Lithuania's capital enjoyed limited freedom even in the Soviet era; but democracy has transformed the city beyond recognition. Once a Soviet backwater, Vilnius is now extraordinarily pretty, almost every building in the centre has had the Cinderella treatment. There is a sense of novelty about the swish cafés and the good-looking bars. The youthful vibe on the street is partly down to the fact that 90% of the population seems to be under the age of 24 and out for a good time. Vilnius is a great place for a honeymoon or a hand-holding, affordable weekend à deux. Or, you could spend a perfectly contented weekend here just pottering around the Old Town.

All hotels in Vilnius are such good value that it would be crazy to come here and economise.

ATRIUM HOTEL
Pilies 10 (00 370 5 210 7777). Right on Pilies, the main thoroughfare of the Old Town. Some rooms are huge, and there are even some two-storey apartments in which the bathroom is bigger that most hotel bedrooms. In the basement is a sauna that seems designed for the delectation of Russian gangsters: it has a banqueting hall, a Jacuzzi, a bar and a discreet little bedroom - should you need it. The Ukrainian national poet Shevchenko stayed here once, but he wouldn't recognise it now. £

NARUTIS HOTEL
Pilies 24 (00 370 5 212 2894). Now a splendid five-star hotel, Narutis was built in 1581 to house visitors to the university across the road. It has been sympathetically restored: in one chamber, which used to be the rector's dining room, you can still see 18th-century frescoes on the old plaster. One of the suites has a separate bathroom for visitors and a set of bedrooms across the corridor for masseur, bodyguard, PA and other flunkies. £

RADISSON SASA ASTORIJA HOTEL
Didzioji 35/2 (00 370 5 212 0110; www.radisson.com). Right next to the city hall, this is the hotel of choice for visiting dignitaries - who have included President Bush and Prince Charles. The Sunday brunch is terrific, as is the conservatory café, which looks out onto the church of St Casimir. There are good conference facilities and a bijou fitness room. £

SCANDIC NERINGA
Gedimino 23 (00 370 5 268 1910; www.hilton.com). This is the old Intourist hotel, and the restaurant still has some of its Soviet formality. It also has a 1970s mural, showing happy Lithuanians enjoying the fruits of socialism. There is a basement bar dedicated to the Beatles. The public interiors and the bedrooms have all been renovated by the Hilton chain, which now owns it. £

SHAKESPEARE HOTEL
Bernardinu 8/8 (00 370 5 266 5885). A charming boutique hotel in the heart of the Old Town. The rooms don't have numbers: each one is named after a famous writer. Some have a view of the fabulous Gothic tracery of St Anne's Church - considered by many to be the most important building in Lithuania. Chic bar and restaurant. £

There are two Lithuanian national dishes. One is cepelinai - 'zeppelins' - immense potato dumplings filled with meat. The other is pig's ear, usually served with white beans. It's crunchy, gristly and just like eating something's ear. If you are compelled to try it, make sure you drink a couple of anaesthetising pints of Auksinis Princas (twice as strong as your average German Pils) first. You can eat out very cheaply in Vilnius. There are some very classy restaurants, but it is hard to spend more than around £5 on a main course.

AUKSTAICIAI
Antokolskio 13 (00 370 5 212 0169). Dark, cosy and classier than the picture menu suggests. Beer is served in a half-litre test tube held upright in a wooden stand. Great for lazy, wet-afternoon drinking or a late lunch. Among the interesting dishes is Russian borscht served in hollowed-out crusty bread.

GABI KAVINE
Mykolo 6 (00 370 5 212 3643). A tiny bar with an almost unique no-smoking policy. Just walking in off the street gives you a warm feeling inside. The service is a bit hit-and-miss, but the food is pleasingly stodgy. The Museum of Amber is just down the street.

PILIES KEPYKLELE
Pilies 19 (00 370 5 260 8992). A genteel café whose name means 'little oven'. It's a nice place for coffee and cakes in the afternoon, or salmon and potato pancakes at lunchtime. Waitresses all wear striped pencil skirts, like updated versions of the Lyons Tea House 'Nippies'.

PILIES MENE
Pilies 8 (00 370 5 261 2552). A sophisticated bar right on the main street of the Old Town, good for lunch or an afternoon snack. The slow service is charming, and there are many kinds of pancakes on the menu.

ROJAUS ARKA
Dauksos 3 (00 370 5 212 0625). Formal restaurant with Edwardian décor and Art Nouveau trimmings just outside the Gates of Dawn. It sometimes hosts art exhibitions and chamber concerts. Fantastic value.

SOPRANO
Pilies 3 (00 370 5 212 6042). A fantastic ice-cream parlour, which also offers takeaway cornets. Couples on dates, and mothers on shopping trips sit eating knickerbocker glories in the intimate booths.

THE SONNET
Bernardinu 8/8 (00 370 5 266 5885). The room and the service are lovely at this restaurant inside the Shakespeare Hotel. It is one of the most expensive places in Vilnius.

WHERE TO DRINK

Lithuanians are very fond of beer. The most widespread brand of local beer is called Svyturys, which means 'lighthouse'. Every pint, in every bar and restaurant, is unimpeachable, chilled, sharp and delicious. They also drink mead and a tooth-achingly sweet honey liqueur called Krupnikas.

CAFÉ DE PARIS
Didzioji 1 (00 370 5 261 1021). Next to the French cultural centre, it serves salads and panini and is quite convincingly rive gauche. On a Sunday night it is filled with the gilded youth of Vilnius and is absolutely jumping.

LITERATU SVETAINE
Gedimino 1 (00 370 5 261 1889). Plush café on the edge of Cathedral Square. Czeslaw Milosz, Lithuania's Nobel Prize-winning poet, sat here and watched the Soviet tanks roll through the square in 1940. Today you can sit and watch the sun glint on the recently restored gold cross atop the cathedral. Inside is a clubby bar with wood panelling and deep window seats. The lighting is subdued and the coffee is excellent.

TIFFANY PUB
Pilies 34 (00 370 5 212 3918). The name makes it sound like a tourist trap, but it is better than that. It serves 100 different kinds of beer, most of them Lithuanian. Beer snacks are taken very seriously here. They begin with the complimentary bowl of salty popcorn on the table, but go much further. Try the hot cheese sticks, the 'substantial nuts' or the fried crab claws.

UZUPIO KAVINE
Uzupio 2 (00 370 5 212 2138). The first bar inside the free republic of Uzupis. On a warm evening you can sit on the veranda and watch the River Vilnia.

ZEMAICIU SMUKLE
Vokieciu 24 (00 370 5 261 6573). A bit like a German bierkeller. In the cavernous depths downstairs, the lights are low and the walls covered in jolly murals. Next door is a posher dining room reminiscent of London's gay Hussar. The menu contains 120 variations on the theme of meat and potatoes. They include zeppelins refried and 'huntsman's skillet' - a collation of rabbit, duck, veal and chicken. There are all sorts of interesting things to chew and nibble as you drink: fried bread, smoked fish and cheese, and sausages that are the length of a policeman's truncheon.

GATES OF DAWN
This exquisite chapel is a 15-minute walk uphill through the silent streets. It is built into a gatehouse above the city wall and hangs over the Old Town like a blessing. From the pavement you can look up at the great icon of the dark-faced Madonna. To get into the chapel you have to trace your way back to an anonymous doorway further down the street. Inside, a set of worn steps leads up the icon. The properly pious negotiate them on their knees.

KGB BUILDING
Auku 2a (00 370 5 249 6264). The dungeon of the former KGB HQ is a sobering place. Now the Museum of Genocide Victims, it is hardly a museum at all because nothing has really been touched since the secret police vacated the building in 1991. Names of people who die there have been inscribed in the marble blocks of the façade, turning each into a gravestone for someone without a grave. Inside, the stairwell is boarded up, presumably to prevent new arrests from throwing themselves to their deaths before interrogation, and in the basement at the bottom of the steps is a tiny holding cell where prisoners were kept for days before being processed. You can wander into the interrogation room and into most of the cells, all of which are below ground. There is a tiny grille above head height which lets in some murky light. Prisoners might, as they waited endless hours, have sent he faint shadow of a free man go by. There is an isolation cell: a truly terrifying space barely larger than a toilet cubicle. Prisoners would be stripped to their underwear and left there for a week. There is a room full of bulging files, the 'cases' of some of the prisoners who languished here; and a padded cell where a straitjacket hangs on the wall like a canvas crucifix. In the guardroom there is a set of scales for weighing prisoners' parcels - a privilege introduced after Stalin's death. It all has the authentic whiff of the USSR: damp bricks, rotting paper, dim light and despair. From the prison block you cross a tiny courtyard and go down more stairs to a cellar where thousands of Lithuanians were executed in the 1940s. The wall is pockmarked with bullet holes, as if the executions ended only yesterday. Even after half an hour in this place you cannot help but gulp fresh air when you emerge.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The rococo interior is an astonishing piece of work, a sculpted mass of pink, green and blue marble with gold and red hangings. In the dead centre of the church is a glass-topped coffin, like Snow White's. It contains three desiccated martyrs, quite short and completely covered up with an ornate blanket.

AIRPORT
Vilnius International airport (www.vilnius-airport.lt) is to the south of Vilnius. It is only 7 km or 15 minutes driving distance from the centre of the capital.

AIRLINES FROM THE UK
Lithuanian Airlines (01293 579 900; www.lal.lt) flies direct to Vilnius from Gatwick. Departing from other UK airports means stopping over in Amsterdam.

Lithuania's capital is most charming in summer, when the streets are busy and you can people-watch from a terrace café with a glass of delicious local beer. The best month is July.

Be sure to buy the witty and informative Vilnius In Your Pocket guide the moment you arrive. Taxis from the airport are relatively expensive. Generally it is much cheaper to get a restaurant or a hotel to call a taxi for you rather than hail one on the street.

Visit www.tourism.lt