Today was my last day in Riga after spending four weeks in October, December, February and April. I was visiting for work, but during all these visits, I still managed to see a bit of Latvia and have some favourite places that I visited often and decided to share with you some tips.
Kemeri National Park
I want to start with Kemeri National Park, which was probably my favourite trip of all the places I went to in Latvia, specifically Kemeri Bog Boardwalk: https://goo.gl/maps/ScpZ2aYfRUUNgqM49
In order to reach this magical place, you can take the train to Kemeri station from Riga and from there, it’s about one hour walk. You walk through the forest and then all of a sudden you appear in this place which is out of the ordinary, somehow spooky and haunting. It has a vibe of The Dead Marshes from LOTR .
Jurmala
Of course, if you are in Latvia, you should absolutely visit Jurmala at least once; despite what season it is, it is always beautiful, the charming sandy beach of the Baltic Sea. I visited in April, and it was warm enough to soak feet in the water walking kilometres on the beach with seagulls and crows around. The popular destination to reach Jurnala is from Dubulti station, but the truth is, you can just come off at any station along the beach, you may avoid crowds of people in some areas, which I will mention separately below. Dubulti is 35 minutes from Riga by train and it’s only a 5-minute walk to the beach from there.
After walking at the beach, there is a long pedestrian street (Jomas Iela) with shops and restaurants, where you can have a break and have some food.
Edge of the world
As I said, you don’t have to go to the most popular destination in Jurmala for wonderful beach scenery. I took a train to Lielupe station and then walked about an hour to the place where the river joins sea: https://goo.gl/maps/ctf6iVUPR1LtBpes6 . It was almost empty and such a beautiful sight, unforgettable. There are not many food places nearby, so you need to prepare some snacks before you go there together with water.
Actually, I went to Kemeri National Park and to Lielupe on the same day, and one mistake I made was not buying water and food in advance. There were not many places you could get food.
This is how it looked through my watch without food and water, not sure how I survived it, but it was an unforgettable day
Sigulda
The reason I decided to go to this town is a bit unusual maybe. I am from Georgia, and in Georgia, there is this mining town Chiatura, which I wrote about here on local guides connect. I’ve been going to Chiatura every year since 2009 as a journalist and every time I needed break and food I’d go to this small cafe called Sigulda. I didn’t know the reason the restaurant had such name, never asked and didn’t know such town existed in Latvia either. Many years later, I was at a podcast, where I spoke about my favourite food places in Georgia and I mentioned Sigulda. Podcast host decided to google it and we discovered that Sigulda and Chiatura were twin cities. Knowing this and considering my love for Chiatura, I decided I had to visit Sigulda too as I was in Latvia.
It is a lovely place covered in green, only one hour by train from Riga. There are castles, there is a cable car, relaxing centres, lots and lots of hiking trails in forests. In the centre of the town, there are a few small cafes. The one I went too had a lot of desert options, great coffee and cozy place to sit and chill.
When I went there, also in April, it wasn’t a tourist season, so I was alone almost everywhere: on cable car, in restaurant, in forest, on the road, which I enjoyed a lot.
In Krimulda (the destination of cable car) I just walked around the forest a bit and then went to probably the only nearby food place to have some potato pancake and soul-warming tomato soup.
Here is the location of the restaurant: https://goo.gl/maps/uJhjjno77weFLyLy7
Nature Park Piejūra
Finally, another one hour getaway place for me was Nature Park Piejūra which is between Gauja and Lilaste train stations. I went to LIlaste and returned from Gauja: spent hours walking in the forest, exploring small lakes, rivers and the seaside. Once again, here too there were no shops or food places, so make sure to get ready in advance. I found only one shop located next to Gauja train station, which made me so happy even though there was not much choice, I did get water and some bun after hours of walk.
Riga
In December I didn’t go out of Riga, as it was extremely cold, but it was lovely: Christmas decorations covered in snow, Christmas markets with hot drinks and snacks, beautiful wintery streets.
In October and April weather in Riga is perfect to walk endlessly in those narrow streets in the old town or go to quite a few parks located in the centre of the city.
A bit about trains:
Train is my favourite transport, and if there is a possibility to take a train somewhere, I always chose it over buses, minibuses, cars, etc. Trains in Latvia are very cheap. You can just buy tickets online without any trouble and show QR code to the conductor on the train: https://www.pv.lv/lv/
There is a wifi on trains and at some of the train stations.
My top 3 restaurant picks for Riga
As for the food in these four weeks, my top favourites were the following (I am vegetarian, so can’t tell you much about non-veg food options):
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Banana Leaf (https://goo.gl/maps/61uYVKTg9caBrxww5) - Indian place where I kept coming at least three times a week with great food, decent prices, not crowded space and sweetest staff. I went to a few Indian places in Riga, but none of them were as good in all these regards as Banana Leaf.
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Kozy Eats (https://goo.gl/maps/SWMvxwpjpWEPQ4Gx5) - Vegan place with great variety of very tasty food, cozy atmosphere and also decent prices.
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Shōyu (https://goo.gl/maps/MqVnCjMJKeZ6BeNm7) - Ramen place, which doesn’t have many vegetarian options, but it is very tasty, a bit overpriced but I love ramen and I enjoyed vegan ramen a lot here. Place is a bit small and you need to make a reservation, cause they are extremely popular, but the staff is very nice, you can make a reservation via Facebook too, in case you don’t have a local number.