Latvia
Riga has more art nouveau than anywhere in Europe. Look up
Population
1.9m people
Currency
Euro
Main Language
Latvian
best time to visit
June – August
Climate
Cool maritime, cold snowy winters, mild summers
Visa
Schengen area – 90 days visa free in any 180 day period for UK and most non-EU visitors
Country overview
Riga has the largest collection of art nouveau architecture of any city in Europe, which is not a fact most visitors arrive knowing. A single street, Alberta iela, has more ornamental facades than most capitals manage in total, and almost nobody photographs them because they are all looking at the medieval old town instead.
Latvia sits between Estonia and Lithuania and shares their forests, their Soviet history and their long dark winters, but it has the biggest city of the three by some distance. Riga is genuinely urban, with a serious food market in old Zeppelin hangars, a converted-warehouse district and a nightlife reputation that has attracted the wrong sort of stag party for years.
The coast is the underrated part. Jurmala is a long white-sand beach with wooden villas, twenty minutes from the capital by train. Gauja National Park has castles and river valleys. And Latvia holds a song festival every five years where tens of thousands sing together, a tradition that was central to peacefully breaking away from the Soviet Union.
Annual events and festivals
- Riga Opera Festival (Jun) — a strong programme in a beautiful 19th-century house.
- Jani, Midsummer (23-24 Jun) — the biggest night of the year. Flower crowns, cheese with caraway, bonfires and no sleep.
- Latvian Song and Dance Festival (every five years, Jul) — around 40,000 performers. UNESCO listed and deeply tied to independence.
- Positivus Festival (Jul) — the largest music festival in the Baltics, on the coast at Salacgriva.
- Cesis Art Festival (Jul-Aug) — contemporary art and music in a medieval castle town.
- Riga City Festival (Aug) — three days of concerts, markets and river events.
- Independence Day (18 Nov) — the 1918 proclamation, marked with a torchlight procession and fireworks.
- Lampu Festival, Riga (Nov) — light installations across the city over four nights.
- Martini (10 Nov) — masked processions marking the end of the farming year.
- Christmas Market, Riga (Dec) — Riga claims the first decorated Christmas tree, in 1510, and leans on it heavily.