Riga first. Then the rest of Latvia.

Cobbles and guild houses, an hour on the city canal, the facades on Alberta iela, and the three long drives out — south to the crosses, east to the castles, west into the bog.

A canal boat that costs less than lunch, the Old Town walk everybody starts with, the ticket into the Blackheads. These are the bookings Riga runs on.

1

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,827 reviews

Canal Boat Sightseeing Tour With Audio guide

See Riga by quiet canal boat and Daugava cruise, with landmark views, multilingual audio, captain tips, and excellent value at $10.

From · $10

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2 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,096 reviews Entrance Ticket – House of the Black Heads from $8 3 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,049 reviews Guided Old Town Walking Tour from $22 4 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,040 reviews Hill of Crosses and Jelgava Gems Tour from $34 5 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 685 reviews Hill of Crosses & Jelgava Guided Tour from $40 6 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 659 reviews Riga Package: Canal Boat Tour + Drink & Old Town Audio Guide from $12 7 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 565 reviews Canal Boat Tour with Welcome Drink & Audio Guide from $9 8 ★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 496 reviews Canal & Daugava Cruise on a Historic Wooden Boat from $20

★★★★★★★★★★4.8· 1,040 travellers on the most-booked run

Latvia is small enough that almost everything is a day trip from one hotel. The crosses are three hours south, Sigulda an hour east, Rundāle an hour and a half through the beet fields. These three carry the most travellers.

• 1Hill of Crosses and Jelgava Gems Tourfrom $34
• 2Hill of Crosses & Jelgava Guided Tourfrom $40
• 32 countries! Hill of Crosses, Rundale Palace and Bauska castlefrom $157

The long one

Hill of Crosses, and Jelgava on the way back

7–8h· from $34· crosses into Lithuania

A hundred thousand crosses on a mound outside Šiauliai, planted, removed by bulldozer three times under Soviet rule, and planted again. Bring one.

The pretty one

Sigulda’s ruins, Gutmanis cave, the cable car

5–6h· from $127· private options

Sandstone cliffs above a slow river, a cable car strung across the valley, a cave with three centuries of names cut into its wall, and the broken walls of the Livonian order’s castle in the park.

The grand one

Rundāle Palace, Bauska Castle, both in a day

8–9h· from $147· lunch stop

Rastrelli built it for a duke before he built the Winter Palace. The gilded halls and the French garden are restored; the drive down is flat farmland the whole way.

Compare every day trip out of Riga →

Riga is cheap for a capital and the tour prices show it. Three columns, three budgets, and what each one actually buys you for a day.

Under $40

39 tours

Canal boats, Old Town walks, the market food round, an organ concert in the Dome. Most of Riga sits here.

• 1Canal Boat Sightseeing Tour With Audio guidefrom $10
• 2Entrance Ticket – House of the Black Headsfrom $8
• 3Guided Old Town Walking Tourfrom $22

$40–150

71 tours

Guided day trips in a minibus, bike tours, bar crawls, the Art Nouveau walk with an architect.

• 1Hill of Crosses & Jelgava Guided Tourfrom $40
• 2Central Market Traditional Food Tour in a Small Groupfrom $53
• 3Latvian food tasting tour at Riga Central marketfrom $44

$150 and up

42 tours

Private drivers, whole-day palace-and-castle runs, the bobsleigh track, small groups with the whole car to yourselves.

• 12 countries! Hill of Crosses, Rundale Palace and Bauska castlefrom $157
• 2Best of Riga Walking Tour – Highlights and Hidden Gemsfrom $154
• 3Husky Dog Sledding Tour From Rigafrom $174

Half of Europe has a walled old town and a food market. The screaming masks on Alberta iela, an Olympic bobsleigh run above the Gauja and the KGB’s own corner house belong to this country alone.

A third of the centre

The Screaming Facades

Riga has more Art Nouveau than any other city in Europe, and the loudest of it is on Alberta iela, where Mikhail Eisenstein stacked sphinxes, peacocks and open-mouthed faces four storeys up. His son Sergei left for the cinema. Look up on Elizabetes iela too — the same hand, quieter.

1. 1Old Town Walking Tour with Art Nouveau Highlights★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 332 reviews
2. 22-Hour History of Art Nouveau Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 118 reviews
3. 3Riga Art Nouveau walking tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 27 reviews

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Built in 1986

The Sigulda Track

The bobsleigh run above the Gauja was built for the Soviet team and still hosts World Cup racing. Visitors ride the same sixteen curves: a wheeled summer bob, or the winter one with a pilot in front of you. It runs on scheduled hours, not on demand, so check the day before you drive out.

1. 1Latvia Bobsleigh and luge track ride experience★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8 reviews
2. 2Bobsleigh – Truly Unique Winter Adventure!★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 6 reviews
3. 3From Riga to Sigulda Bobsleigh Ride with Pickup and Drop Off★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4 reviews

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The other Riga

The Corner House

On the corner of Brīvības and Stabu stands the building Latvians simply call the Corner House: the KGB headquarters, with the cells still in the basement. A Soviet-era walk takes in the Academy of Sciences tower, the microdistricts and the queue stories — recent history, told by people whose parents lived it.

1. 1Behind the Iron Curtain 3.5-Hour Communism Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 36 reviews
2. 2Stories of Soviet Riga Guided Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 33 reviews
3. 3Private Soviet Riga tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 reviews

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