Trakai

Get in

Buses from Vilnius run at least hourly: buy tickets from the driver, for €2.60 each way in 2023. Most are direct buses terminating here (run by Trakų Autobusai), though an occasional bus takes 40-50 min via the back lanes. A few (run by Busotas) continue west to Alytus or to Birštonas, Prienai and Marijampolė. For timetables and fares see Autobusubilieta.

is the new bus station opened in Nov 2022, replacing the previous tatty rain-shelter not a day too soon. For the castle head 3 km north, a pleasant walk through the old town to the footbridge.

Trains from Vilnius take 35 min, running hourly morning and evening but with a long midday gap, for a single fare in 2025 from €1.80 - the earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket is likely to be. They stop in Senieji Trakai, for Old Castle, 7 minutes before reaching Trakai. (Trains for Varėna and Marcinkonys also stop at this junction.) The last train back to Vilnius departs from Trakai around 20:40. For timetables and fares see LTG Link.

is a simple platform terminus with no facilities. It's south edge of town so you've an extra 500 m to walk each way compared to the bus.

By road from Vilnius follow A16 west, but don't come into town, where parking is limited. At Ostruvka turn north onto the 4751 to Varnikai and follow it till it dead-ends at a free parking lot. From here footbridges take you to the north tip of Old Town then to the castle, 1 km in all.

Get around

The town is small enough for everything to be reached on foot. Footbridges link town, Island Castle and nearby peninsulas.

See

Bernardine Monastery ruins are 300 m northeast of the bus station. Just a few scraps of masonry, don't spend too long seeking them out, the Bernardines have better structures in Vilnius and Kaunas. thumb | 300px | Footbridge to Island Castle (Švč. Dievo Motinos Gimimo cerkvė) is a dinky little church of 1863: the Orthodox community here was never large. It was wrecked in World War I but rebuilt in 1938. Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Švč. Mergelės Marijos Apsilankymo mažoji bazilika) is a baroque RC church 150 m north of the Orthodox church on Vytauto gatve just before you reach Peninsula Castle. Imperial Russian Post Office (Buvęs Rusijos imperijos pašto pastatas) is an attractive blue wooden building just outside Peninsula Castle. You can't go inside. thumb | 300px | Karaite Museum is an earthwork on the peninsula north of Varnika village and parking lot, reached by footbridge. It's of unknown date, described as a hillfort but more likely a motte-and-bailey: an artificial mound fortified by a long-gone wooden stockade, never converted to a stone castle. (Angelų Kalva) is a grouping of religious sculptures. Lithuania has a tradition of wooden crosses and shrines but these are modern, and as a group somewhat macabre. (Senųjų Trakų piliakalnis) was built before 1321, when Lithuania's capital moved here from Kernavė. The Teutonic Knights destroyed it in 1391 and the Duchy opted to build anew in better defensive positions - the Island and Peninsula…