Hotel PACAI

Rooms and decor

Picture a Baroque palace pushing 350 years old, once home to the Pac family — among the most powerful nobles in the 17th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania-Poland — then handed to contemporary architect Saulius Mikštas, who spent nearly a decade restoring every square inch. That is Hotel PACAI, which opened in 2016 and took Best New Hotel in Europe at the European Hotel Design Awards the same year. No two of the 104 rooms are alike, because the old structure was stitched into contemporary rooms one at a time. Some still keep their original 17th-century fresco ceilings, some expose old timber beams, some show the raw brick of the original palace, all paired with minimalist Scandinavian-Baltic furniture in warm grey, cream, oak, and linen. It feels like sleeping in a gallery curated by someone who understands history deeply — not stiff antiques, and not luxury laid on so thick it tires you out. Bathrooms are dark, clean tile with Lithuanian-brand toiletries, and the beds are soft. As more than one review puts it, just seeing the old and the new in one room is enough to get you excited.

Food and amenities

The first heart of the hotel is Nineteen18 — named for 1918, the year Lithuania declared independence — in the same building, serving contemporary Lithuanian food farm-to-table from small farms across the country. The dining room is dark and warm, lit by candles, with a view into the open kitchen. The multi-course tasting menu paired with Lithuanian wines and local spirits is the meal many guests call the most memorable of the trip. The second heart is in the basement: a Turkish-style hammam set under the original brick arches of the palace, dim and atmospheric, with treatment rooms, a sauna, a steam room, and a warm stone slab in the middle for a traditional Turkish scrub. Plenty of reviews say the same thing — once you go down, you do not want to come back up. The other space people fall for is the courtyard, where Kicia Bar serves cocktails under the evening sky, with light playing across brick walls that have stood here since the 17th century.

Location and getting there

The location is good enough that the hotel itself is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Old Town. It sits on Didžioji Street, right in the middle of Vilnius Old Town — step out the door and it is roughly 1 minute to Town Hall Square, the old central square. Another 5 minutes gets you to Vilnius Cathedral and its bell tower, and 7 minutes to St. Anne's Church, the famous red-brick Gothic church Napoleon reportedly wished he could carry back to Paris in his pocket. Walk a little further and you reach the artists' quarter of Užupis, a small self-declared cultural republic. Vilnius Airport (VNO) is a 15 to 20 minute taxi or Bolt ride, and cheaper than in Western European capitals. There is no metro, but in the Old Town you barely need a car — everything is walkable, and the streets around the hotel are full of specialty coffee shops, local bakeries, and Lithuanian designer boutiques for one-of-a-kind souvenirs. Open the door and you are in sightseeing mode straight away.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to make the decision easier. The thing that comes up most in reviews is uneven room sizes — this is a restored old palace, so the original layout does not match a modern hotel plan, and some Standard rooms run smaller than you would expect from a 5-star. Two people with big suitcases should upgrade to a Superior or Junior Suite for clearly more space. Second, dinner at Nineteen18 sits at the top of the Vilnius price range; a multi-course set menu with a wine pairing can run higher than a luxury-hotel meal elsewhere in Central Europe, so on a tight budget you might do breakfast here and try the local spots nearby, which are far gentler on the wallet. Third, noise from Didžioji Street, a popular pedestrian street — rooms facing the street can pick up evening chatter, so light sleepers should ask for a courtyard-facing room, which is quieter and comes with a nice view of the Baroque brickwork. Finally, there is no main pool and no kids club, so for a family with young kids who want swimming or a children's program, this may not be the most convenient pick.

Our take

After reading through hundreds of real Booking and Agoda reviews, Hotel PACAI is the place in Vilnius that nails the experience of sleeping inside living history. A 1677 Baroque palace restored with understanding until it won Best New Hotel in Europe, a hammam in the old brick basement, a farm-to-table restaurant in the building, and staff so warm that reviews name them again and again. If your trip in your head is exploring the UNESCO Old Town, then coming back for a quiet soak in the hammam, dinner at Nineteen18, and a cocktail in the courtyard under the stars, nothing else in this city replaces it. But if you came for a big pool, a huge room, or a young-family trip, another hotel may fit better. Overall we give it 9.2/10 — best for couples, design lovers, and travelers who want to hold onto Vilnius in a way that runs deeper than just checking in.