A 48 Hour Guide to Riga, Latvia
After spending a couple of days in Vilnius, Lithuania, I took a 4 hour bus up to Riga, the capital city of Latvia. Riga is a classic stop on a trip through the Baltics or makes a great city break on its own. The city went through a tourism boom a couple of years ago, and tourists seem to be slowly but surely returning to the city as travel in Europe picks up again.
Here’s my guide to a couple of days in Riga.
Riga Basics
Currency
Latvia is part of the European Union, and uses the Euro. 1 Euro currently equals about $1.15 USD.
Visa Requirements
As part of the European Union’s Schengen Zone, citizens of the US and many other countries can visit visa free. However, be sure to check updated COVID restrictions.
Language
Latvian, but English is widely spoken in Riga.
Basic phrases:
Hello / Hi – Sveiki
Good Morning – Labrit
Good Evening – Labvakar
Thank You – Paldies
Weather
Outside of the summer, weather in Riga ranges from chilly to super cold, so be sure to bring a light jacket in the shoulder seasons or a coat in the colder months.
Getting There
Riga is well connected by bus to other Baltic capitals – Vilnius, Lithuania and Tallinn, Estonia are both reachable by bus in 4-4.5 hours. There are several buses leaving from the Riga bus station each day to both. Additionally, budget airlines now make it easy and affordable to get to Riga from all over Europe.
Things to Do
Go on a Free Walking Tour
So I know I recommend these a lot, but I pretty much do free walking tours whenever possible – I generally find them to be an affordable, interesting, and relatively quick intro to a new city. Riga Free Tours offers multiple free walking tours – a tour of the Old Town, a tour of the market and the Moscow District, and an Art Nouveau tour. My first day in Riga was a Monday, and the museums and churches are closed, so I opted to do the Old Town tour and the market and Moscow tour back to back. The guide for both, Artur, was fantastic and shared a great deal about the history of the Old Town and surrounding areas.
Explore the Riga Central Market
Located right by the Riga bus station is the Riga Central Market, a huuuuuge local market housed in and around several large, former zeppelin hangars. The market is charming and felt truly local as it clearly a market for the residents of the city rather than tourists. There were hundreds of stalls selling flowers, locally foraged mushrooms, produce, meat and fish, baked goods, medicines, and so much more. It was fun to wander around and peruse all of the goods, and seriously consider buying some of the beautiful and cheaply priced flowers.
Check Out a Local Museum
Riga is home to several great museums, several of which I visited while in the city.
Art Museum Riga Bourse
This art museum is located right in the center of the Old Town of Riga. To see all of the displays and exhibitions in the museum, it costs €6 for regular admission or €3 for students and seniors. They have permanent displays of European and Asian art, and had a temporary exhibition featuring art by two Italian artists when I visited. The museum was nice – the main hall was especially beautiful, but I think I would recommend the Latvian National Museum of Art over this one. I didn’t get a chance to visit that one, but hey, if you’re visiting Latvia, wouldn’t you rather see Latvian art than Asian art?
Museum of the Occupation of Latvia
I highly recommend visiting the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, because it goes into very clear and well laid out detail about the multiple occupations of Latvia by the Soviets and the Nazis. All of the Baltic countries were occupied by the Soviets until the early 90s, when the USSR began to crumble and they were able to declare independence. The museum simply asks for voluntary donations for entry, and taught me a great deal of history I had never heard of before.
The Riga Art Nouveau Center and the Art Nouveau District
Riga is home to the highest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture in the world, with one third of all of the buildings in central Riga featuring Art Nouveau architecture with influence primarily from Austria, Finland, and Germany. The Art Nouveau district is a beautiful area to simply wander around and admire the beautiful buildings.
The Art Nouveau Center, or museum, is also worth a quick visit. The only museum in the Baltic States dedicated to Art Nouveau heritage, the museum costs €5 for regular admission and €3 for students. The museum showcases rooms of an Art Nouveau era apartment, and the best part of the museum is its staff – sweet women dressed in gorgeous period clothing. If reading more into Art Nouveau history isn’t your thing, then popping into the lobby of the museum for free is worth it just to see the lovely spiral staircase.
Eat Some Delicious Latvian Food
I fell in love with Lithuanian food in Vilnius, and quickly fell in love with Latvian food in Riga. Unfortunately, many restaurants in Riga have permanently closed due to the pandemic, or are still temporarily closed as the city continues to recover. Fortunately, my hostel recommended a fantastic restaurant that was so good that I ate two great, traditional meals there: Folkklubs Ala.
Located in an ancient wine cellar in the Old Town, Folkklubs Ala serves up delicious, traditional food and tons of local beers, ciders, and wines. For my first meal, I tried Latvian garlic bread, which is black rye bread fried in garlic and served with garlic sauce. It was absolutely heavenly, and I got a huge plate of it for only €2.50 – there was so much of it that I had to give a lot of it away to a nearby table so it wouldn’t go to waste. I also tried a buckwheat risotto that was creamy and rich. I washed down the meal with Ala’s house semi-sweet cider, which was super good.
For my second meal at Ala, I tried traditional Latvian meatballs served with sauerkraut, potatoes, and a cream sauce. The portion was giant, but I ate every single bite on my plate because it was just that good. I had a couple more glasses of their house cider, trying the chokeberry and semi-dry ones this time around.
I seriously can’t recommend this restaurant enough – I wish I was eating there again as I write this. The atmosphere is cool and the food is too good.
Visit the National Library of Latvia
I got the sense that a lot of tourists in Riga don’t venture across the river, but it’s worth trip to visit the incredible National Library of Latvia. The library is a huge, chromatic, funky-shaped building located just opposite the Old Town of Riga. It is free to visit – all you need to do when you enter is lock up your stuff in free lockers and head to the welcome desk to grab a visitor pass. With pass in hand, you’ll be able to explore several floors packed with books, reading rooms, informational displays, and views of the city. If you’re lucky, you’ll visit on a day when the upper floors are open for even better views.
The best part of the museum, in my opinion, is the People’s Bookshelf. This is several bookshelves spanning most of the floors in the library, featuring thousands of books of special significance that people have written a personal message or story in and donated to the library. It currently has about 7,000 books in over 50 languages, and is quite an impressive sight, especially if you love books as much as I do.
Riga was a great second stop on my trip through the Balkans, complete with great architecture, delicious food, and lots and lots of books. Like the rest of the Baltics capitals, Riga is highly underrated and definitely worth a visit.