Day Trip From Vilnius: Rumsiskes, The Open Air Museum Of Lithuania

Getting to the Open Air Museum

The Rumsiskes Open Air Museum of Lithuania is approximately a one hour drive via the A4 from Vilnius. It can only be reached by car, but luckily, renting a car in Vilnius is relatively inexpensive and there are numerous rental car agencies to choose from.

About the Open Air Museum

Comprising a space of 195 hectares (481.85 acres), the Open Air Museum is one of the largest open-air ethnographic museums in all of Europe. The museum is composed of different areas relating to the different cultural (ethnographic) areas of Lithuania including Dzūkija, Aukštaitija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija (Samogita), and Lithuania Minor. In each of these areas, you’ll find cottages, farmhouses, and other structures from different eras that were moved to this open air museum from other parts of Lithuania. It really is impressive to see all of the different structures and to notice the differences and similarities among buildings from different regions and times.

What to do and see

The Rumsiskes Open Air Museum of Lithuania is huge, so I’d suggest taking a careful look at the large map that can be found inside of the park (maps are not found elsewhere in the park; taking a photo of the map is also a good idea). This way, you can start off by walking directly to the area you’d like to see. To maximize what you see, I’d suggest starting off your visit by walking to the center of the park in which you’ll find a “town.” In the town, you’ll see a school house, church, and a few shops. You can enter each of the buildings in the town; try to picture yourself as the teacher in the school house! If you are hungry, there is also a small restaurant in the town.

Next, walk on to the Samogita region to see the inside of several houses, farms, a wooden windmill, and to many friendly goats. Take your time to look in the houses as it is really interesting to see the decorations, detailed furniture, and sleeping arrangements. Some of the houses are staffed, so you’ll hear an explanation of who lived in the house and what each of the rooms were used for. I enjoyed hearing about the shoe-maker’s house in the Samogita region and was surprised by the sleeping arrangements and the number of children the couple had!

In the Suvalkija region, you can find three different homesteads, a forest dweller’s home, and different types of bee hives.

The Aukštaitija region is set up as a village with the houses along one main street, and farmland and other buildings in the surroundings. Numerous homes, a small church, and a mill are other features of this large part of the park.

I spent approximately 4 hours during my recent visit at the Open Air Museum, but I easily could have spent longer. It is best to plan a whole day for your trip. There is a wonderful interactive map (in English) on the webpage, so if you’d like to read more and plan your walking route before your visit, I’d suggest checking it out. You can find this map linked below.