33 more ideas for Instant Weekends

Why should I go? Because it’s a cracking little resort town with a fine white-sand beach, invigorating scenery and corking nightlife – and because the first-ever nonstop flights from the UK have just started, from Stansted.

The trip takes 2½ hours – and you’re right there, on the beach. No need for lengthy transfers; you could even put on your flip-flops before you take off. It is, therefore, Europe’s newest, sandiest weekender.

And, as with all the best weekenders, if you are up for a party, there are dozens of bars and restaurants. Everyone speaks English, and it’s cheaper than chips: a bowl of fried breadsticks with cheese (kepta duona), perfect with beer, is 75p; healthier mains in restaurants are about a fiver. The beer itself is £1.15 for 500ml.

If you prefer not to party-party, simply step back from the pedestrianised bar strip and you’ll find peace aplenty, on quiet back lanes and in pine forests.

What to do? For summer sun and fun, head here between mid-June and mid-September, when temperatures are usually in the high twenties. People mostly come here to soak up the sun, but there are good walking and cycle paths, too (bike hire costs £5 a day). Pedal north to Sventoji village (25 minutes) or head east to Juozas, a brewery-cum-beer garden (www.hbhjuozas.lt; about an hour).

However energetic you have or haven’t been, all of Palanga promenades along the pier at sunset, when the heavens can turn into a magical Baltic borealis, with sky and sea merging into a misty glow. Inland from the pier, pedestrianised Basanaviciaus Street is chocker with beer gardens. Swill the amberest nectar, Svyturys, anywhere, or for more sophisticated surroundings, try the jazzy Vila Ramybe (Vytauto 54) for wine and crepes.

Speaking of amber – as we sort of were – Palanga also hosts the world’s best museum devoted to this solidified tree resin, in a neo-Renaissance villa in the middle of the Botanical Park (www.pgm.lt; entry £1.80). It contains more than 20,000 pieces of the stuff. Some of the chunks have textbook inclusions, preserving perfectly a mosquito, a dragonfly and even a little lizard for 50m years.

Baltic gold, as it is known, was used as a currency, and became valuable enough to spark an amber rush in 1854, when 2,250 tons was dug from under the nearby village of Juodkrante. A couple of hours at the museum (max) and you’ll be ready for Mastermind – specialist subject, the life and times of Lithuanian amber.

The big day out is a drive (or cycle) down the Curonian Spit, 15 miles south of Palanga. This 60-mile sand bar frames a vast lagoon and has terrific Baltic Sea beaches, with tons of wildlife and lovely, Norwegian-looking fishing villages. The fragile sand dunes, forests and villages are all protected, but you can climb the shifting sands halfway down, past crosses where former villages are buried.

Nida, the southernmost Lithuanian village on the spit, has the best collection of blue fishermen’s cottages, with a little museum, an old Lutheran church and the house of the German writer Thomas Mann, who summered here when it was billed the Prussian Sahara.

Be sure to try smoked fish, the local speciality, at Pasj Jona, where you can sit by the smoking chimney with black bread, beer and a whole bream for £3.50. And when you go anywhere on the spit, the neighbourly thing to do is to close the little gates behind you: it stops wild boar nuzzling through the vegetables.

The spit is a 10-minute ferry ride from Klaipeda (www.keltas.lt; £10 for a car and two passengers).

Where do I stay? Top choice is the superchic, 46-room Palanga (00 370-460 41414, www.palangahotel.lt; doubles from £138 in high season), a clever glass-and-wood curve set among mature pines, with designer rooms, a classy restaurant and heated indoor and outdoor pools.

Or try the 98-room Vanagupe (460 41199, www.vanagupe.lt; doubles from £110), recently renovated, with a glitzy new spa complex. A bright but cheaper option is the 22-room Austeja (460 54350, www.hotelausteja.lt; doubles from £53).

Where do I eat? At the sea end of Basanaviciaus is Zuvine, a glass-fronted house serving fine fishy mains from £5. For hearty Lithuanian favourites, 1925 is rustic and ready (mains from £3.50). And the best borscht in town can be had at Zvaigzde, just nearby, for £1.50.

How do I get there? FlyLal (www.flylal.com) operates two flights a week from Stansted; from £152. Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies to Kaunas, two hours away by bus.

Tour operators: Richard Green travelled as a guest of Baltic Holidays (0845 070 5710, www.balticholidays.com), which has five nights at the Palanga hotel from £558pp, including flights; five nights in Nida, staying in a fisherman’s cottage, start at £329pp. Or try Regent Holidays (0845 277 3317, www.regent-holidays.co.uk).

Further information: for more details, go to www.lithuaniatourism.co.uk and www.visitneringa.lt.

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