Country Info
- Riga
- Capital
- Latvian Lats (LVL)
- Currency
- 2,385,231
- Population
- LV
- Country Code
Latvia Slideshow
Latvia
Travel Blogs from Latvia
Rīga, August 18, 2005 - Thursday
... national pride worth commemorating. Daugava river is by far the longest Latvian river. Of course, speaking from Latvian perspective. For Latvia is even a tad smaller than Lithuania, so a river like Daugava, more than 1000 kilometres long, had to spring ...
Riga
... old area has lots of cobbled streets, and 3 big green-copper churchs. It also has a museum covering the occupation of Latvia, that we stopped into to learn how the area has been occupied from all sides. Lastly, we checked out some of ...
Riga, the search for a 'Baltic Porter' continues
Very cool place to spend a few days, good bars and excellent cheap food (for those on a budget!). HIghlight for Andrew was finding a Baltic porter beer that he had been searching for... Almost at the end of the middle leg of the trip, which means the ...
The New Prague
... EU, several Western European budget airlines (including easyJet, which I have flown a few times) started their routes to Riga. Latvia's expanding airline, Air Baltic, also started many new routes. Now there are organized "stag party" or "hen party" ...
A quieter air of old Latvia
It is with some regret that I find myself here in Latvia - a country that I doubt I'll be able to get back to in the near future - with only three days to look around. With that in mind, I thought I'd try to make the most of my time here and get out to ...
Rīga, August 21, 2005 - Sunday
... the Soviet comrades later added some of their own blasting, blowing up the burned out walls for the good measure. But when Latvia regained independence, one of the first restorations they decided to grapple with was that of the House of Blackheads. And so ...
The widest waterfalls in Europe!
Kuldiga is a charming little town, full of once grand buildings in a graceful state of decay, and a very relaxed place to spend a day. Very little to actually do there, but I was still surprised that it wasn't more visited given the widest waterfalls in ...
Uh, we’re not in Kansas anymore
On the advice of a native Latvian we met in Istanbul, and backed by our trusty Lonely Planet, we headed for Cesis, Latvia from Riga. Situated in the country's north-eastern Gauja National Park, Cesis is dubbed the 'most Latvian of Latvian towns’, ...
Latvia
... we enjoyed the Riga cafe culture that allowed us to wander out for food/drink after 10ish while the temperature was a pleasant 20! Latvia was the first country that we didn't have any satnav data for. Luckily we were camping on an island the other ...
Mafia City
We made the reverse journey from the Hostel back to the bus station, but this time taking a little known shortcut down a dirt track road with no street name! Again the sun was belting down and we were getting pretty hot with our packs on, we a quick rest ...
Delicious Dumplings - So Nice I Ate Them Twice
... scrumptous dumplings with sides for the equivalent of just AUD $2.50. After lunch I went to the Museum of Occupation of Latvia which presented very similar information to that of the War Museum I visited yesterday. None the less I still spent ...
Stags and carpetbaggers
... it is usually the uniform foot, seeing as how buses have been our main form of transit within Europe. Our impressions were that Latvia felt a little more Soviet, with a touch more concrete, a few more trolley tracks, and one or two really heinous ...
Fortuitous delays and the phat silver lining
First came the hanging about, not really realising we were about to leave the country whilst we just concentrated on our tasty food (also not really knowing when the next chance we'd get to eat would be), then came the task of checking in, and finally ...
A unique experience
Done as a day trip out from Riga, Jurmala is the beach resort of Latvia, more sheltered and with softer sand than the western Baltic coast. Miles and miles of beaches, it felt anything but crowded and made for a very relaxing afternoon, strolling up and ...
You Can Check Out Anytime You Like, But...
Riga Old Town is a World Heritage Site. It is a stone's throw from the huge River Daugava. It is full of beautiful old buildings, like Gdansk or Praha, but with more Russian style minaret tops to some of the churches. The tops of each spire or turret ...
Riga
Da un paio di giorni sono a Riga e per ora tutto bene... Stiamo passando le giornate a girare per la citta, visitare e scattare ...
A day at the beach - Baltic Style
Hello again Spent the day out at Jurmala, Riga's coastal getaway. A 30 minute train ride from Riga (and only gbp1.27 return) lies the 20 kilometre beach at Jurmala. On arriving we had a wander around, stopping first at the sand sculpture ...
Silence and Sauna
I snuggled back into my sleeping-bag. The silence was absolute. I'd left Nick and the kids at the beach and come back up to the beach house alone. I strained to hear anything, but the loudest sound was my neck creaking. You cannot package that ...
The heart of the boozy Baltics
... couple of things about Latvia that you may or may not find interesting (we did): 1) almost 20 years after gaining independence, Latvia's population today is still almost 30% Russian, with some towns/cities on the eastern side of the country only being ...
Stuck in Riga
I got to Riga just fine. I arrived quite late on December 2nd wearing the only warm clothes I have with me. And it's a good thing too because it was freezing! 3C would have seemed like a nice day to me in Calgary but after a month in Ghana I ...
Inflanty rules
Pola zbóż, gryka jak śnieg biała, bursztynowy świerzop, łąki...znowu pola... Mickiewicz naprawdę nie miał szans napisać o czymś innym. Na Żmudzi doszło jeszcze trochę lasów i... Las ...
Silver Sunset and Latvian Cheese
... back together. She'll have to deal with it when she gets back. Next stop on our journey was Ediite's Mum (Ingrida)'s beach house. Latvia has one long coastline complete with hundreds of miles of golden sand. Many of them are within an hour or so of Riga. ...
The Paris of the east!
Riga, the so called "Paris of the east". The plan was to stay with a friend of my dad's, so after another night-bus (this one was suprisingly comfortable... better than in the west), after only a few minutes, managed to already find the hotel where that ...
Riga
In addition to my usual touristy photos I've included pictures I found especially fascinating. To get to the beach in Lielupe from the train station you have an hourlong walk. The first half is on a road with the second half in the forest. On this road ...
Estacion (habra muchas de estas)
El trayecto en bus, aunque aburrido, es bastante comodo en Interbus. No se puede decir lo mismo de los trenes; son extremadamente lentos y el calor es sofocante. Es el primer cruce de fronteras, de Estonia a Letonia. A mitad de trayecto ...
more waterfalls
30/5 Ventspils is a lovely spot, it has the best beach we have seen since we have been away, again just still a bit cold for swimming though. We didn't look around the town, but we are told it is nice. If you came here in the middle of summer you ...
Around Riga
... back to my room it was ham and cheese and grease. Live and learn. Today I am flying to Poland which is slightly warmer than Latvia. I have been wanting to see Warsaw for awhile now so I am looking forward to it and trying not to think about what I ...
Riga
Dopo questa lunga giornata finalmente a Riga, dove ha inizio il viaggio vero e proprio. Arrivare all ostello non e stato facile difatti prima delle 2 non siamo riusciti a metterci a letto, ma per il resto nessun gran ...
Deserted, windswept and littered with amber
Not yet having had enough of beaches, but not wanting to extract any more cash, I moved on from Klaipeda up to Liepaja, about 100km up the coast, in search of the Latvian equivalent and (from what I had heard) a rather fantastic hostel. I was a little ...