Calling the shots

Vilnius has managed to largely escape the curse of the stag-and-hen-do hotspot that has afflicted other cities in the eastern half of Europe since accession to the EU and advent of no frills airlines. Rather than turning the old town into a gaggle of Australian nighclubs and rack-of-shots basement dives, the steady stream of relatively well-behaving visitors feeds a pleasant after-hours milieu of pubs and wine bars, where people talk and make merry, but don’t then proceed to wear traffic cones as impromptu fashion statements. It means that Vilnius is hardly a nightlife ‘destination’, but having seen how this particular tourist affects even venerable cities like Prague, Budapest or Riga, Vilnius is probably best off sticking to its current, classy, profile.