Vilnius winters are long and dark by 4pm, and when snow falls, the park hills fill with sleds. We picked the city slopes worth the trip, a lit ski hill with a beginner area, a short cross-country loop for first-timers, and the January light festival for a cold evening out. Snow comes and goes, so check before you go. Here's what we checked, from Šeškinė Esker to the Liepkalnis slopes.
Vilnius Light Festival turns the Old Town into a walk of light installations, digital art and moving light on the buildings. Families follow the installations through streets, squares and courtyards, including undiscovered places in the Old Town.
It suits kids who are happy to walk outdoors in winter. Come for a few installations or make a longer loop.
Tauras Hill Park covers 8.4 hectares of slopes, paths and lawns on a hill in the city center. Kids get two playgrounds and a sports ground, and there are drinking water stations, plenty of benches and a public toilet.
The park also holds the Vytautas Kernagis open-air stage, named for the Vilnius singer-songwriter.
Vingis Park covers 157 hectares of century-old pine forest inside a loop of the Neris River, with about 16 km of walking and cycling paths. Kids get two playgrounds, outdoor music instruments and a disc golf course, plus basketball, volleyball and badminton courts.
A rental stand rents out bikes, roller skates and scooters in spring and summer, and cross-country skis in winter. The Song Festival stage hosts big open-air concerts.
A 29-hectare pine and birch wood on the edge of Karoliniškės and Lazdynai, near the TV tower. Paved, lit paths pass wooden sculptures of witches, mythical creatures and fairytale scenes set up in 1987, plus a playground and a gazebo.
After dark, 10 Vilnius legends glow on the paths and treetops, among them the Iron Wolf, the Basilisk and Saint Casimir. Squirrels and woodpeckers are common in the woods.
Ribiškės is a range of hills in Pavilniai Regional Park, shaped by a retreating glacier into gullies, small streams and a mix of shady spruce forest, open meadows and wide viewpoints.
Walking routes of 3 or 6 km climb and drop through it, past a few preserved rural huts and the Kaukysa rivulet. In winter the slopes are open to anyone on skis.
Šeškinės ozas is a 1,160-meter ridge, 3 to 18 meters high, left by glacier meltwater some 16,000 to 18,000 years ago. Now a protected natural monument, it has walking trails and information boards along its winding crest, and a small pond, Lake Šeškiukas, below it. Kids can climb the high points for views over the city and look for squirrels and hedgehogs in the nearby woods.
Lithuania's largest botanical garden has its main 191-hectare site on a former manor estate in Kairėnai, with forest, meadows, streams and ponds. Kids can walk the Japanese Garden, see some 600 lilac bushes on Lilac Hill, and climb through the award-winning Green Building to its observation terrace, past a display of spiny plants. In snowy winters, marked tracks open for cross-country skiing and sledging.
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 small cross-country ski area on an open field between Perkūnkiemio and Leičių streets, laid out as three linked routes: the 200 m Leičių Path through the middle, the 500 m REWO Loop around the edge, and the 1,000 m Perkūnas Trail joining them into one circuit.
Kids trying skis for the first time can stay on the short path while older ones lap the full kilometer.
Vilnius winters are long and dark by 4pm, and when snow falls, the park hills fill with sleds. We picked the city slopes worth the trip, a lit ski hill with a beginner area, a short cross-country loop for first-timers, and the January light festival for a cold evening out. Snow comes and goes, so check before you go. Here's what we checked, from Šeškinė Esker to the Liepkalnis slopes.
Vilnius Light Festival turns the Old Town into a walk of light installations, digital art and moving light on the buildings. Families follow the installations through streets, squares and courtyards, including undiscovered places in the Old Town.
It suits kids who are happy to walk outdoors in winter. Come for a few installations or make a longer loop.
Tauras Hill Park covers 8.4 hectares of slopes, paths and lawns on a hill in the city center. Kids get two playgrounds and a sports ground, and there are drinking water stations, plenty of benches and a public toilet.
The park also holds the Vytautas Kernagis open-air stage, named for the Vilnius singer-songwriter.
Vingis Park covers 157 hectares of century-old pine forest inside a loop of the Neris River, with about 16 km of walking and cycling paths. Kids get two playgrounds, outdoor music instruments and a disc golf course, plus basketball, volleyball and badminton courts.
A rental stand rents out bikes, roller skates and scooters in spring and summer, and cross-country skis in winter. The Song Festival stage hosts big open-air concerts.
A 29-hectare pine and birch wood on the edge of Karoliniškės and Lazdynai, near the TV tower. Paved, lit paths pass wooden sculptures of witches, mythical creatures and fairytale scenes set up in 1987, plus a playground and a gazebo.
After dark, 10 Vilnius legends glow on the paths and treetops, among them the Iron Wolf, the Basilisk and Saint Casimir. Squirrels and woodpeckers are common in the woods.
Ribiškės is a range of hills in Pavilniai Regional Park, shaped by a retreating glacier into gullies, small streams and a mix of shady spruce forest, open meadows and wide viewpoints.
Walking routes of 3 or 6 km climb and drop through it, past a few preserved rural huts and the Kaukysa rivulet. In winter the slopes are open to anyone on skis.
Šeškinės ozas is a 1,160-meter ridge, 3 to 18 meters high, left by glacier meltwater some 16,000 to 18,000 years ago. Now a protected natural monument, it has walking trails and information boards along its winding crest, and a small pond, Lake Šeškiukas, below it. Kids can climb the high points for views over the city and look for squirrels and hedgehogs in the nearby woods.
Lithuania's largest botanical garden has its main 191-hectare site on a former manor estate in Kairėnai, with forest, meadows, streams and ponds. Kids can walk the Japanese Garden, see some 600 lilac bushes on Lilac Hill, and climb through the award-winning Green Building to its observation terrace, past a display of spiny plants. In snowy winters, marked tracks open for cross-country skiing and sledging.
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 small cross-country ski area on an open field between Perkūnkiemio and Leičių streets, laid out as three linked routes: the 200 m Leičių Path through the middle, the 500 m REWO Loop around the edge, and the 1,000 m Perkūnas Trail joining them into one circuit.
Kids trying skis for the first time can stay on the short path while older ones lap the full kilometer.
