Klaipeda on our own: taxi, rental or "uber"

[fcccruiser]

My family will be visiting Klaipeda Lithuania for a day on a cruise his summer.  We prefer DIY over cruise excursions but would want to visit Palanga as well as old town Klaipeda and don't know if it would make more sense to do taxi, ride share or rent a car for the day.  I know this isn't a very common port, but does anyone have insight or experience?

 

Thanks for any help!

[bearette]

We did Klaipeda last summer on our cruise. The old town area is near the port area, right by the ship and there is a walking tour you can do as I recall with some signage (just walk it yourself). Go toward the right and see the ghost by the the bridge. We rented a car from Hertz and had a short 10 minute walk by the water to get the car. There isn't much to do except bars and restaurants, but we came back after five when things were closed, too. We couldn't even find stores to buy tourist trinkets after returning the car. Close to the ship is a fort you can pay to tour.

 

We took the car out to see the missile silo so I can t speak to the beach area. My husband drove and we found it easy to navigate, but we encountered some dirt roads.

 

I researched but didn't do it -  take the ferry to the Curonian Spit. It's near the port but the ferry is on the other side of the river, so you have to walk around or take a taxi. I don't know if they used Uber there as we never tried to use it.

[fcccruiser]

Thanks.  I believe Bolt is the Uber equivalent in Lithuania, but was mainly interested in whether renting a car was cheap and easy enough to make it a reasonable alternative.  It sounds like your experience renting was pretty positive.

[edinburgher]

In most European countries there is a good network of public transport so you could also look into whether there are public buses or trains running that route, also the cost of a taxi as it would be far simpler than renting a car.  Should you decide on a rental, remember to read all the driving rules relating to Lithuania and take parking at Palanga into account too as you may need local currency to pay parking charges.