A settlement area of the Baltic Curonians, the original place called nida ("fluent" in the Old Prussian language) was first mentioned in 1385 documents issued by the Teutonic Knights, who ruled the lands within their Monastic State.

The original settlement on the road along the Curonian Spit from Königsberg to Memel was located about 5 km (3.1 mi) south of its today's position near the Hohe Düne (High Dune) at Cape Grobštas (from Old Prussian: grabis, "hill").

After World War I Nidden, together with the northern half of the Curonian Spit, became part of the Klaipėda Region under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, but was subsequently incorporated to Lithuania in 1923.

In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida while on holiday in nearby Rauschen and decided to have a summer house erected on a hill above the lagoon; it was mocked by locals as Uncle Tom's Cabin.

After the Klaipėda Region was again annexed by (now Nazified) Germany in 1939, his house was seized at the behest of Hermann Göring [citation needed] and designated a recreation home for Luftwaffe officers.

[7] Like all of the Curonian Spit, Nida became nearly uninhabited as a result of the advancing Red Army, the Evacuation of East Prussia and the eventual expulsion of surviving German inhabitants.

Later during the Soviet occupation, together with three other villages of the Neringa Municipality (Juodkrantė, Preila and Pervalka), Nida was a controlled-entry holiday resort reserved for the Communist party officials and elite (nomenklatura).

However, as Curonian Spit is a national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are various restrictions to protect its ecosystem and the unique architecture of towns like Nida.

During the Soviet occupation, it hosted a library open in summer only, with residential quarters of the visiting librarian posted from Klaipėda upstairs and public areas downstairs.

There are also interesting places to see nearby, including some of the highest sand dunes in Europe, a large sundial (which has been restored after being damaged by a Baltic gale), Fisherman's Ethnographic Homestead, gallery-museum of amber and a German Protestant (Evangelische) Brick Gothic church (built in 1888).

An hourly bus runs between Nida and Smiltynė ferry terminal on that road,[11] and intercity buses to various cities like Kaliningrad, Klaipėda, Kaunas and Vilnius exist.