Anos Kempingas

Handsome Troškūnai (five minutes’ drive/25 minutes’ walk) may be your first port of call for a spot of sightseeing; the old centre of the town is home to a Benedictine monastery as well as a clutch of gleaming-white Baroque churches. If you’re keen to have a day touring the sights of Vilnius (about an hour), services run regularly from the town’s bus station. You may need to cherry-pick to see the best of Vilnius on a day; major attractions include the colonnaded cathedral and the landmark Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Be sure not to miss the haunting Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, formerly a prison run by the KGB during Communist occupation, and wind up your day at the top of Gediminas Tower for spectacular views over the city. If you’re sticking closer to your peaceful rural base, there’s a long-forgotten and atmospheric 19th-century Jewish Cemetery in Smėlynė (10 minutes’ walk), where you can wander freely through woodland to read the inscriptions on the tumbledown tombstones.