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Home Retirement/Living

Retire To Vilnius, Lithuania

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Apr 16, 2012
in Retirement/Living
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aerial view of the Vilnius skyline lit up at night
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Top Emerging Euro-Retirement Choice (Because The Tropics Aren’t For Everyone)

“The tropics are not for everyone,” writes new Correspondent Patrick Murphy. “I love palm trees and hot sand underfoot on the beach, too, but I would find it hard to live without a change of seasons–crisp fall mornings, trees ablaze with color…the feeling of renewal that comes with the onset of spring.

“Moreover, some of us feel cultural connections with Europe and the Old World and like the idea of dividing our time between the beaches of Latin America and the cities and landscapes of ancient Europe.

“That’s why, when I was making my ‘retire-overseas’ plan, I covered my bases. I bought a place where the palms grow (and where I might end up living one day).

But my first retirement home is going to be in the heart of the Old City in a European capital. Like many places around the world, this part of the world saw real estate prices soar through 2007, then fall back sharply during the financial crisis of 2008-09. Prices have begun to recover, but there are still great deals to be had.

Vegetable Market on Gediminas Street in Vilnius
People shopping in the Old Town Market of Vilnius

“I first visited this part of Europe more than 25 years ago, again 10 years ago, and then I began visiting more often a couple of years ago. I’ve been living in Europe for 18 years, and, during that time, I’ve seen the usual tourist places as well as many that are off the beaten track. As I became more enamored with what this region has to offer, I began pricing real estate. Finally, after looking at many choices, I settled on a spacious apartment in a building dating from the Renaissance but remodeled over the years, with high ceilings, thick walls, and exposed wooden beams, overlooking a quiet courtyard and affording views of magnificent Baroque churches in the distance from its top floor. The cost was a fraction of what a similar place would be in a more developed and better known European capital city.

“Leaving the apartment, I am just a few minutes’ walk from many restaurants, offering everything from hearty local fare to upscale gourmet cuisine, as well as French, Argentinian, Indian, Mexican, Scandinavian, Chinese, and many other choices, all at prices that are dirt cheap compared with Paris, London, or Moscow. The city also has museums with good exhibitions, fine offerings for music-lovers, classical and contemporary, and world-class basketball. Not really my thing, but Lady Gaga is coming later this year.

“This is a green city with parks and two rivers and good places for biking. I like to walk and can get to just about anything I need on foot. When I need to, I can get to the large, modern shopping mall using public transportation or one of the very cheap local taxis. It costs less than US$10 to take a taxi from the heart of Old Town to the modern, efficient airport (with many connections to other European destinations, on both major European carriers and the discount airlines).

View down Gediminas St. toward Cathedral Vilnius
View down Gediminas St. toward Cathedral Vilnius

“Because the city is so walkable, public transit is good, and taxis are cheap, I don’t need to own a car. I use the money I would have spent on keeping a car to pay for vacation expenses, such as renting a car for the few-hour drive to the beach.

“Did I mention the property taxes I have to pay on the spacious apartment in one of Europe’s loveliest Old Towns? Zero. Property taxes on residences were introduced only recently and apply only to the most expensive properties.

Vilnius Old City
A view of the Old-City of Vilnius

“In warm weather, Old Town buzzes with tourists from all over Europe and the world. Some have come to explore the place their ancestors hailed from. Others want to see one of Europe’s largest and best-preserved Old Towns, with world-class cathedrals and a castle on a hill, picturesque taverns in ivied courtyards serving good local beer, and lively night life. The city and this country have a rich and sometimes troubled history, located as they are on the fault line between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, between Eastern and Western Europe, in an area historically fought over and peopled by several nationalities, each of which contributed something to the fascinating blend of cultural influences to be savored here today.

“The Old Town I’m speaking of is in Vilnius, Lithuania. At times, looking at the red-tiled roofs of the buildings lining the narrow cobble-stoned streets and the stunning Baroque architecture of the Catholic churches here, you could think you were in Italy. Turn down another street, where an Orthodox church with its green onion domes looms, and you could think you were in Russia. A sizeable minority of Vilnius’ population is Russian. There are daily newspapers in Russian, and Russian is heard on the streets and in restaurants, but the younger generation has embraced English.

Couple walking down street
A couple enjoying a stroll along the streets in Vilnius

“Busloads of Polish tourists come to venerate a shrine in what was for a time part of Poland. Other tourists visit the city in remembrance of its once-vibrant Jewish community, tragically wiped out during World War II.

“My favorite eating establishments feature hearty Lithuanian cuisine. The stylish fashions made from locally produced linen and the beautiful amber jewelry form another part of the Lithuanian cultural heritage. My bank is a branch of a major Swedish bank, and the Baltic herring and mushrooms and berries of this northern European clime are reminiscent of Scandinavian fare. Coastal Lithuania, where I vacation on the shores of the Baltic, was once part of Prussia; the German writer Thomas Mann had a summer home there. Napoleon and his army occupied Vilnius, and there is a French cultural center a stone’s throw from my apartment where I am thinking of reviving my French–once I get the basics of Lithuanian down.

“Those are just some of the cultural influences that have shaped this fascinating corner of Europe, now just 20 years into its newest incarnation as an evolving democracy and member of NATO. Hard hit by the financial crisis of 2008-09, the Baltic countries–Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia–demonstrated admirable fiscal discipline compared with, say, Greece, Portugal, and Ireland.

Baroque Church Architecture
The Baroque Church rising above the trees

“In this corner of northern Europe, prices remain low. Of the three Baltic countries, only Estonia has adopted the euro, although Lithuania’s currency is pegged to it. If the analysts who foresee a sharp decline in the value of the euro are right, then the good values on real estate and travel in this region will become even better. Those who have already scoped out the Baltics could be positioned to take advantage of an interesting opportunity.

Orthodox church in Vilnius“Some might prefer Riga, with its greater Germanic influences, or Tallinn, with its more Scandinavian feel, over Vilnius. And, in this part of Europe, there is much to be said for parts of Poland, as well as for such lovely cities as Lviv in Western Ukraine.

“But for those of us who feel an affinity with Europe and who are intrigued by places a bit farther off the beaten path than Paris and Rome, the Baltics and Eastern Europe deserve serious consideration right now as an emerging alternative retirement choice. The summers are delightful, the days long, the prices low, and the culture and history rich.”

Kathleen Peddicord

Tags: LithuaniaRetire To VilniusTop European Retirement Options
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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