The train: fastest to the railway station

According to Vilnius Airport's own page on trains, the train travels directly from the airport to Vilnius Railway Station, near the edge of Vilnius's Baroque Old Town, in up to 8 minutes. The railway platform itself is roughly a 2-minute walk from the arrivals terminal, making this one of the more direct airport-to-city rail connections in the region for a journey this short.

Trains run on a daily schedule that differs slightly by direction and day of week: departures from the city to the airport run from 08:00–18:30 on weekdays and 06:55–18:37 on weekends, while departures from the airport to the city run from 07:10–19:20 daily, per the airport's published information. Seating is unreserved, so there is no need to book a specific seat in advance.

Buying a train ticket

The one-way fare between the airport and Vilnius Railway Station is €0.90, and it can be bought in several ways: online at ltglink.lt, through the LTG Link mobile app, at Perlas payment terminals (a common Baltic bill-payment kiosk network), at ticket machines located on the platform at the airport stop, or directly on board the train itself. This flexibility means you do not need to plan your ticket purchase in advance if you would rather buy on arrival.

The bus options

According to Vilnius Airport's public transport page, several bus routes serve the airport:

  • Route 88: Airport – City Centre – Europa Square, the most direct route into the central city for destinations away from the railway station.
  • Route 1: Airport – Vikingų St. – Station.
  • Route 2: Airport – Vikingų St. – Liepkalnio St. – Station.
  • Route 3G: An express service, Airport – City Centre – Fabijoniškės.
  • Route 88N: A night service following the Route 88 path, operating from 22:30 to 05:30.

Tickets can be bought at the Narvesen store in the airport terminal (where the reloadable JUDU Card is sold), by tapping a contactless payment card directly on board the bus (which issues a 60-minute ticket automatically), or through the Trafi and m.Ticket mobile apps. For current timetables and live tracking, the airport directs travellers to judu.lt, stops.lt, or mapping apps like Trafi or Google Maps.

Choosing between the train and the bus

The choice comes down to where you are actually staying. If your accommodation is close to Vilnius Railway Station or within easy reach of it by a short onward walk or local transfer, the train's short, cheap, frequent-enough journey is hard to beat. If you are staying closer to the city centre proper or near Europa Square, route 88's more direct path may save you the extra onward leg the train would otherwise require.

What the fare and frequency actually mean for your trip

Because the train ticket costs under a euro and departures run roughly every hour or so through the operating window listed by the airport, there's little financial reason to plan tightly around a specific departure — arriving at the platform and buying a ticket on the spot is a reasonable approach given the low cost of a wrong guess. The bus routes, by contrast, are ordinary city services rather than airport-dedicated shuttles, so build in some slack for the kind of stop-to-stop variability you'd expect from any city bus rather than assuming airport-level punctuality.

Luggage and accessibility on the train versus the bus

The train's short walk from the arrivals terminal to the platform makes it a reasonably manageable option even with checked luggage, since there's no long transfer corridor or multiple level changes to navigate before boarding. City buses, being ordinary public transport vehicles rather than airport transfer coaches, may have less dedicated luggage space, particularly during busier periods when local commuters are also using the same routes. If you're travelling with substantial luggage and your destination isn't near Vilnius Railway Station, weigh whether a taxi's door-to-door convenience is worth more to you than the bus or train's lower cost, especially outside the express 3G route's more limited stopping pattern.

Before you leave the arrivals hall

Check which of your destination's nearby stops — the railway station or a bus stop along routes 88, 1, 2 or 3G — is genuinely closer to your accommodation before choosing, since guessing based on "the train is always faster" can leave you with a longer combined journey once the onward leg from the station is included.

This guide does not cover taxi or ride-hailing fares from Vilnius Airport, or connections onward to other Lithuanian cities such as Kaunas or Klaipėda.