GETTING TO KALININGRAD BY CAR FROM LITHUANIA

Kaliningrad is an exclave of Russian Federation squeezed between Poland and Lithuania on the coast of Baltic sea. We applied for e-visas (https://electronic-visa.kdmid.ru/klgd_home_en.html), got them done in a few days, printed them (that's a must) and headed from Lithuania to Kaliningrad by car.

There are four border checkpoints between Lithuania and Kaliningrad: Kybartai-Chernyshevskoye, Panemune-Sovetsk, Ramoniskiai-Pogranichny, and Nida-Morskoye (on the Curonian split). As we arrived at Panemune-Sovetsk in the morning, we saw a long queue of cars, counted about 50 of them and at first it didn’t look that bad. However, we quickly realized it takes at least 15 minutes for one car to pass, so you figure… Our whole weekend plan was about to be ruined.

Thank God we quickly found a site that shows livestream on webcams at all border checkpoints from Lithuanian side: https://www.ltsiena.lt/yphis/bordersAndWaitingAreas.action?request_locale=en

The Ramoniskiai-Pogranichny, at one hour driving distance from Panemune, was showing only five cars at that time, so we headed there, and it worked. Well, it still took us about two hours to pass, but when we finally did it, we felt like getting to a promised land 

Quick guide how it works:

-Once it is your turn to pass the gates, you will be let in.

-Your car will be checked, including the trunk, engine serial number, and car documents.

-You can get out of the car only when allowed by the officer.

-Head to the first post which is passport control.

-After passport check, head to visa check.

-Have all your documents printed.

-You will be told when you can leave the border check point.

Oh, one more thing. If you are driving a car registered not on your own name (e.g. a company car) you absolutely need to have a written permit that the owner entitles you to drive this particular car. Otherwise, Russian border customs officials will not let you pass.

And bear in mind, nobody speaks English at the border! All the forms to be filled by foreigners are… in Russian only. So, unless you speak Russian, you will have to ask some other friendly travelers to help you. I can understand Russian myself, so in this case I was the help for others.

That’s why it was such a sense of achievement to finally get across.

P.S. no big story about driving back from Kaliningrad to Lithuania. It was quick and easy on the Morskoye-Nida checkpoint.

Only note that the quantity of items permitted to carry across the border, such as alcohol and cigarettes. The same rules as arriving by plane do not apply if you go by car. You will be checked carefully and charged customs duty on the exceeded quantity. (e.g., you are allowed to carry only 40 units vs. 200 units by plane).