For the first time in history, Lithuania is among the recommended countries to visit by one of the biggest travel publications.
Lonely Planet, one of the world’s largest travel guidebooks, has announced this week that Lithuania is a must-visit destination.
Lithuania is in the second spot in Lonely Planet’s list of the top countries worth visiting in 2025. The publication has over 186 million readers.
The list goes like this:
1. Cameroon
2. Lithuania
3. Fiji
4. Laos
5. Kazakhstan
All the ten countries, according to the government’s tourism promotion agency Travel Lithuania, are linked by their exceptional nature.
However, there are more criteria a country has to match in order to get into the list: uniqueness of the destination, quality of infrastructure, value for money, sustainability, and safety.
Every year, the list aims to include both well-known and lesser-known destinations.
Tourists in Vilnius recognise that it is interesting to explore less popular cities and countries.
“We usually go to Greece, but this year we decided to explore Vilnius,” says one man,
“I visited Estonia, then Latvia,” says a woman. “People are friendlier here.”
Experts in Lithuania have singled out four main attractions: the green, modern Vilnius, with its unique history and modern bars and restaurants; the spectacular Curonian Spit National Park; the wilderness of Aukštaitija National Park; and the Hill of Crosses, which attracts pilgrims from all over the world.
“People visit the Hill of Crosses in the belief that it can help them heal – and during happy moments and holidays,” says Lina Šukienė, manager of Šiauliai District Tourism Information Centre that oversees the site.
The Hill of Crosses is already popular with foreign tourists, with travellers from Asian countries leading the way.
After a dip during the first years of the Ukraine war, international tourism is recovering in Lithuania.
“We think that tourists are returning and this year we have a lot more different foreign delegations, groups that have different events here,” says Valdas Kaminskas, communications Manager at Telecentras.
More tourists are expected after the Lonely Planet’s recommendation.
“This is already a big money-generating ecosystem and we think that there will be more and more tourists in the coming years and we need to prepare the Lithuanian tourism ecosystem for these tourists, both for the hotels and the service providers,” says Deputy Economy Minister Karolis Žemaitis.
The effects, however, could be less direct, cautions the head of Travel Lithuania, Olga Gončarova.
“Each person who reads the guide will probably not plan a trip to Lithuania, but [...] this is a great opportunity, and it costs the country nothing to be in such a well-known ranking. And since the readership is very broad and reaches more than 180 million readers, some of them will plan the trip,” she says.
Lithuania’s tourism potential, however, may be hampered by a lack of infrastructure, says Vilija Malinauskienė, lecturer at Vilnius University Business School.
“There are a number of destinations from which it is not possible to fly on regular flights or commercial airlines. This means that those connections are not suitable for group tourism. And Lithuania is still a country of cultural, group tourism,” she says.
Last year, 1.4 million foreign tourists visited Lithuania. On average, each spends at least several hundred euros on services in the country.
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