Curonian Spit

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Curonian Spit is 98km long and separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. It varies in width from 400 m to 4 km. The southern part of it lies in Kaliningrad, Russia, the rest is in Lithuania, which is where we spent a couple of days.

Only the Russian part of the Spit is connected to mainland, to get to it from Lithuania, we took a short and inexpensive car ferry.


.If you have time, the best way to see and experience the spit is on a bicycle. There are great paths designed especially for cycling. Unfortunately, we only had one day in this serene place so we used a car.

Undoubtedly, the major attractions here are the beaches. Those facing the Baltic Sea are weather worn hit by strong winds and currents. On the late summer day that we were there, the wind was so powerful that sand stung our legs as it picking the individual grains high up, blowing them around. The sand is so fine and silky it feels like you are walking on flour, however it hurts a lot when the powerful wind throws it against your shins with force.



Parnidis Dune offers the best views across the highest dunes in Europe, sea, forests and into the Russian region of Kaliningrad. We walked there from the biggest of Curonian Spit's towns - Nida. It's a lovely 10-15 minute hike through a beautiful pine forest but don't stray of the path as the dunes are very fragile and in the last 30 years it has lost 10m in height. There is also a large sundial on top of the dune replacing the one that was broken in 1999.










One of the most interesting ways to spend an afternoon here is a walk around Witches' Hill (Raganu Kalnas). Since 1979 there are a growing number of wooden sculptures dotting a rather long path and its many offshoots. Ranging from scary witches and devils to lovely maidens and brave boys, the sculptures give an insight into Lithuanian fairy tales. There are even gates to hell, behind which the devil himself awaits. Witches' Hill is located in Juodkranté town which is lovely to walk through too. Swans and ducks abound at its sea shores and its promenade contains a very interesting outdoor rock sculpture exhibition.




There are four towns on the Spit, all of them combined are called Neringa, but the biggest is Nida which is also rather close to the Russian border. It's a lovely small town made up of colourful wooden buildings and narrow, walkable if not drivable, roads running through it.

There is also a dolphinarium that kids would enjoy and an amber museum since it can be found all along the Baltic coast. Many years ago I was wandering around a beach in Latvia when I came across one that was washed up on the beach. Unfortunately, my one didn't have any insects in it as that makes them more interesting when you look through the old dried up tree sap that is amber to see an eternally encased, millions of years old mosquito.

But really, the best thing you can do in Curonian Spit is - relax!