Top Things to Do in Riga, Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Latvia is the forgotten middle child of the Baltic countries, but its capital Riga is by far, the most beautiful. With lovely sights, good food and awesome bars to have a drink, the city makes for a perfect place to enjoy day and night. Here are some of the top sights and activities not to miss when you visit Riga.

Riga is one of these wonderful places where locals want to welcome visitors and teach them about their city and way of life. There are a couple of free walking tours available daily that will show you around. The Old Riga walking tour, which is at 11 am and 3 pm, includes the highlights and history of the Old Town part of the city.

An even more popular tour takes you to the “real” Riga, like the Moscow district outside of Old Town. This one departs daily at noon from St. Peter’s Church. It takes you through the suburbs around Riga and includes a lot of information about life in Latvia, or as they call it “misery.” This is a great way to see the less-traveled places in town, though by virtue of a fact that there’s now a daily tour there, I suppose that’s no longer the case.

One of the highlights of the Riga Old Town is the House of the Blackheads, a 14th century building that was built for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, an association of ship owners and merchants that’s still active in Latvia and Estonia. In fact, Tallinn also has a House of the Blackheads, though it’s not nearly as impressive. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).