COMPLIMENTARY EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
The following attractions and activities will take place during VILIPO as part of the regular program without a fee. You will learn and have fun during these activities.
Vilnius City Trip
As part of VILIPO, you will have the opportunity to go on a city tour of Vilnius. The city tour features the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site highlighting its main attractions, for example its endless church domes, steeples, and gloriously restored buildings. The tour begins at Cathedral Square, dominated by the Cathedral itself and Gediminas Castle, the principal landmark of Vilnius. The tour is then followed by a walk to the President’s Palace and then to Vilnius University. After visiting the University courtyards, the tour continues along the main street of the Old Town, Pilies street, to the Gothic corner of Vilnius, and then to St. Anne’s Church. The tour continues to the remaining city gate called the Gates of Dawn which is famous for its miraculous icon of The Virgin Mary. The tour ends at the old Town Hall Square. The tour will also include a visit to Vilnius Museum of Zoology which boasts more than 80 different animal species from all over the world, like pygmy marmosets, rainbow lorikeets, meerkats, ring-tailed lemurs, capybaras, and others.
Trakai
A short drive out of Vilnius will take you to Trakai, the ancient capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania known for its 15th-century island Trakai Castle now housing a museum of local history and a vast collection of works of art including furniture, ceramics, snuff boxes, pipes, etc. The unique location on the peninsula surrounded by five lakes has dubbed itself the “Town on the Water”. The town is home to a small ethnic minority called the Karaite people who settled there in the 14th century. During the tour to Trakai, you will have an excursion through the castle and get acquainted with the story of the small ethnic Karaim group. This small group has retained a separate identity in a diverse cultural milieu for over 600 years, maintaining its language, traditions, and religion.