Kaliningrad Post Soviet Exclave Spring Tour

Monday 19th April – Vilnius, Lithuania

• Arrive at your own leisure into Vilnius – the capital city of Lithuania is well connected with many European countries. Self-transfer to our centrally located hotel or join us directly from our Budget Baltics trip taking place before this tour.
• Pre-tour meeting will be held at the lobby of our hotel at 6:00pm to discuss the tour itinerary and to meet your fellow travellers and YPT guide.
• We’ll head out for dinner to a traditional restaurant, which serves delicious local cuisine. We recommend trying pierogi, a stuffed dumpling filled with meat or vegetables, or Kotlet Schabowy similar to the Vienna schnitzel.
• For those inclined, we’ll check out the beautiful Old Town, the oldest part of the city, and grab a few locally brewed beers and vodka.
• Overnight stay in Vilnius.

Tuesday 20th April – Vilnius – Kaliningrad, Russia

• Early morning start with breakfast at our hotel before we meet our local guides and depart to the Russian exclave by private transportation. The scenic journey takes around 4 hours. Once we reach the border your guides will assist with the immigration process.
• On arrival to Kaliningrad, we’ll check into our hotel before we head out to discover the exclave. Kaliningrad derives from the original Germans city name of Königsberg – you’ll notice the rich German architectural heritage here. We’ll out for lunch before the tour begins.

Afternoon

• Your first stop will be the Nazi command bunker museum, technically called the Blindage Museum. It tells the harrowing history of the last days of the Second World War. These are the last days of Königsberg and inside you can see how the city fell to Soviet Forces on the rampage of vengeance towards Berlin. Built by slave labour, the bunker’s gate is made of thick steel wire and is covered in runic symbols supposedly meant to give supernatural defence to the German forces inside it.
• We will then visit fort 11, part of a series of Prussian forts that were a significant part of the unrelenting battle between the Soviets and the Nazis. Those forts are now museums and still littered with war damage, artillery pieces and Soviet monuments dedicated to WW2.
• You’ll then have the rare chance to roam around significant piece of Cold War history: an excellently maintained Foxtrot-class Soviet nuclear submarine.
• See an original Nazi Kreigsmarine ship. Vityaz is a research vessel that was built in 1939 and served with the Kriegsmarine during World War II until she was seized by the British in 1945.
• See Victory Square with its hulking Soviet monument and The Brandenburg Gate which is one of seven surviving city gates from the former German city of Königsberg.
• After a busy day, we’ll head out for dinner at a local restaurant which serves Zeppelins – giant balls of mashed potato stuffed with various fillings and drenched in cheese sauce.
• For those inclined we’ll head for some drinks and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
• Overnight stay in Kaliningrad

Wednesday 21st April – Curonian spit – Zelenograd – Kaliningrad

• Breakfast at the hotel before we travel to the Curonian spit.
• It took several thousand years for the spit to shape out from the sands blown by the wind and dragged by the sea waves and to finally form a narrow sandy neck of land that separates the Curonian Gulf from the Baltic Sea and connects the Kaliningrad region with Lithuania. Its widest part is 3.8 km and the narrowest point is 400 meters.
• Wander through the Dancing Forest, where the pine trees twist and spiral in strange shapes, and see Lithuania across the water from the dunes.
• This place has no rivals in the world. Try to cross the spit from gulf to sea and you will notice how the landscape changes from a bare desert to a pine forest. The size of the Curonian spit is astonishing, it has no analogies in the world; its majestic scenery and the lavishness of the flora and fauna is simply amazing, varying from the taiga-like plants, mountain pines, and alder-trees to the tumbleweeds rolling in the deserts of the sand dunes rising to 70 meters high.
• For lunch, we’ll head to a local restaurant overlooking the Baltic sea. We recommend trying Königsberger meatballs alongside potatoes. There are also plenty of vegetarian options to choose from.

Afternoon

• Your next stop will be Zelenograd,  a former Prussian resort town where cats have official status, a dedicated museum, and plenty of adoring humans. We’ll take a group photo with the Lenin statue standing in the main pedestrian area.
• Return to Kaliningrad city and stroll through the port area and round off the day on Kant Island, home to the city’s famous cathedral and named after philosopher Immanuel Kant, who never left the region in his lifetime.
• Head out for our dinner followed by drinks at a local bar.
• Overnight stay in Kaliningrad.

Thursday 22nd April – Kaliningrad – Yantarnii

Morning

• Breakfast at our hotel before we explore Mother Russia’s westernmost edge!
• Visit to the statues of Lenin and Mikhail Kalinin, the Soviet leader after whom the city was renamed in 1946. We will also stop by a MIG monument before we continue to explore Fort No. 5, one of the 19th-century defensive structures built by the Germans as part of Königsberg’s fortifications.
• continue to Yantarnii, and have lunch in a soviet style canteen, a place frequented by the workers of the nearby factories.

Afternoon

• Time to explore Yantarny, known as the “amber capital of the world,” where over 90% of the planet’s amber is mined, learn about the history and processing of this unique gemstone.
• head to the beach to enjoy some time at the Baltic Sea, where you can swim or enjoy a beer in the sun.
• On the way back, we made the obligatory stop for photos with a Soviet-era tanks located in a WWII memorial.
• Return to Kaliningrad city for our last dinner in the enclave and celebrate our time here with a few drinks.
• Overnight stay in Kaliningrad.

Friday 23rd April – Kaliningrad – Vilnius, Lithuania

• Last breakfast at our hotel
• Continue your Soviet adventure to Belarus Spring Tour! We recommend booking and boarding the Belavia flight B2950 departing Kaliningrad at 1:00pm and arriving into Minsk 4:30pm. Flights not included in tour cost. Flight is available to book within 6 months of the flight date.
• Tour concludes with private transportation to Vilnius, our local guides will assist in the immigration process – YPT can arrange additional nights in Vilnius.