The first thing that strikes you about Trakai is the ingenuity of the locals. Every old lady with a little bit of land is stood at the road side gesturing for you to park on their land for a fee much less then that of the municipal carparks - but with a block parking strategy previously reserved for long term airport parking we didn't fancy our chances so stuck to a council owned space at an inflated price.
The castle is certainly pretty and worth a wander around, but I wouldn't go in. We did and were greeted with a bit of an odd ball Museum rather than original features, rooms decked out with glass cabinets displaying a large quantity of random artifacts with little or no Lithuanian heritage and seem to exist to bulk out the experience for the benefit of coach bound day-trippers from Vilnius. I wouldn't go as far as to say it is a trap since the aesthetics of the island has genuine appeal and it's worth a visit if only to admire the ingenuity of the locals selling glasses of Kvass to unsuspecting tourists at £1 a glass from supermarket bottles costing less than 50p!
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