A week in Riga

[funkpilz]

I'm going to Latvia to see my friend who is attending university there. I will have a total of about 8 days there and lots of time to see the sights, so I need your advice! What places are must-sees, and what places are worth visiting even though they might not be as well-known? Are there any decent museums and galleries that I should visit?
Thanks for your tips.

 

[dmr]

I forget the name of it, but it's the Latvian equivalent of the Statue Of Liberty. Very striking!

 

[FrozenInTime]

Birthplace of the Minox camera : http://famouslatvia.com/vef-minox-photo-camera/

 

[Mablo]

You can walk around the beautiful old town during an afternoon stroll. Lots of small cafes and tiny art galleries packed with joyful Swedish tourists. There's an open air museum of old Russian war planes in the vicinity of the airport if you like that sort of thing. If you feel like going out and on the beach there's the Jurmala seaside holiday village nearby (local train connection).

 

[user237428934]

I've been to latvia two years ago and stayed there for 8 days too. 5 days Riga and 3 days driving around with a rental car. Drove to the baltic sea in the west and visited some of the smaller cities. Rural Latvia was interesting. Jurmala was nice too.

If still have some photos online from my visit. Vacation snaps, nothing special: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_w_bn/sets/72157607110678895/detail/

 

[andersju]

I spent about five days in Riga last month with my girlfriend. Be sure to get the book Another Travel Guide Riga. Excellent with lots of interesting places you'd never see in a standard tourist guide. Each thing gets it own page (or two!) - not the usual endless lists of everything in every category - AND it's printed on high-quality paper and features nice photography.

Really, just get the book (from amazon.co.uk or in Riga) - it's really worth it - everything I'd recommend is in there...: Istaba (nice shop and GREAT restaurant), Meta-Kafe (good coffee [for Riga], brilliant & cheap breakfast/brunch, interesting books, good music..), Latgalite market (ask before taking pictures!), going up in "Stalin's birthday cake", etc... wandering around in some rougher areas was certainly interesting.

There's also a a free "alternative" tour every day, but as is turned out we had already been to most of what they showed (thanks to the aforementioned book), so not really worth it.

For general information, download the pdf of Riga in your pocket (also available for free at the airport and elsewhere).