Palanga is a seaside resort with a split personality – peaceful pensioner paradise in winter, pounding party spot in summer and insanely beautiful in between. Tourists from all over Lithuania and abroad come for its idyllic 18 km sandy beach backed by sand dunes and scented pines.
It is definitely the most universal resort in Lithuania where anyone can find a suitable way to have rest and fun.
Contemporary Palanga functions as a year-round health resort but is celebrated more for what happens there during the short summer season between June and September when the population explodes and the party never ends.
There is a carnival centred on Jonas Basanavičius Street, which is a pedestrian only thoroughfare during the high season, with dozens of restaurants, bars, rides, and other forms of entertainment. Sounds of music, laughter and lively clattering fills the atmosphere of the street which, in fact, ends in a beautiful pier opening a fantastic skyline. Each sunny evening many romantics come there to watch the spectacular sunset.
Palanga also offers intriguing cultural diversions for those looking for something a little more highbrow than gulping down litres of lager and devouring platefuls of cepelinai.
The beautiful Amber Museum, established in the Counts Tiškevičiai palace, is open to the public, as are the museum’s extensive Birutė‘s park.
For those who like an active rest water cycles, bicycles, horses, tennis courts, pools, bath complexes and other activities are available.
Palanga Concert Hall
In the end of 2015 a new Concert Hall was opened in Palanga. It’s almost 5 thousand sq. m, rises about 14 meters above the ground and is lowered 6 m underground.
Specific location – center of the quarter, which is formed by different stylistics discordant buildings, presupposed a simple circular shape – the form that unites surrounding various periods of architecture. It’s round white facade not only gives sense of lightness to a relatively big volume of a building, but also highlights a valuable historic building – Palanga kurhauz, by forming a contrast background to it.
Small windows placed diagonally into the facade horizontally divides the building, brings motion to it as well as serves indirect, soft light source to the hall and an acoustic diffusing element from the inside, expressed the idea of a music box.
Interior of a 2200 seats main hall mostly dominated by brownish wooden beams, panels, green chairs and frame less glass railings combines a comfortable, soothing and modern atmosphere. Round shape of the hall allows good visibility of the stage even from the most distant seats.
Palanga Kurhaus
The first hotel and restaurant called Kurhaus was an attraction in the center of Palanga for more than one hundred years and became the symbol of the resort.
The beginning of the Kurhaus history is associated with Counts Tiškevičiai. The big restaurant and the first resort hotel were opened by Palanga estate owner Count Juozapas Tiškevičius in the late 19th century. It was called Kurhaus following the traditions of the neighboring countries.
In the beginning of the 20th century, a café with billiard, game room and reading room were established here. After the war the building became the property of the town and was used for its purposes. In Kurhaus every year a lot of events, performances and concerts were held.
In the beginning of the 20th century Kurhaus became a heart of Palanga. On 25 August of 2002 Kurhaus has been destroyed by fire and after ten years reconstruction was started. In the late 2013 reconstruction of the brick part of the buidling was finished and in 2020 the wooden part of the Kurhaus was restored, and now Kurhaus is inviting audiences to the new concerts and performances.
Palanga Amber Museum
The Palanga Amber Museum – Branch of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art – was established on August 3, 1963.
It is housed on the estate of Count Feliksas Tiskevicius (1865–1932). The estate, designed by German architect Franc Schwechten (1841–1924), was built in 1897. The Palanga Botanical Gardens, designed by the landscape architect Eduard Francois Andre (1840–1911) and nmow called Birutė’s Park, surround the Estate.
The Palanga Amber Museum’s exposition takes up 15 rooms. About 4500 exhibit pieces are found here. Visitors are acquainted with the formation, processing, practical application, and morphological variations of amber. The museum has a wealth of amber pieces with trapped insects or plants, a collection of unique pieces of amber, and examples of fossilized tree resin brought from all over the world.
About 8 million people have come to visit the Palanga Amber Museum. The Museum is famous for its traditional cultural events. For 30 summers now the terrace has been home to the night serenade concerts. Interesting cultural events and meetings with artists take place in the Fireplace Hall of the Estate.