Grab your Speedos and take a footpath through pine forests across the spit’s 1km-wide tip to a bleached-white sandy beach. From the ferry landing, walk straight ahead across the car park, then bear left towards Nida; on your right a large sign marks a smooth footpath that leads through pine forest to a women’s beach (Moterų pliažas; 1km), mixed beach (Bendras pliažas; 700m) and men’s beach (Vyrų pliažas; 900m). Nude or topless bathing is the norm on single-sex beaches.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
26.77 MILES
Where the Nemunas, Lithuania's largest river, spills into the Curonian lagoon, it splits into four distributaries: the Skirvytė, the Atmata, the Pakalnė…
29.09 MILES
The 52m-high Parnidis Dune is simultaneously mighty and fragile. Past settlements around Nida have been engulfed by the moving sand dune but this is a…
12.18 MILES
A coven of wooden sculptures is gathered on a forest-clad hill in Juodkrantė, carved by Lithuanian artists over the years since 1979. At this open-air…
13.61 MILES
Housed in a neoclassical palace built by Count Feliksas Tiskevicius in 1897, this revamped museum showcases what is reputedly the world’s sixth-largest…
28 MILES
This delightful woodland cemetery features some fine examples of krikštai (wooden grave markers). Their origins hark back to Lithuania's pagan roots and…
13.35 MILES
One of Europe's largest colonies of cormorants and grey herons is amassed in the forest 1km south of Juodkrantė. Wooden steps lead from the road to a…
1.36 MILES
The castle museum is spread across four exhibition spaces around Klaipėda's castle – two of these are located in atmospherically lit tunnels and deal with…
28.09 MILES
In an old fisher's hut on the northern side of town is this museum and shop devoted to amber. Staff introduce the mythic and supposed health-boosting…
Nearby attractions
0.42 MILES
This popular museum, set in a 19th-century fort, has some fascinating stuffed sea animals, as well as aquariums showcasing the marine life of the Curonian…
2. Exposition of the National Park of the Curonian Spit
0.6 MILES
Dedicated to the flora and fauna of the park, this museum is spread across three wooden houses. Alongside stuffed examples of wild pigs, badgers, beavers…
3. Ethnographic Sea Fishermen’s Farmstead
0.66 MILES
The lifestyles of 19th- and 20th-century farmers are laid bare at this open-air museum, just south of Smiltynė's tourist office. Around the grassy site…
1.25 MILES
If strolling near the cruise ship pier, keep an eye out for this grotesque hooded figure, clambering out of the water whilst clutching a lamp. Local…
1.36 MILES
The castle museum is spread across four exhibition spaces around Klaipėda's castle – two of these are located in atmospherically lit tunnels and deal with…
1.38 MILES
This fine neoclassical theatre, built in 1857, stages productions in Lithuanian. Hitler proclaimed the Anschluss (incorporation) of Memel into Germany…
7. Monument to Martynas Mažvydas
1.38 MILES
This monumental 3.5m sculpture in granite depicts Martynas Mažvydas, author of the first book published in Lithuanian in 1547. It's located north of the…
1.41 MILES
A replica of the 1912 statue of Little Annie of Tharau sculpted by Berlin artist Alfred Kune (the original was destroyed in WWII) and inspired by a famous…