This is another installment in my review of the area surrounding Vilnius, Lithuania Click here to read my Vilnius review.

The Holiday Inn Vilnius is one of most modern and most Western of the hotels, and definitely the newest close to the center of town.

LOCATION
The hotel is located about two blocks north of the "Green Bridge," also known as the "Worker's Bridge." That bridge is a legacy of the Soviet occupation, and each corner of the bridge sports a different group of Socialist heroes in typically Soviet poses - the brave soldiers (their flag tipped with a hammer and sickle), the diligent workers, the socialist scholars, and the productive farmers. The bridge crosses the river that surrounds the downtown of Vilnius on three sides.

GETTING THERE
From the airport, it's about a 30 minute drive to the hotel. The bonus is that you don't need to drive through downtown to get there. By foot, you can get to Gedimino Prospektus in 10 minutes, old town in 20. In peak traffic, this is quicker than driving. The concert hall is but a 2-3 minute walk away.

ARRIVAL
The corner on which the hotel is located is very busy, especially in the morning and evening rush hours. A turn down an alley before the entryway takes you to an electrically operated gate that opens to a very small (20 spaces, max) parking lot. We had a driver who brought the car home each evening, so that didn?t matter much to us. The entryway itself is a small covered drive, the sidewalk adjoining this drive can be filled with cars and drivers waiting to pick up their charges during the evening dinner push. The front of the hotel is all glass, and is manned by a doorman (and a watchman in the evening). The doorman opened the door, and offered to help us with our bags (with only 2, I refused politely). Going through the front door brings you past a display case filled with amber (ranging from expensive to obscenely so) to the light-oak finished front desk.

The ladies running the desk were charming and spoke beautiful English (which is common in most hotels in the area, but not most other places). Check-in went relatively quickly - delayed slightly because I had to transfer charges from the group reservation to my personal business card - is that an oxymoron?

Two elevators lead up to the rooms. They were new, clean, and modern (heck the hotel's had only opened a month or so prior), and smelled terribly like cigarette smoke.

ROOMS
The room, advertised as 'non-smoking,' blessedly did not smell of smoke. A king-sized bed was comfortable and clean, with extra pillows in the closet. A standup flyer on the bed said that I could ask for a different style of pillow should I like. I did, and received a firm feather pillow that made the night's sleep sounder. The room had a desk with a lamp and nearby power outlet, but the phone (with dataport) was by the nightstand and the cable wasn?t long enough to reach the desk. Instead, I moved the small round table by the window over to my nightstand and was able to work from there once I figured out the hotel internet dial-up system, the cost of which was quite cheap. International phone calls I made through a phone card, so I am not sure what direct-dial would cost. I assume it's not cheap.

The entertainment center had a medium-sized TV with cable and pay-per-view. The cable selections included 2 or 3 Lithuanian stations, 1 or 2 Polish stations, a German network (mostly news), and an English news network (CNN or BBC, I honestly can't remember).

The bathroom was very clean and modern with nice fixtures, a heated floor (very nice), and a mirror that had some way to keep the middle from fogging, no matter how hot or long a shower I took - I believe it was heated from behind. Free standard goodies were there, and the towels were new, plush, and ample. A wall-mounted hairdryer was available, and the sink had plenty of room to store your stuff on top of as well as a towel hook that held my toiletry bag nicely.

Housekeeping each day was prompt and efficient. They learned my schedule and did a great job of making sure the room was cleaned early without getting in the way.

FITNESS FACILITIES
The hotel advertises a 'fitness room'... Yeah... right. It's a tiny room - about 8' x 20' with a TV in one corner over a cabinet with some towels. It had a tiny friction exercise bike, the seat of which I couldn't get to extend enough to accommodate my 6' frame, and which flexed to a ridiculous amount (I'm no Lance Armstrong, but I felt like I was twisting this bike like he torques a carbon frame). The stairstepper was a cheap shock-absorber device which was equally frustrating to use. Cramped in one corner was a cheap mult-use weight machine. I decided to go elsewhere - Le Meriden was one option, though a long drive (30 minutes), a couple other places in town... or... sure enough, a call to the local USMC Embassy detachment and some friendly words and we found a quite adequate place to work out. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't make as much use of that wonderful find as I should have, but it was nice to have it available.

RESTAURANT
The breakfast buffet at the restaurant was awesome. They made a valiant attempt to meet our American tastes with eggs and sausage, but I was more enamored with their daily varieties of smoked salmon, halibut, and other fish, as well as their wonderful breads and well-varied fruit and cheese offerings. Juices were fresh-squeezed and rich. Coffee, herbal and leaf teas, and hot chocolate were always available (Hot chocolate there, by the way, is literally heated chocolate - make use of the warmed milk nearby). The restaurant has a lot of seating, much by the streetside window. Service is impeccable.

They serve a reasonable breakfast and excellent dinner as well (the dinner offerings can be delivered to the bar), but I ate there very seldom. There were just too many spectacular restaurants nearby! Click here to learn more .

BAR
The bar had excellent bartenders, always with good suggestions of where to go for food, fun, or sights. Wine was very cheap - about $2 for a reasonable merlot or cabernet, as was the excellent local beer (Svetrys?). Liquor is quite expensive, relatively. The bad part is the smoke, but that follows you everywhere in Vilnius - bring a spare lung!

OTHER FACILITIES
The conference facilities on the second floor are huge, with several rooms available. I also made extensive use of their small business center, which has two computers with 33 to 56K Internet access - adequate but not super. It also has a copier and laser printer, and phones next to both computers.

PARTICIPATE IN THE GREAT HOTEL WRITE-OFF!
http://www.angelfire.com/moon/lyagushka/index.html

Recommended: Yes