 The three Baltic countries have a generally similar landscape: there are often forests around and green grass near the road. The Baltic countries are flat and have similar trees. Utility poles in Baltic countries often have diagonal support. The Baltic countries also have a fairly unique back to their signs. The back of the signs have a subtle yet visible fold. The Baltic countries have fairly similar houses that in rural parts typically have eternit roofs (they resemble corrugated iron). There are also many unpaved paths in the Baltic countries, which is rather uncommon in Europe. You can distinguish between the Baltic countries by looking at utility poles, bollards, the width of the unpaved roads, the flora and the language of the country. When it comes to Lithuania, they have different bollards to Latvia and Estonia. Lithuanian bollards are thin planks of plastic with an orange rectangle encased in the black section. Lithuanian utility poles are also unique from the other Baltic countries. Lithuania tends to have a glut of upward facing pine cone shaped bulbs on the top of their utility poles. The Lithuanian environment can also help distinguish it from the more northern Baltic countries. Lithuania tends to have more grassland around the road, less dense forests and forests that are further from the road. Lithuania also has less thin, white trees and small flowers along the sides of the road than the other Baltic countries. The Lithuanian language is similar to Latvian however it has a unique letter that is seldom found elsewhere in the world- ė. This is an ‘e’ with a dot on top. Lithuanian has several letters that are regularly occurring in their language that feature a small letter ‘v’ on top. These are: š, ž and č. Latvia and Estonia both have bollards with a white rectangle on the front and white dots on the back. Bollards are found every few metres on well-frequented roads in Lithuania. The Lithuanian bollards are thinner than typical plank bollards. Some Lithuanian roads have the rare side dashed road markings although these are a bit less common than the standard European road markings in Lithuania. Rural Lithuanian houses often have eternit roofs (that look like corrugated iron) that are different shades of gray/silver. The roofs tend to face the road. The style of houses in Lithuania are also found across the other Baltic countries. There are a number of types of utility poles used in Lithuania. They mainly have a large number of pine cone looking things pointing upwards near the top of their poles. Another common feature of Lithuanian utility poles is to have a diagonal supporting beam. These types of trees are sprinkled across Lithuania and this part of the world. The houses are modest and rarely look new. The country’s landscape is a bit of a mixture of southern Finland and Poland. You will commonly see street signs, company signs, trees, parts of the pavement and other objects randomly blurred across Lithuania. Warning signs in Lithuania have a white border outside a thinner red border. Estonia has no white outside border and the same thickness of red border as Lithuania. In contast, Latvia has a white border outside a thicker red border. Lithuania has orange reflectors on its guardrails. Latvia has red and white reflectors whilst Estonia doesn’t have reflectors on its guardrails. Lithuania has different looking kilometre markers to the other Baltic countries. Lithuanian markers feature two signs on the one pole, pointing to the road. Estonian markers are at right-angles to the road whilst Latvian markers are parallel with the road. Whilst most Lithuanian markers are blue, like Estonian and Latvian markers, green Lithuanian markers can occasionally be seen. These are typically seen on the A1/E85. Towns and cities in Lithuania commonly end in the suffix ‘ai’. This suffix is quite rare across the rest of Europe. The Lithuanian language stands out for having ė as its 9th letter of the alphabet. Essentially this e with a dot above it is only found in Lithuanian. Lithuanian also has three letters that have what is a small ‘v’ on top of them. These are: š, ž and č.

Lithuanian licence plates are long and white, with the standard blue European strip on the left.

Lithuanian bollards are wedge-shaped.

They have an orange reflector on the front, and a white reflector on the back. Both reflectors are rectangular. You may find this thin version as well.

Estonian and Latvian bollards look different.

Lithuanian poles are usually square and concrete, and often feature a diagonal support beam.


Poletops often have short horizontal rods, on which the insulators are placed.

In some poletops, the insulators are arranged in a trident-like shape, with one on top, and two on each side.

Note that these poletops are not unique to Lithuania: they can also be found in the other post-Soviet countries.

Lithuania uses white chevrons with red arrows. The small single chevrons (pictured here) usually have a red outline on the edge of the sign.

Many other European countries, including Latvia and Poland, use the same chevrons (though without the red outline).

However, Estonia, Russia and Ukraine use chevrons with the opposite colour scheme: red with white arrows.

All Baltic countries use the same blue kilometre marker. However, they can be distinguished from each other by their angle relative to the road.

In Lithuania, the marker will be at a 45° angle towards the road. The sign itself has an L-shape.

For a quick overview of all three Baltic countries, see this infographic.

Each Baltic country has a slightly different border for its warning and speed signs.

Lithuanian signs have a relatively thin red border, with a thin white outline around it.

Lithuania has normal A-type guardrails with orange reflectors.

Estonia has no reflectors. Latvia has red or white reflectors. For a good overview of European guardrails, see this infographic.

Lithuanian pedestrian signs have 3 stripes. The shape of the pedestrian has a relatively low level of detail.

Estonian signs also have 3 stripes, but the pedestrian looks more detailed.

Latvian pedestrian signs have 5 stripes.

Lithuanian bus stop signs feature a bus with four windows. This is mostly useful to distinguish it from the Latvian bus stop sign, which has five windows.

Note however, that Estonia has the same bus stop signs as Lithuania.

Lithuanian belongs to the Baltic language family. The other major member of this language family is Latvian, to which it is closely related.

Estonian is not a member of the Baltic language family (despite its name), and therefore looks significantly different.

The Lithuanian word for street is gatve, often abbreviated as g. on signs and Google Maps. 

This word is almost entirely unique to Lithuanian. However, very rarely, you might see ‘gatve’ (abbreviated as gat.) in the Latvian capital of Riga.

Many Lithuanian place names end in -ai.

Lithuanian architecture primarily consists of light coloured brick buildings, usually with somewhat steep corrugated metal roofs. Wooden buildings are also fairly common, however less so than in Estonia. Pastel painted stone buildings are somewhat common, especially in newer suburbs.

Lithuanian directional signs are blue with white text.

The arrow on Latvian signs is more stylized than in Estonia and Lithuania, where the back part of the arrowhead is vertical.

Lithuania has less forest cover than the other two Baltic countries. As a result, the landscape appears more open and agricultural.


Bollard:

Lithuania uses a pretty generic bollard style, but with orange on one side, and white on the reverse. On some of the more major roads, there is a chance that the backs of the bollards will not have a reflector. If you see the white reflector, it means that traffic on the other side is coming towards you.


Road Lines:

Lithuania uses all white lines, though it uses many gravel roads with no markings.

Sometimes the shoulder lines will be dashed.

Lithuania use blue backed road signs, and white settlement signs.

Chevrons in Lithuania have a nice red border around them. Crosswalks are 3 dashed.

You can find an orange reflector on the right hand side of the road, while the left hand side will be a white reflector, much like their bollards. You can also find these wire guardrails, however these tend to be more rare.

The backs of Lithuanian signs have folded edges.

Electricity poles:

Lithuania uses concrete poles with ‘bulbs’ in a 1×1 2×2 or 3×3 format, sometimes they will have an odd number of bulbs.


Lithuania uses the standard EU style license plate.

Vegetation/Landscape:

Lithuania is a very flat country.

Architecture:

Lithuania has a lot of wooden/brick houses with corrugated metal roofs.


Main roads in Lithuania will often have trees lining them.


Lithuania is divided up into 10 counties and 10 municipalities.