Europe

Insurance

 
We recommend that you obtain comprehensive travel and medical insurance before travelling. You should check any exclusions, and that your policy covers you for all the activities you want to undertake. For more general information see travel insurance.

If things do go wrong when you are oversees then this is how we can help.

Registration

Register with our LOCATE service to tell us when and where you are travelling abroad or where you live abroad so our consular and crisis staff can provide better assistance to you in an emergency.

Issuing replacement passports

The British Embassy cannot issue passports locally but it can issue temporary passports in an emergency. UK passport applications from customers living in Lithuania will be handled by the British Passport Processing Centre in Düsseldorf which is part of the British Consulate General, Düsseldorf, Germany. It is recommended that the application is  sent by courier (this will be at your own expense). We aim to issue a replacement passport within 15 days. More information is available from the UK in Germany website.
 

Travel to Klaipeda, Nida & Palanga

 
Those wishing to travel to Klaipeda, Nida and Palanga should be aware that we now have an Honorary Consul, Mark Uribe, to assist you should you have any difficulties. His number is: 8-699 33210 and the address of the Honorary Consulate is: Zveju 2/513, Klaipeda.
 
If you intend to walk along the Curonian Spit you should be aware that after a short distance the Spit forms part of Kaliningrad, which is territory of the Russian Federation.
 

Customs Regulations

 
Travellers entering the UK from European Union countries do not normally pay any UK tax or duty on excise goods they have bought tax and duty paid in EU countries for own use, but there are special rules for cigarettes and some other tobacco products from some EU countries.
 
The UK is maintaining limits on the amount of cigarettes and some tobacco products that travellers are able to bring in to the UK for own use from nine European Union Member States (including Lithuania), without paying UK duty.
 
The limits are:
 
Estonia - 200 cigarettes or 250g of smoking tobacco.
 
Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - 200 cigarettes.
 
Anyone who is carrying more than the limits should pay UK duty on those goods by entering the Customs red channel or by using the red point telephone. If travellers enter the Customs blue channel with more than the limits, then all of their tobacco may be seized.
 

Money

 
Since 15 June 2007 new legislation on the controls of cash entering or leaving the EU apply in all Member States.  Any person entering or leaving the EU will have to declare the money that they are carrying if this amounts to 10,000 euro or more(including cheques, travellers' cheques, money orders, etc.)  This will not apply to anyone travelling via the EU to a non-EU country, as long as the original journey started outside of the EU, nor to those travelling within the EU.
 
The official currency of Lithuania is Litas (Lt). Major credit cards are widely accepted and ATM machines can be found in most banks and hotels. There are numerous currency exchange kiosks in the capital Vilnius and travellers' cheques can be cashed at some banks.
 
You should ensure that any Sterling you take to Lithuania is in Bank of England notes. Banks and Bureaux de Change have refused to exchange Scottish or Irish notes, as they do not recognise them as Sterling.