Public transportation in Lithuania is buses and shuttle buses. There are trolleybuses in Vilnius and Kaunas. There is a small train between Vilnius station and the international airport once an hour. The fare is only 0.80 EUR. Schedules can be found on the Lithuanian Railways website.
There are express buses marked “G” that stop only at major stops. Public transport operates from 5:00 AM until 11:00 PM or midnight. In Kaunas and Vilnius, night buses also run.
In Vilnius and Kaunas, the main method of payment for public transport is a plastic card. They are called Vilniečio Kortelė and Druskininkai e-ticket, respectively. Single-use paper tickets are also available. Plastic cards can be purchased at supermarkets, newspaper kiosks, airports, railway stations, and bus terminals. The card costs 1.50 EUR. In Kaunas, there is a single 30-minute fare costing 0.70 EUR. In Vilnius, there are 30-minute and 60-minute fares costing 0.90 EUR and 1.30 EUR, respectively.
You can load either the exact amount for a trip (the fare is deducted automatically) or any desired amount of money. In this case, you can select the trip duration on the validator screen. The plastic card allows transfers between routes and different types of transport, but only within the chosen validity period. Only one person may use the card per trip.
Paper tickets can be purchased from the driver. In Vilnius and Kaunas, such a ticket costs 1 EUR. It entitles you to one journey without transfers. The fare for a minibus (marshrutka) is 1.25 EUR in Vilnius and 1 EUR in Kaunas.
Travel passes are also available. In Vilnius, a 24-hour ticket costs 5 EUR, a three-day ticket — 8 EUR, a ten-day ticket — 15 EUR, and a monthly pass — 29 EUR. The validity period starts from the first trip.
Fines in Lithuania are taken very seriously. The penalty for fare evasion or exceeding the travel time ranges from 12 to 30 EUR. If the travel time is exceeded by 10 minutes or less, no fine is imposed.
You can also travel around Lithuania by train, although it’s not always the most convenient option. For example, there is a line from Lentvaris to Trakai — the shortest electrified railway line in the Baltic States, just 9 km long with only one intermediate stop.
