Car Rental in Lithuania: Prices, Rules and the Fees Nobody Mentions

Pick-up

Where the desks actually are at VNO, KUN and PLQ

Each airport publishes its own list, and it is shorter than an aggregator's search box suggests: Vilnius and Kaunas name five, Palanga four.

You sign at the desk, then walk into the car park to find the car, so allow ten minutes and photograph the bodywork first. The airport sits at Rodūnios kelias 10A, LT-02189 Vilnius, and publishes its desk numbers — Vilnius: Enterprise +370 616 00141, Europcar +370 5 250 3425, Sixt +370 5 239 5636, Hertz +370 619 40500, Carwiz +370 616 55336. Kaunas: Sixt +370 5 246 1384, Hertz +370 687 27911. Palanga: Europcar +370 616 48643, Hertz +370 687 27911.

Opening hours, and the late-arrival trap

No competing guide publishes these. Europcar closes at 18:00 every day at Vilnius and Kaunas, Hertz drops to 09:00–18:00 at weekends, and only Sixt runs to midnight.

Work through a 21:30 landing: Europcar shut three and a half hours earlier, on a Saturday so did Hertz, and Enterprise and Carwiz give you thirty minutes to reach the desk. If that fails, take a transfer into town and collect the car next morning; cheap flights to Lithuania explains why budget arrivals land so late.

Real Prices

What a car costs, and why the headline rate lies

Rental pricing is dynamic, so a fixed annual table is a guess. Here is a dated reading instead, from DiscoverCars' Lithuania page on 31 August 2026.

The gap between €10.27 and €30 is not a discount you are clever enough to find: the lead-in fleet was mini class, a VW Up from €6.34 a day and a Kia Picanto or Citroën C1 from about €6.96, with unlimited mileage and free cancellation.

Season moves the number more than supplier choice does. KAYAK's Vilnius Airport data names January the cheapest month, roughly 58% below the yearly average, and August the dearest, roughly 76% above, with small cars about 50% below the airport average (its class averages are in US dollars). Moving a trip out of August saves more than supplier shopping ever will — see when to visit Lithuania. We do not reprint the price bands other car-hire sites publish, because we could not verify them.

Check current Lithuania car prices

The Real Total

The costs that are not in the daily rate

Figures published by named operators for Lithuania:

Check the excess first: an €850 deductible means a kerbed alloy or a car-park dent costs you up to €850 however cheap the rental looked. Then the fuel policy — full-to-full, which Sixt uses at Vilnius Airport, means you refuel at pump prices, while same-level hands the job to the company at a fee.

The deposit and the card

Bring a credit card in the main driver's name with the deposit available as headroom, because a card in your partner's name will not do. Prime Car Rent takes VISA and MasterCard credit and debit cards; Carwiz accepts MasterCard and Visa credit cards only, refusing prepaid, Visa Electron and Maestro; Sixt at Vilnius Airport requires a credit card. A debit-only traveller should filter for suppliers accepting debit at the booking stage rather than turning up and hoping.

Paperwork

Age, licence and the International Driving Permit question

An EU or EEA licence is recognised in Lithuania as it stands. A licence issued outside the EU should be carried with an International Driving Permit, because rental policy is stricter than Lithuanian law and the desk holds the keys.

Lithuanian law recognises licences meeting the 1926 Paris, 1949 Geneva and 1968 Vienna conventions for non-residents; Lithuania acceded to the Geneva Convention in 2019. Sixt at Vilnius Airport adds its own layer: an IDP is mandatory for customers who are not EU residents, a physical rather than digital IDP must accompany any licence not in the Roman alphabet, and Chinese licences are not accepted. US, Canadian, Australian and Japanese visitors may never be asked by a police officer, and will be asked at the counter.

The trap is the licence-held rule set against the car class: a 24-year-old with an 18-month licence can take a mini from Sixt, not the estate the group needs.

Baltic Road Trip

Driving to Latvia, Estonia and Poland — and the borders you must not cross

Latvia, Estonia and Poland are open to a Lithuanian rental car if you declare the crossing when you book and pay the cross-border fee. Belarus and Kaliningrad are refused by every operator.

Seven days of Hertz's €9.99 is €69.93, just under the cap, so from the eighth day the permission costs nothing more and €69.99 covers a fortnight's loop. Carwiz's flat €45 per country wins on one neighbour and loses across three.

The expensive mistake is procedural: Hertz applies a €600 penalty for undeclared cross-border driving at Vilnius Airport, and an undeclared crossing can void the damage cover you paid for.

Compare cross-border terms before you book

Insurance and the green card

The reason is insurance. Lithuanian compulsory third-party liability cover follows the car across the whole European Economic Area and Switzerland with no green card needed, and Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and the United Kingdom have dropped insurance checks too. Beyond that zone a green card is required, and green cards from Russian and Belarusian insurers became invalid in Lithuania on 1 June 2023, with both countries' membership suspended from 30 June 2023. That is separate from the counter's damage waiver, which covers the car, not your liability.

Road Rules

Lithuanian driving law: the numbers that matter

Every figure below comes from Via Lietuva (the state road authority), the Ministry of Transport, LTSA or the EU's Your Europe portal, because this subject is contaminated with wrong information. Motorway limits change with the season, which most guides miss.

Drivers with under two years' experience are capped at 100 km/h on motorways, 90 on expressways and 80 elsewhere outside built-up areas. The alcohol limit is 0.4 g/l, and 0.0 g/l for anyone licensed under two years and for professional drivers. Dipped headlights or daytime running lights are mandatory day and night all year, handheld phone use is prohibited, and seat belts and child restraints are compulsory.

Winter tyres and the date everyone gets wrong

Winter tyres are compulsory from 10 November to 31 March, and operating a car on summer tyres over that window is prohibited. They need at least 3.0 mm of tread on a passenger car, per LTSA, and studs are permitted only from 1 November to 10 April, on a car displaying a white triangle with a red border and a stud symbol. Several car-hire guides give 1 April as the end of the winter period; Via Lietuva, the Ministry of Transport and LTSA all publish 31 March. A rental collected in December is already on legal winter tyres — fitting them is the company's job, checking them is yours.

What has to be in the car

Four items must be aboard: a fire extinguisher, a warning triangle, a first-aid kit and a reflective vest or reflector. Rental cars normally carry all four, and normally is not always, so open the boot first.

Tolls

Are there toll roads in Lithuania?

No, not for cars. Lithuania's road user charge, the e-vignette, applies only to buses in categories M2–M3 and goods vehicles in categories N1–N3. A category M1 passenger car pays nothing on any Lithuanian road, including the A1 from Vilnius through Kaunas to Klaipėda, as Via Lietuva states. There is no vignette or transponder to buy.

Fuel

Fuel prices, and why diesel is the wrong instinct here

EU Oil Bulletin figures, a dated reference rather than a promise — the series moves 1–2% a week.

Lithuanian diesel sits above the EU-27 average while petrol sits below it, so the usual European instinct inverts here: on 24 August 2026 the gap at the pump was about €0.27 a litre in petrol's favour. Unless you are covering enough distance for diesel economy to overturn that, take the petrol car.

Parking

Parking a rental car in Vilnius Old Town

The Old Town sits in the blue zone: €3.50 for the first hour, €4.00 per hour after that, charged 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is the only Vilnius zone with no free window. Rates were set on 1 July 2025 by JUDU, the city transport operator; pay through the JUDU app or m.Parking.

The blue zone covers Gedimino prospektas, Cathedral Square, the Bernardine Garden, the Seimas and Gediminas Hill — which is to say, wherever your hotel is.

Now the arithmetic nobody else does. A full 24 hours in the blue zone is €3.50 plus €4.00 for each of the next 23 hours: €95.50, roughly nine times a €10.27 lead-in day at Vilnius Airport. So here is the advice most car-hire pages avoid, because it sells fewer rental days: stay car-free in the Old Town and collect the car on the morning you leave. Our where to stay in Vilnius guide is built around walkable districts, and the Vilnius travel guide covers a compact city.

Find a walkable Old Town stay

Kuršių nerija

Taking a rental car onto the Curonian Spit

Driving to Nida costs two separate payments before fuel: the €23.20 Klaipėda–Smiltynė car ferry, and the Neringa municipality entry levy of €10 per car from 21 August to 19 June or €50 from 20 June to 20 August. In peak season the two together are €73.20 before you have parked.

Cars must use the Naujoji perkėla, the New Ferry Terminal at Nemuno gatvė 8, open 24 hours; the Senoji perkėla at E. Galvanausko bulvaras 1 takes foot passengers only, roughly 07:00–21:00. Buy the Neringa ticket online in advance through UNIPARK, where it is valid at the Alksnynė control post you reach after the ferry.

The two-season levy replaced a three-tier system on 1 January 2025, so older figures are wrong. No supplier's terms we could find forbid the Spit, and no cross-border clause touches it, because Smiltynė and Nida are domestic travel — but ask your supplier and get it in writing. Read our Curonian Spit guide for what to do once across, Klaipėda and the coast for the mainland side, and where to stay on the Curonian Spit to avoid crossing twice in a day.

Honest Verdict

Is renting a car in Lithuania worth it at all?

Rent for the countryside and the coast; do not rent for Vilnius.

Trakai, the trip most people assume needs a car, does not — see our Trakai day trip guide. Vilnius to Kaunas to Klaipėda is a comfortable coach run, and transport in Lithuania sets out the buses and trains that make a car optional between the three cities. Sketch the route in our trip planner first.

Compare flights into VNO, KUN and PLQ

Checklist

Seven things to do before you take the keys

1. Declare every country you will drive into at the booking stage, not at the desk.
2. Compare the excess, not just the price. €850 is the Sixt Vilnius figure to beat.
3. Bring a credit card in the main driver's name with headroom for up to €2,000.
4. Confirm the desk is open on arrival. Europcar shuts at 18:00 daily at Vilnius and Kaunas.
5. Carry an IDP if your licence is non-EU, and a physical one if it is not Roman-alphabet.
6. Photograph all four sides, the wheels and the windscreen before leaving the car park.
7. Between 10 November and 31 March, confirm winter tyres with at least 3.0 mm of tread.

Check car prices for your dates

Prices, desk hours and road rules here were checked against operator, municipal and state sources on 31 August 2026.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions