Vilnius TV Tower: Full Walkthrough & Review

With its upper-most point being 326 meters above the ground, the Vilnius TV Tower – or Vilniaus televizijos bokštas – is the tallest structure in the entire country of Lithuania. For the sake of comparison, the tip of the Eiffel Tower is 330 meters, while the tip of New York’s Empire State building is 443 meters off the ground.

Being so high up in the air, this tower, and its slightly lower observation deck and restaurant, offers great views of Vilnius and the surrounding area.

My first experience of the TV Tower

It was on a warm and sunny Wednesday in the middle of April 2022 that my wife and I decided to head out for lunch at the TV Tower. Since we both work irregular schedules, we thought it would be nice to go at a less busy time of the week to check out the tower.

While we took our non-electric scooters to get to the TV Tower, you can easily get there by bus. The closest stop is conveniently named Televizijos Bokštas – and is served by 9 different buses. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the 2G express bus stops here, but you can still take the 2G from the city and get off at a nearby stop like Vaivorykštes or Karoliniskes, and just walk a little bit more. Since the TV Tower is such a tall landmark, it’s easy to find wherever you are in the city! To give you a rough time estimate using the bus, it’s a roughly 45-minute ride from the main station (Stotis).

Getting to the bottom of the tower, you might expect that the base of the tower is where you would enter the building. However, this is not the case. If you follow the road up to the tower, you’ll need to follow the signs carefully that direct you to the TV Tower Entrance, which starts with a tunnel located about 60 meters away from the base of the tower. This statue (a memorial to the victims of January 13th, 1991) will be a good reference point to find it!

Arriving and getting a ticket

Enter through the doors and head through the long, cold, and somewhat dark corridor to reach the lobby area of the tower. At this point, if you didn’t buy your ticket online, you can line up to pay for your admission to the observation area and restaurant. It’s good to know that they won’t allow large bags or backpacks up. Instead, you’ll be requested to store your bag in a free locker, located just behind the cashier.

At the time of writing this article, the price of admission to the 19th-floor enclosed observation deck for adults is 11 euros from Monday to Thursday. However, the prices goes up to 14 euros on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays. This is a bit of an increase from my visit in 2022, and so I wouldn’t be surprised if the prices go up again in a year or two. There are discounted rates for families, students, seniors, and the disabled (see image below). Prices may have gone up since this article was written, so check out the latest at: tvbokstas.lt.

Once you have your ticket ticket, head over to the turnstiles and scan the barcode to get to the elevator. An attendant will be waiting there to collect enough people to fill the elevator for a ride up.

A ticket will allow you to go up and down exactly one time. It’s also very important to know that your ticket is needed to exit the building too– so make sure you keep it safe during your visit!

Up at the 19th floor (restaurant & observation deck)

Getting to the 19th floor, you’ll be greeted by staff and asked if you want to eat at the restaurant, or just enjoy the view. Then, you’ll be directed to the appropriate place. For our visit, we decided to go for lunch, and were seated at one of the big, comfortable, padded booths. Wherever you are, the entire floor rotates. According to the Tower website, you will travel an entire 360 degrees in 55 minutes.

The restaurant itself, named Paukščių takas, is an upscale dining experience. The Lithuanian name is what the Lithuanians call the Milky Way galaxy.

The food prices at this TV Tower restaurant are not the cheapest – especially considering that you have to pay to get up here in the first place. At the same time, these prices aren’t completely crazy and match the experience quite well. It may or may not matter to you, but this is one of the few restaurants in the city that doesn’t have tap water as an option.

While the service is pretty fast, time doesn’t matter as much up here, considering the amazing view to stare at while you wait. On a clear day, it’s easy to catch a good view of the Vilnius Old Town and Gediminas Castle Tower. Vingis park is also clearly visible as you follow the path of the Neris river through the city.

Someone asked me about the cleanliness of the windows, since someone claimed they were always dirty. This wasn’t something I noticed while I was there, but looking at my video footage afterwards, I did see that a few panels were somewhat dirty. Hopefully, these get cleaned every now and then.

When you’re ready to go down, walk over to the elevator and let an employee know that you would like to exit. You can’t go down on your own, and they’ll need to scan something to call up the elevator.

Once you’re at the bottom, don’t forget that you have to have your ticket in order to scan out!

So that’s it for our day at the VIlnius TV Tower and restaurant.

Is it worth it?

For our 2022 trip, two burger meals, two desserts, a coffee, a gira, and a bottle of water, and soup, the total cost was 42 euros. If we add on the 18 euros paid to get up, the total cost for our time up at the tower was 60 euros. And of course this doesn’t include restaurant tips, or the cost of transportation to get there. Prices are likely to be even higher now, so just be prepared for that.

Considering this, it’s probably not something you want to do on a regular basis! However, if you’re living in Vilnius or Lithuania for awhile, I would say it’s worth doing at least once during your time here – perhaps if you’re celebrating something special. I imagine the experience would be even more amazing during the sunset, or when hot air balloons are floating through the air. That would probably make for some amazing photos!

If you’ve been up to the TV tower before, share your experience by leaving a comment down below!