Sustainable Travel · Lithuania
Eco-Friendly Hotels in Birzai — Your 2026 Guide to Sustainable Stays
Birzai is Lithuania's northern outpost — a small city of brick castles, karst lakes, and a proud claim to be the country's beer capital. The town grew around a 16th-century Renaissance castle built by the Radvila family, whose reconstruction now houses a regional museum. Around it, the Širvėna lake — one of Lithuania's largest — was created in the 16th century by damming the Apaščia river, and the surrounding landscape is Europe's most dramatic karst region, where underground rivers periodically swallow fields and form new sinkhole lakes. This geological quirk gives Birzai its character: mineral springs, clean groundwater, and a brewing tradition that dates back centuries. Book a Birzai hotel through IMPT and every night removes 1 tonne of verified CO₂ — the same price as Booking.com — turning a heritage break into a carbon-negative one.
Where to Stay in Birzai
Birzai Old Town
The old town clusters around the castle and the lakefront, with a handful of small hotels and guesthouses in restored buildings. Staying here puts the museum, the brewery, and the lake promenade on foot. The castle's courtyard hosts summer concerts, and the nearby market square has the town's best restaurants, where local specialities include beer soup, rye bread, and Širvėna pike. Evenings are quiet; the lakefront paths fill with joggers and cyclists at sunset.
The Lake District
Guesthouses and farmsteads ring the Širvėna lake and the smaller karst lakes to the east. Many offer kayaks, rowing boats, and bicycles, plus wood-fired saunas — the Lithuanian lakeside ritual. The karst region's clean waters make swimming and fishing excellent, and several farmsteads serve meals entirely from their own gardens and orchards. This is where to stay for a few days of slow, active relaxation rather than a flying visit.
Astravas Manor and Surrounds
Just across the lake, Astravas Manor — a 19th-century neo-Renaissance estate — has been restored as a cultural centre, and a small hotel operates within its park. The grounds are a favourite spot for walks and picnics. A little further afield, the village of Kirkilai hosts the karst trail — a boardwalk through a landscape of sinkhole lakes and springs that is one of Lithuania's most unusual nature experiences.
IMPT gives you Birzai at the same nightly rate as Booking.com. Every booking removes 1 tonne of verified carbon credits on-chain. Search Birzai hotels now → Search Birzai hotels now →
Beer, Karst, and Slow Travel in Birzai
Birzai's beer heritage is the town's proudest export. The Rinkuškiai brewery, founded in the 1970s on the site of an older tradition, offers tours and tastings, and local pubs pour unfiltered and dark lagers made with the region's mineral-rich karst water. The town even has a beer spa — soak in a bath of brewer's yeast and hops, a northern European wellness tradition that is thoroughly Birzai.
The karst landscape is the region's natural wonder. The Kirkilai observation tower and boardwalk give a bird's-eye view of the sinkhole lakes, and the karst trail explains how the region's porous gypsum bedrock creates a shifting, lake-dotted terrain. Guided tours from the regional park office run in summer, and the clean springs feed a network of natural swimming spots.
Cycling connects it all: Birzai sits on a network of quiet country roads linking the castle, the manor, the lakes, and the Širvėna dam. Bike hire is available in town. In winter, the same landscape becomes cross-country ski country. And when you want to give back, shop through IMPT's 25,000+ retail partners for cashback on purchases that offset carbon, or plant trees via IMPT Gifts — each tree is GPS-tagged to a named farmer.
How IMPT Makes Your Birzai Stay Carbon-Negative
Here's the maths. An average hotel night produces roughly 35 kg of CO₂ — from air conditioning, laundry, lighting, and food service. When you book any Birzai hotel through IMPT, we retire 1,000 kg of UN-verified carbon removal credits. That's 28 times what your stay produces. Not carbon-neutral — carbon-negative.
The cost to you? Zero. IMPT funds the removal from its booking commission. You pay the standard nightly rate — in fact, IMPT offers the same rate as Booking.com on the same room, with carbon removal built in. The carbon credits are tokenised on Ethereum, retired against a named project, with a public retire code anyone can verify. No double-counting. No greenwashing. Just verified carbon removal, every night.
- €5 free credit when you sign up — applied to your first Birzai booking
- 5% back on every stay — 3% funds carbon projects, 2% as travel credit
- 8M+ hotels worldwide, 195 countries — Birzai is just the start
- Free cancellation on most rates, typically up to 48 hours before check-in
Beyond Hotels — More Ways IMPT Works in Birzai
Shop through IMPT's 25,000+ retail partners for cashback on purchases that also offset carbon. Send someone a trip credit gift to visit Birzai — IMPT plants trees with named farmers, GPS-tagged and photo-verified.
For business travel, IMPT's B2B Corporate Travel platform gives you exclusive rates, automatic ESG reporting, and a single dashboard tracking every booking's carbon impact. Companies with CSRD compliance needs get automated sustainability reporting out of the box.
Interested in running IMPT in Lithuania? Country Ownership offers 50% revenue share on every transaction from Lithuania-registered users, with 8% APY staking yield. Book a call →
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get to Birzai?
Birzai is about 200 km north of Vilnius and 160 km from Riga — roughly 2.5 hours by car from either capital. Direct buses run from Vilnius, Kaunas, and Panevėžys, though a car is more convenient for exploring the lakes and karst sites.
What makes Birzai the beer capital of Lithuania?
The town's brewing tradition dates back centuries, built on the region's clean karst groundwater. Today the Rinkuškiai brewery — one of Lithuania's largest — is based here, and the town hosts an annual beer festival in August with local and craft breweries.
What is the karst region?
Birzai sits on a bedrock of gypsum that dissolves in groundwater, creating sinkholes, springs, and small lakes that appear and shift over time. The Kirkilai trail and observation tower are the best places to see this unusual landscape, which is protected as a regional park.
Is Birzai good for a family trip?
Yes. The castle museum, lake swimming, kayak and bike hire, and the gentle karst trails suit all ages. The beer spa is adults-only, but the surrounding lakes and parks keep children entertained, and Lithuania is a very safe, family-friendly country.
When is the best time to visit Birzai?
June to September for swimming, cycling, and the beer festival (early August). Autumn colours on the lake are stunning. Winters are cold but bring cross-country skiing and the cosy contrast of a wood-fired sauna after a frozen walk.
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