Riga to Vilnius tour: Bauska, Rundale, Hill of Crosses

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/16

Duration8h

GroupUp to 38

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Castle ruins and crosses spanning the border between Latvia and Lithuania in a single day.

This 8-hour guided tour departs Riga and ends in Vilnius, stopping at Bauska Castle (a 15th-century Livonian fortress and 16th-century ducal residence on a peninsula between two rivers), Rundale Palace (an 18th-century Baroque summer palace designed by the architect of the Winter Palace), and the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai (a hillside holding over 200,000 crosses as a monument to Lithuanian faith and resistance). You travel with a live English guide or a guidebook, comfortable transportation, and space for luggage; entrance fees and meals are separate.

Step-by-step itinerary

Travel Riga to Vilnius via key sights

Visit Bauska Castle complex
Explore Rundale Palace and gardens
See the Hill of Crosses monument
Travel to Vilnius

The Experience

Bauska Castle sits on a narrow strip of land where the Musa and Memele rivers converge, and you'll see both the restored ducal residence (now a museum) and the ruins of the older Livonian Order fortress from the 15th century. The castle was destroyed during the Great Northern War and only partially rebuilt, so the contrast between the two structures tells the story of occupation and recovery in a single view.

Rundale Palace, 15 kilometers from the Lithuanian border, was built in the 18th century as a summer residence for the Duke of Courland and designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who also designed the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. The palace has been fully restored after centuries of use as a hospital, school and grain storage, and the grounds and interior now draw visitors who compare it to Versailles. You'll have time to walk the palace and its gardens at your own pace.

The Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai is a small hill covered with over 200,000 crosses—a repository of Lithuanian cross-making art and a symbol of religious faith and resistance against occupation. It is one of the most sacred sites in Lithuania, and the scale of it—the sheer number of crosses covering the hillside—is what makes the spiritual weight of the place immediate. The tour ends in Vilnius, so this is a one-way journey, not a return to Riga.

What’s included

Comfortable transportation service between all three stops.
space for a reasonable amount of luggage.
a live English guide or guidebook to explore at your own pace.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfant seats availablePublic transport nearbyNot for heart conditionsInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Discover Lithuania

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want to reach Vilnius without renting a car and need a day that connects three countries' worth of history—the two castles and the Hill of Crosses are spread across Latvia and Lithuania, and a single guided journey with fixed transport and timing is what makes all three stops fit into one day.