Trakai is at its best for couples in the two hours after sunrise and the two hours before dark. The middle of the day belongs to coach parties out from Vilnius, which is the whole argument for staying the night rather than day-tripping. Stay over, and what it costs you The town has 5,400 residents and empties in the evening. Three lakeside properties carry most of the couples who stay: Apvalaus Stalo Klubas in town, directly across the water from the castle; TonyResort, an eco-resort in the Anupriškės pine forest about 9 km north; and Esperanza Resort and SPA, a five-star lodge on Lake Ungurys roughly 12 km west in Aukštadvaris Regional Park.

Two adults and two children get into Trakai Island Castle for €30 in summer and €25 in winter, and the attraction most children ask for next costs €5. The castle family ticket is the one price worth understanding before you arrive, because it is where the money goes. Family tickets at the Island Castle The museum sells family tickets rather than charging per head, and the saving is real. From April to September it is €20 for one adult with up to three children, or €30 for two adults with up to three children; from October to March those drop to €16 and €25.

Trakai has no tour bus, no tram and no metro, so every visitor here is a walker whether they planned to be one or not. The number that decides your day is 2.8 to 3.0 km: the distance from the railway station to the castle footbridge. The walk you did not plan for: station to castle Trains from Vilnius stop at Vilniaus g. 5, at the southern tip of town. The Island Castle is 2.

Every ticketed attraction in Trakai costs under €20 except the balloon flight, and one Sunday a month the biggest of them is free. If you are pricing a day here, the castle museum is the only real decision; the rest is small money by comparison. Trakai History Museum, inside the Island Castle The ticketed centrepiece. Eleven permanent halls inside the ducal palace hold Grand Duchy weaponry and chainmail, coin hoards dug up in Trakai, liturgical silver, smoking pipes and historical documents.

Most of what people photograph in Trakai is free. The castle ticket buys you the inside of one building; the footbridge views, the Karaimų Street cottages, the ruined peninsula walls and the oak angels on the ridge north of town cost nothing at all. The Island Castle without paying to go in The 300 metre wooden footbridge at the end of Karaimų Street is itself the sight, and walking it is free.

Cross the 300-meter wooden footbridge to Trakai Island Castle before ten in the morning and the red-brick ramparts are still quiet enough to hear the lake lapping against the barbican walls. That gap before the tour buses arrive from Vilnius is the single best planning tip for anyone building a day around Trakai’s activities. The Island Castle and its museum The Gothic water fortress on Castle Island is the reason most visitors come, and it earns the trip: eleven exhibition halls inside the ducal palace hold Grand Duchy weaponry, coin hoards and armor, plus views over Lake Galvė from the wooden gallery ramparts.