Seaside and the Curonian Spit

Amber Bay in Juodkrantė recalls the nineteenth-century Stantien & Becker amber mine, the largest industrial site in the Klaipėda Region at the time and the place where the 434-piece Juodkrantė amber hoard was found; nearby, the Sound Catcher on the dendrological trail invites visitors to listen to the sounds of the Curonian Spit.

Birutė Hill in Palanga is a 21 m pine-covered hill in Birutė Park, where coastal landscape, Curonian archaeology, the memory of an old sacred site, and the legend of Birutė meet.

Bulvikis Cape is a Curonian Lagoon promontory between Nida and Preila, about 4 km northeast of Nida. It marks the widest point of the Curonian Spit, where the peninsula reaches 3.8 km across. The cape belongs to the Karvaičiai Landscape Reserve, opens a broad lagoon panorama toward Ventė Cape, and shows how water and wind constantly rewrite the spit.

Dreverna Small Boat Harbour, established in 2009, and the 15 m observation tower are one of the best short Pamarys stops: here you see the Curonian Lagoon, distant dunes of the Curonian Spit, harbour life, and the layer of a fishing settlement by King Wilhelm Canal with roots reaching the thirteenth century.

Gliders' Dune, also called the Great Dune, lies south of Nida. This wind-shaped dune matters not only as landscape but also for the history of the Nida Gliding School, which operated in 1933-1939.

The Hill of Witches in Juodkrantė is a wooden sculpture trail in a pine forest, where the world of Lithuanian fairy tales, legends, witches, and devils is turned into an exhibition of more than 80 oak sculptures.

The Juodkrantė cormorant and grey heron colony around Garnių Hill is one of the most striking natural stops on the Curonian Spit, where visitors see not only birds but also their visible impact on the forest.

Karklė coast is probably the only undeveloped, wild stretch of Lithuania's mainland Baltic shore: dunes, seaside pine forest, a boulder-strewn beach, and an old fishing village inside Seaside Regional Park. The park's health-trail network crosses the coast and leads past Olando Kepurė, Kalotė Lake, and old Karklė.

The Melnragė piers are the landscape of the Klaipėda port gates: the 733.66 m north pier in Melnragė and the 1,374 m south pier in Smiltynė let visitors watch ships, the sea, the harbour entrance, the White Lighthouse, and infrastructure renewed in 2020-2024.

The Nagliai Nature Reserve educational trail crosses one of the most sensitive Curonian Spit landscapes: grey and white dunes, protected-species habitats, and the memory of villages buried by sand.

Nida Lighthouse stands on 51 m Urbas Hill: the first 23 m tower was built in 1874 and blown up in 1944, while the current 29 m lighthouse was built in 1953; its light is visible for about 41 km and 132 steps lead up to the viewing level.

Olando Kepurė is the highest Lithuanian sea-coast cliff near Karklė in Seaside Regional Park. It is an erosional cliff of glacial moraine deposits, constantly cut by waves, with a wide Baltic Sea panorama from the top; Lithuania has no other sea coast of this height and steepness.

Olandų Kepurė is Lithuania's highest seaside cliff: a moraine ridge rising about 24 m above the sea, where the wave-eroded shore opens one of the strongest Baltic coast views.

Palanga Amber Museum operates in the Tiškevičiai Palace at the centre of Birutė Park and preserves one of Lithuania's most important amber collections, from inclusions and archaeological finds to the Sun Stone.

Palanga Pier is the classic symbol of the resort: a 470 m pedestrian pier into the Baltic Sea whose history began with a ship landing built by the Tiškevičiai.

Parnidis Dune is one of Nida's strongest viewpoints: a 54.2 m dune ridge, white-dune landscape, directions toward the Curonian Lagoon and Baltic Sea, and a granite sundial on the top.

Pervalka Lighthouse is one of the most distinctive Curonian Spit lighthouses: a 14 m metal lighthouse built in 1900, standing not on shore but in the Curonian Lagoon on a small artificial island by Žirgai Cape.

Pervalka Village is one of the quietest settlements on the Curonian Spit, by the Curonian Lagoon 33 km south of Klaipėda. Old Pervalka was founded in 1844 when fishermen moved here from sand-buried Naujieji Nagliai, and in 1880-1881 the village was shifted to its present site under the threat of dunes. A linear lagoon street, wooden fishermen's houses, piers, and the memory of Rėza make it one of Neringa's calmest routes in the UNESCO-protected spit.

Preila Village is a quiet Neringa settlement by Little Preila Bay, founded in 1843 when residents of sand-buried Naujieji Nagliai moved here. Wooden fishermen's houses (two dated to 1890), a small pier, the lagoon bay between Ožkos and Little Preila capes, and nearby dunes make it one of the best places for a slow Curonian Spit walk in the UNESCO-protected spit.

Smiltynė Kurhaus recalls the time when former Sandberg and Sandkrug inns and a postal-road stop became a resort space in the early twentieth century: the kurhaus founded in 1901, with concerts and a restaurant, encouraged promenades, beach paths, and the old villa quarter.

Šventoji Port and the river mouth are where the Šventoji River enters the Baltic Sea, and where breakwaters and quays recall a port ambition more than 300 years old. Between the wars this was independent Lithuania's only maritime trade gateway, and since 2018 the port has been revived by the Šventoji Seaport Directorate set up by Palanga Municipality.

Vecekrugas Dune near Preila is one of the highest dunes on the Curonian Spit: a 67.2 m geomorphological natural monument with views across forest, sand, and the Curonian Lagoon.

Žemaičių Alkas in Šventoji is Lithuania's only reconstructed pagan sacred site with a paleoastronomical observatory: in 1998, twelve oak posts were erected on a coastal dune, echoing the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sky-observation system investigated on Palanga's Birutė Hill.

Mingė Village in the Nemunas Delta is the protected Minija ethno-architectural village, where the main axis is not a street but the Minija River, and homesteads stand on both banks.

Skirvytėlė is a historic part of Rusnė by the Skirvytė, the southern distributary of the Nemunas Delta. Šilutė District Municipality lists it among the old fishing villages, while the Cultural Heritage Register (code 31813) protects the Rusnė ethno-architectural fisherman's homestead at Skirvytėlės g. 8 - today the K. Banys homestead-museum, with a house, storehouse, and cattle shed with a barn, a witness to Pamarys fishing life from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth.

Svencelė is a Curonian Lagoon village between Dreverna and Kintai, now known as one of Lithuania's clearest kitesurfing and water-sports places. Its landscape is shaped by shallow lagoon water, wind, a canal-planned settlement, and nearby protected bogs and meadows.

Uostadvaris Lighthouse on the Atmata bank of Rusnė Island is an 18 m octagonal red-brick tower built in 1873-1876, with 48 spiral steps and a viewing platform. Today it matters not for navigation but for the technical heritage of the Nemunas Delta and Pakalnė polders.

Uostadvaris Water-Lifting Station on the Vilkinė bank is the first station of its kind in Lithuania (1907) and the oldest hydrotechnical installation on the right bank of the Nemunas Delta; today it houses the Šilutė Polder Museum.

Ventė Cape is one of Lithuania's strongest bird-migration places: a narrow Curonian Lagoon peninsula with an ornithological station, bird traps, museum, and a lighthouse considered a technical monument.