Summertime in Klaipeda, Lithuania means sidewalk cafe life and beach life are in full swing. This is my second visit to Klaipeda (first time April 2017), motivated by a stay at Radisson Blu Klaipeda as a category 2 Club Carlson reward night at 15,000 points per night. The hotel increased to 28,000 points March 1, 2018 when the new Radisson Rewards loyalty program launched.
Last year in early spring I thought the town was pretty dead and figured it was a place to be in summer. Klaipeda was buzzing with people and activity on Saturday and Sunday, but still seemed pretty dead on Monday when there were fewer than 20% of the people wandering around the streets compared to the weekend.
My impression is Klaipeda is primarily a gateway for tourists heading to the Curonian Spit for Baltic coast beach life. The Curonian Spit is a national park and accessible by passenger-only ferry via Klaipeda for €1.00 round trip.
Sandy beach along the 98 kilometers of the Curonian Spit extends about 30 miles from the tip of the spit near Klaipeda to Nida, a summer Baltic Sea resort town near the border of Lithuania. Past Nida, the spit crosses the Russian border to the Kaliningrad Oblast.
Clear skies and temperatures around 24C/75F made for perfect daytime weather with a Baltic Sea breeze blowing over the city of Klaipeda. Around June summer solstice means it never really gets totally dark at night. There is always faint light on the horizon during the 6.5 hours between 10:20pm sunset and 4:50am sunrise.
Touristy Klaipeda is actually a fairly small area of Old Town.
I walked Kelley around the town in 30 minutes, then she asked where else I wanted to go? That’s it! Only other activity was get on the ferry and go to the Curonian Spit.
Kelley was fine with hanging out in a small area loaded with restaurants and pubs along the river for World Cup football games. Cafe life is to her liking.
One of my favorite places to walk around Klaipeda is Sculpture Park, a Soviet era park from the 1970s and 80s.
There are sculptures and art all around Old Town Klaipeda.
That was our Klaipeda experience during World Cup in a nutshell.
