Recommendations for travel from Vilnius, Lithuania to Gdansk, Poland

It's not easy going from Vilnius to Gdansk. You either fly and change planes somewhere or take the train via Warsaw. (There may be another train route and I'm sure someone will find it.)

As for rental.....I've never done it but I can think of two issues:

1) Will the rental car companies allow you to take a care from Lithuania and drop it in Poland.

2) How bad will the drop off charges be?

I love off the wall questions. I looked at Rome to Rio and they show a simple 6 hour drive THRUOUGH KALENGRAD. NO! probably not a good idea. Maybe not even currently possible. I have no idea. But the bus is a mere 10 hours: https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Vilnius/Gda%C5%84sk

I dont know how much time you have but this looks to be one of those opportunities to see one more place on your way. What place? The one half way (in time) betweek Vilnius and Gdansk. By flight the only two that seem to make sense or Copenhagen or Berlin. Gdansk just isnt well connected. Maybe you do better to extend your tour at the end instead of the begining.

Thank you for your thoughts. I think we'll fly!

During our trip to the Baltics, I had originally wanted to drive from Klaipeda (in western Lithuania) to Kaliningrad, via the Curonian Spit. It was technically possible at the time (this was before Russia invaded Ukraine), though it appeared logistically challenging (even before I asked the car rental agency if I could take their car into Russia...). I eventually gave up on the idea based on reading how tricky it was to get a Russian visa (which at the time was easier than usual, since there was some World Cup qualifying game being held in Kaliningrad that summer, they had eased up a bit on the visa bureaucracy). Would have been a grand adventure, but probably too much adventure for my own good. We shrugged and just drove north.

The border between Lithuania and Russia is closed presently (at least the crossing I was hoping to use - I'd expect that to be true elsewhere, too).

To the OP, start with asking your car rental agency if they'll allow you to take their car into Poland (I suspect they won't). I'm pretty sure that flying is going to be by far the easiest way to go.

Thanks for your comments. You've helped me confirm our plans to fly!