1 destination · 10 things to do
Latvia
Riga is the biggest city in the Baltics and its most surprising mix of eras. Its medieval Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, packs Hanseatic merchant houses, church spires and cobbled squares inside the line of its old walls, with the rebuilt House of the Black Heads glowing on the Town Hall Square. A short walk away, the boulevards of the Quiet Centre hold one of the richest collections of Art Nouveau architecture anywhere, with around 800 buildings and whole streets of faces, masks and sculpted maidens. Between them sit five former Zeppelin hangars that became one of Europe’s largest markets, a national art museum in a palace by the canal, an honest museum of the Soviet and Nazi occupations, and a cathedral organ you can hear in a twenty-minute midday recital. This guide picks the tickets worth booking, the free walks worth taking and the right hotel for your trip, from a five-star by Riga Castle to a spa hotel in the medieval lanes and a good-value base by the river.
