Lithuania private tours with local guides | True Lithuania
True Lithuania

Jewish tours

True Lithuania specializes in Jewish tours of Lithuania, offering experienced guides who know all the Jewish sights in Lithuania and their histories, including synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, homes and statues of famous people and places of genocide.

All our Jewish tours are private and prices are listed "for the tour", that is additional people do not cost additionally.

Our main Jewish tours:
Vilnius Jewish tour
Kaunas Jewish tour

If you wish, Jewish tours may also be combined with the most famous non-Jewish sights of the same cities.

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Truelithuania Tours

True Lithuania offers tours of the key sights of Lithuania, with experienced guides.

Our top tours are those of Vilnius and Kaunas.

True Lithuania also offers many specialized tours.

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Vilnius Old Town tour

VilniusOldTownTour3 hour private tour of Vilnius Old Town led by a professional licenced local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

UNESCO-inscribed Vilnius Old Town is among the Eastern Europe's largest.

It is a district of cobbled streets, countless church spires, multiethnic districts, old university, cute courtyards and more. A local guide will tell the local stories

Vilnius Old Town tour includes

Baroque, Gothic and Rennaisance churches with their breathtaking religious art.
Castles of Vilnius.
Picturesque courtyards - the hidden face of old Vilnius.
Main squares
Vilnius University - among the Eastern Europe's oldest places of higher education.
Ethnic minority districts - Russians, Poles, Jews, Germans, Tatars and East Slavs coexisted in Vilnius for centuries.
Optional: Genocide sites that remind of the 20th century occupations that Vilnius spent decades under.
• And more...

Additional possibility:
*Detour by public transport to Ss. Peter and Paul church with its breathtaking Baroque interior with thousands of white figurines.

What will you learn

• How the Europe's largest Medieval state (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) was governed from Vilnius
• Why there are so many churches in Vilnius.
• Why is Vilnius so important to so many different ethnic groups.
• Why Vilnius old town is so big and why it has one of the Eastern Europe's oldest universities.
• The legend of Iron Wolf whose howl caused grand duke Gediminas to establish Vilnius city.
Optional: How and where KGB used to watch, torture and kill the people of Lithuania during the Soviet occupation.

The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian (rarer languages with surcharge).

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Vilnius Jewish tour

Vilnius Jewish tour

3-hour Jewish private tour of Vilnius led by a professional licenced local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

Vilnius is sometimes called "Jerusalem of the North" and is rich in Jewish locations. At one time Jews were the largest ethnic group of Vilnius. During this tour, you will see much of that history.

Vilnius Jewish tour includes

• Vilnius Jewish districts and ghettos.
• Vilnius synagogue.
• The site of Vilnius Great Synagogue.
• Locations related to Vilnius Gaon (the final commentator of Talmud).
• Authentic Yiddish inscriptions on buildings.
• Statues and plaques of famous local Jews.
• Holocaust locations in Vilnius Old Town.
• Jewish information center.
• Former Jewish theater.
• And more...

What will you learn

• Learn how Jews of Vilnius contributed greatly to worldwide Jewish thought and Judaism.
• See the streets, courtyards, and alleys where a large Jewish community has thrived for centuries.
• Learn about the local Jewish community and culture, both historic and contemporary.
• Learn how some Jews managed to hide or escape from the planned murder under Nazi German occupation (1941-1944) and what resistance took place.
Who were the famous Jews who lived in Vilnius, what languages they spoke, where they came from.
• And more...

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Kaunas Old Town tour

tourkaunasoldtown2 3 hour private tour of Kaunas Old Town led by a professional local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

A medieval district with impressive churches, cobbled streets, merchant townhouses from the 1400s, and a variety of lively street cafes. Surrounded by the two largest Lithuanian rivers with a castle in-between - it is an attractive place to spend time both for tourists and locals.

Kaunas Old Town tour includes

Gothic churches and townhouses of medieval merchants.
Kaunas Medieval Castle dating from mid-14th century.
Main square with the historic City Hall.
Main pedestrian street full of nice buildings and cafes, offering both local and foreign cuisines.
• Impressive Kaunas Cathedral, a 600 year old largest Gothic building in Lithuania
Embankment of Nemunas, the Lithuania’s mightiest and longest river.
Panorama of the Old Town from above (optional).
• And more...

Gothic church in KaunasGothic townhouse in KaunasKaunas Medieval castleNemunas embankmentKaunas City HallPanorama of the Old TownMain pedestrian streetKaunas Cathedral

What will you learn

• Why was Kaunas a favorite trading spot for Medieval European merchants?
• Why did once-pagan Lithuanian leaders build so many churches?
• How did Kaunas castle fare against the foreign invaders?
• Why did it take two weeks to pass the bridge over Nemunas?
• And more…

The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages

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Kaunas Golden Age tour

tourkaunasgoldenage3 hour private tour of Golden age Kaunas led by a professional local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

This tour will show you why Kaunas is considered among Europe’s best places to explore that unique period between the two World Wars.

Kaunas Golden Age tour includes

Modernist Kaunas City Center redeveloped in that Golden Age, recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site.
Massive government buildings – new Parliament, House of President, and Bank of Lithuania built to serve the entire newly-emerged country.
Restaurants and cultural venues where Golden Age star musicians performed for the Interwar elite.
Examples of art deco, Modernism, National style and other art styles of the era.
Žaliakalnis Funicular, built in the early 30s to link the center to the district of interwar elite private homes.
Christ Ressurection Basilica, envisioned in 1930s to be the largest in the Baltics.

• And more...

Optional:
Museum of M. K. Čiurlionis, the most renowned Lithuanian artist who developed his original style encompassing painting and music on the eve of the Golden Age.
War Museum (built in the Golden Age).
Devil Museum – the only of the kind in the world, a collection of demon statuettes by eccentric Golden Age painter Antanas Zmuidzinavičius, the visit includes the possibility to see his own authentic apartment.

What will you learn...

• How the elite and common men of the 20s and 30s era lived, worked and spent their pastime?
• How a small town Russian fortress town was transformed into a European capital in the span of under 10 years?
• How could Kaunas look like without the Golden Age?
• Why was Kaunas was always given the title “temporary capital” rather than just called a state capital?
• Why is interwar often considered to be the Golden Age of entire Lithuania?

• And more…

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Kaunas walking tour

tourkaunasoldtown3 hour private walking tour of the whole central Kaunas led by a professional local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

Kaunas had numerous periods of importance: a medieval merchant city, one of four key fortress- cities of the Russian Empire, a temporary capital of interwar Lithuanian Republic, the “most Lithuanian town” in the whole USSR…. This tour is the only one to show all the faces of this city!

All of Kaunas tour includes

• The medieval Old Town with its castle, gothic churches, City Hall and homes of the Hanseatic Medieval merchants.
• The hub of massive Russian fortress that transformed entire Kaunas into a military city after the Napoleon invasion. This part includes an opulent Orthodox church, the officers building and more.
• The Golden Age Kaunas from the era it served as the capital of Lithuania (1920s-1930s), with its massive government buildings, cultural sites, funiculars and churches, all imbibed in the interwar art styles.
• And more...

Optional:

• A visit to various museums (for an additional price).
• Car trip to the forts of Kaunas (for an additional price).
• Car trip to Pažaislis monastery, a gem of northern Baroque (for an additional price).

Additionally, the tour can be tailor made, with any sights replaced by other ones as per your wishes and interests.

Gothic church in KaunasGothic townhouse in KaunasKaunas Medieval castleKaunas City HallMain pedestrian streetKaunas Cathedral

What will you learn

• Why was Kaunas first a castle attacked by many of future European rulers (including King of England) and later a favorite trading spot for Medieval Hanseatic merchants?
• How many forts had the Russian Tsar constructed around Kaunas and how did they succeed to prepare for the First Word War? Why was Kaunas fortress the last such fortress to be built and why did it survive so well?
• How was a small town on the confluence of rivers Nemunas and Neris transformed into a European capital in some 10 years?
• What were the rites of the elite in the interwar Golden Age Kaunas?
• How did Kaunas fare in the Soviet Union and how did its people challenge the regime?
• And more...

The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages

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Kaunas Pažaislis monastery tour

tourkaunaspazaislis3-hour private car trip to Pažaislis monastery (a gem of northern Baroque funded by some of the richest Lithuanian nobles) and other key sights of suburban Kaunas!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

Kaunas is so much more than its center!

This car tour of its suburbs may be ordered separately or combined with any of the walking tours of Kaunas.

Kaunas Pažaislis tour includes

Pažaislis monastery church, a hexagonal domed masterpiece of architecture, designed by Italian architects Puttini and Frediani.
• Serene tree-laned entrance avenue to the monastery.
• Impressive Cloisters of the monastery.
• A stop in the 6th fort, part of an enormous authentic fortress built by the Russian Imperial Forces that once subsumed the entire city of Kaunas.
Kaunas reservoir, the largest reservoir in Lithuania and a popular location for swimming and water sports.
• And more...

Optional (included in price):

• A side-trip to Petrašiūnai cemetery, where the elite of Kaunas is buried, including world-famous semiotic Algirdas Julien Greimas and archeologist / mythology researcher Marija Gimbutas.
• A stop at a line of wooden crosses spontaneously erected by Kaunas inhabitants in the early 1990s celebrating the freedom of Lithuania.

Pažaislis monastery churchPažaislis monastery tree-lined avenue6th fort of the Kaunas fortressKaunas reservoir at PažaislisPetrašiūnai cemeteryLine of crosses

What will you learn

• What foreign artists and craftsmen decorated the glory of Pažaislis?
• What was the life in Pažaislis monastery when it was built?
• How massive was the far-reaching influence of Pažaislis owners and builders?
• How were the buildings used by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, both of which had the monastery closed?
• What was the life within Kaunas as it was turned into a Russian fortress city?
• How was Pažaislis restored after Lithuanian independence and how the nuns are living there today?
• And more...

The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages

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Kaunas Jewish tour

tourkaunasjewish3 hour private tour of Kaunas Jewish tour led by a professional local guide, recommended by True Lithuania website!

Price: see here

The tour is personal. There would be no additional people in the group except for you and your family / friends. The tour may begin at any convenient time.

Order at tour.baltic@gmail.com

Kaunas (or Kovno) has always had an active Jewish community. Historically a significant part of Kaunas elite were Jews: architects, businessmen, traders, and artists. Their lives inscribed a number of stories and traces visible in the architecture of the city. Kaunas is also renowned for an incredible story how Dutch and Japanese diplomats conspired to save hundreds of Jewish lives in the 1940s.

Kaunas Jewish tour includes

Neo-Baroque Kaunas synagogue, still used by an active religious community.
Two former synagogues that served different forms of Judaism.
Chiyune Sugihara house where a Japanese consul saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.
Locations where Jewish artists, architects and traders of Kaunas lived and worked (and their life stories).
Monuments to the Jews of Kaunas.
• And more...

What will you learn

• Learn how Jews of Kaunas contributed to creating the city as it is today.
• See the streets, courtyards, and alleys where a Jewish community has thrived for centuries.
• Learn about the local Jewish community and culture, both historic and contemporary: their languages, beliefs and more.
• Witness the former Jewish cultural centers, and learn about the artists and performers of the interwar Kaunas who later prospered in Israel;
• Where did such artists as Marc Chagall arrange their exhibitions on the way from Russia to Paris?
• Learn how some Jews managed to hide or escape from the planned murder in Kovno Ghetto under Nazi German occupation (1941-1944) and what resistance took place.
• Learn other stories of the Holocaust / Shoah in Kaunas.
• And more...

The tour is available in English, Polish, Russian and Lithuanian languages

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