I am planning a roots trip to Lithuania and Latvia this summer. I expect to hire
Aleks Fegmanis as a guide in Latvia, visiting Dvink and Riga. But I am looking
for some recommendations on guides in Lithuania >from people who have been there
recently. I found postings for about 10 years ago about the guide Regina
Kopilevich. Can anyone on the list have contact information?

I hope to visit Keidan, Kovno, Slobodka and Srednik.I'd be interested in any
travel advice about Latvia and Lithuania as to getting around, such as renting
a car, taking buses and trains, cautions, places to stay. Any help would be
appreciated offline or online, whatever is appropriate.
Howard Wolinsky
Flossmoor, IL
Researching Sragon and Israel in Lithuania and Geskin
and Slivkin in Latvia

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At 05:59 AM 1/28/2007, you wrote:

I hope to visit Keidan, Kovno, Slobodka and Srednik.I'd be interested in any
travel advice about Latvia and Lithuania as to getting around, such
as renting
a car, taking buses and trains, cautions, places to stay. Any help would be
appreciated offline or online, whatever is appropriate.
Howard Wolinsky

Since 1981 I have spent a total of over 6 months living in Lithuania,
so I do have advice on what to do.
Learn to say words like, please, thank you, etc. in Lithuania--you
can get all this on line easily enough.
Young people are much more likely to know English, most older people do not.
Your guide should be able to rent/own the car and drive.
Try not to have an "attitude" towards the natives; assume basic good will.
Several years ago Commentary Magazine had an essay on a visit to
Lithuania. The author was sure he
was the object of anti-semitism because some rowdy young people
glared at him and shouted something.
I had to laugh, since on my own stays there my Jewish identity was
much more obvious than his would have been,
and I never experienced overt antisemitism (and yes, I do understand
Russian and Lithuanian), even when walking on
Shabbat with a Chabad rabbi wearing his tallit over his clothes.
Rowdy (because of drinking..) young people are generally not even
sure what a Jew looks like, but they do know what an
American tourist looks like.
As for places to stay, there is lots of information on line. I just
googled Lithuania places to stay, and found many promising
sites. If you are with a guide, and trying to economize, it would
not be out of place to ask if it is possible to rent a room for the
night with a private family.
Plan on enjoying the experience--I would happily go back again, as
would my wife, a child survivor of the Holocaust.
Jules Levin