A permanent display of the collection runs alongside changing exhibitions.
The education center runs guided tours, hands-on workshops and summer camps for children and families. The building is set up for wheelchairs and strollers.
The museum fills the Small Radziwiłł Palace, a 17th-century building in the Old Town whose wing held the Vilnius City Theatre from 1796. The collection covers Lithuanian stage, music and film: costumes, set designs and models, posters, musical instruments, and film cameras made between the 1930s and 1970s. Exhibitions rotate. Workshops for kids cover animation, sound effects for film and set design.
A small museum in a baroque Old Town house, devoted to 50-million-year-old Baltic amber. Kids can hunt for insects trapped in the resin (a mosquito, a grasshopper leg), find amber in white, green and even blue, and see a 3-kilogram piece.
Stairs lead down to a cellar with 15th-century kilns and a patch of street paved 500 years ago. Upstairs is an amber jewelry gallery and shop.
The Treasury of Vilnius Cathedral fills the Church of St. Michael the Archangel and the former Bernardine Convent beside it. Golden chalices and monstrances from the 14th century, set with pearls and gemstones, sit next to richly patterned church textiles.
The whole treasury was hidden before World War II and stayed missing until 1985. Best for school-age kids with patience for display cases.
An interactive exhibition run by Lithuania's State Service for Protected Areas, built as a way into the country's national and regional parks and reserves. The main hall is styled as a meadow, with grasses, birds and grasshoppers all around and clouds overhead.
Kids can listen to bird calls, handle real specimens, try the quiz table and touch screens, and watch nature films in a bat-themed cinema room.
The State Knowledge Centre fills three floors of the Presidential Palace complex with interactive exhibits on how Lithuania works: its territory, its people and the institutions that run it. Visitors pick their own topics at interactive stands and follow more than 700 scannable codes.
A family activity booklet, "Pažink Lietuvą", gives preschoolers tasks: voting on shared rules, checking the President's schedule and making their own state decoration.
Vilnius Auto Museum fills a former taxi depot with over 100 historic cars and motorcycles from 10 countries. Exhibits run from the first cars of the late 1800s through interwar Lithuania and World War II vehicles to race cars and cars that carried Lithuanian presidents.
Younger kids can try a Ford Model T and hunt for secret doors in cars, and a children's area has toy cars, coloring and books.
MO Museum holds more than 6,000 works of Lithuanian modern and contemporary art from the 1950s to today: painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation. The Studio Libeskind building stands on the site of the old Lietuva Cinema, with a sculpture garden and terrace beside it that are always open.
Family Sundays bring theater games and shows for babies and toddlers, plus workshops for older kids inside the main exhibition.
The bastion is a 16th-century piece of the old city wall: a tower, a horseshoe-shaped artillery platform, and a tunnel joining them. Inside, the exhibition shows how the city defended itself, from early grenades and mortars to 17th- and 18th-century cannons. Kids can spot the winged hussars and hear the legend of the Basilisk, said to have lived in a cave in the bastion hill.
House of Histories is the newest branch of the National Museum of Lithuania, opened in 2021 in an 18th-century building. A large exhibition fills the ground floor and a smaller one sits upstairs, and each comes with workshops, both live and online.
The current major show traces Lithuanian high tech, from lasers and biotechnology to space technology and robotics.
The Old Arsenal holds the National Museum of Lithuania's archaeology collection, a 12,000-year walk from the first people after the ice melted to the Baltic tribes of the Iron Age.
The ground floor has Stone Age tools and weapons and replicas of seven key finds. Upstairs covers the 1st to 13th centuries: farming, metalwork, weapons and ceramics.
The last tower of Vilnius's medieval Upper Castle, on top of Gediminas Hill. Inside, narrow steps climb past castle models, armor, Baltic jewelry and an interactive timeline where kids can picture a Crusader attack. The observation deck looks out over the red roofs and church towers of the Old Town.
Legend says Grand Duke Gediminas dreamed of an iron wolf howling on this hill and founded the city here.
The national railway museum fills part of the second floor of Vilnius station, with almost 900 exhibits on how Lithuania's trains run: passenger travel, track maintenance and signaling.
Outside, the Rail Park (Bėgių parkas) spreads 12 exhibits over 7,100 square meters: locomotives, wagons, a water steam pump and a wagon heating boiler. It suits train-mad kids who want to see the real thing up close.
The residence of Lithuania's grand dukes, gone from the mid-1600s and rebuilt this century, is now a national museum. Four routes run through it: surviving castle walls and archaeological finds, furnished Renaissance and Baroque state rooms, weapons and palace kitchen displays, and temporary exhibitions.
The state rooms route climbs an observation tower with views over the city. Outside are a Renaissance garden and bas-reliefs.
The Bank of Lithuania's Money Museum tells the story of money across five halls, about 300 square meters in all. It starts with the oldest forms of exchange, such as grain, fur and amber (long traded in this region), and ends with digital currency.
The exhibits are interactive, and audio guides come in several languages, so kids who don't read Lithuanian can still follow along.
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.
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.
Žaislų muziejus tells the story of Lithuanian toys, and kids are invited to pick up and try many of the exhibits. Four permanent exhibitions run from medieval toys rebuilt from archaeological finds, through a hands-on Stone Age room of stone, wood and sand, to toys from a century ago and 20th-century toys and arcade machines.
Most of the 5,000-plus items in the collection were donated by visitors.
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.
