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.
Riga Old Town (Vecrīga)
The medieval heart of the Baltics’ largest city: cobbled lanes, Hanseatic merchant houses, church spires, the Three Brothers, the Swedish Gate and a Town Hall Square crowned by the House of the Black Heads. Free to wander and the reason most people come.
House of the Black Heads
Riga’s most photographed building, a richly decorated guild house on the Town Hall Square built for a brotherhood of unmarried merchants, destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt to its full Renaissance splendour in the 1990s.
Riga Central Market
Five giant pavilions built from former German Zeppelin hangars, filled with smoked fish, rye bread, cheeses, pickles, honey and berries. One of Europe’s largest markets, a few minutes from the Old Town, and free to browse.
St Peter’s Church and Tower
Riga’s tallest medieval church, whose rebuilt spire defines the skyline. A viewing gallery 57 metres up gives the best panorama of the Old Town’s roofs, the Daugava and the Art Nouveau centre beyond.
FreeThe medieval heart of the Baltics’ largest city: cobbled lanes, Hanseatic merchant houses, church spires, the Three Brothers, the Swedish Gate and a Town Hall Square crowned by the House of the Black Heads. Free to wander and the reason most people come.
Riga’s most photographed building, a richly decorated guild house on the Town Hall Square built for a brotherhood of unmarried merchants, destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt to its full Renaissance splendour in the 1990s.
Whole streets of extravagant facades in the Quiet Centre, led by Alberta iela, plus a restored 1903 apartment museum that shows how Riga’s Art Nouveau families actually lived. The most distinctive thing to do in the city.
FreeFive giant pavilions built from former German Zeppelin hangars, filled with smoked fish, rye bread, cheeses, pickles, honey and berries. One of Europe’s largest markets, a few minutes from the Old Town, and free to browse.
Riga’s tallest medieval church, whose rebuilt spire defines the skyline. A viewing gallery 57 metres up gives the best panorama of the Old Town’s roofs, the Daugava and the Art Nouveau centre beyond.
The largest medieval church in the Baltics, on Dome Square, with a monumental nineteenth-century organ you can hear in a twenty-minute Concerto Piccolo recital almost every day at noon.
A palatial early twentieth-century museum on the canal-side boulevards, renovated with bright modern galleries, showing the story of Latvian painting from the Baltic German era to the Art Nouveau and modernist masters.
A powerful, clearly told museum of the Soviet and Nazi occupations from 1940 to 1991, with deportation stories, a reconstructed Gulag barrack and the road back to independence. Essential context for understanding modern Latvia.
A hands-on museum of optical illusions on Dome Square, with more than thirty interactive exhibits that bend perspective and play tricks on your eyes. Open late every day and a reliable hit with children.
A small, polished museum in the Old Town showing historic clothing and the designs that defined their eras, with an audio guide in English included. A stylish hour for anyone who loves costume and design.
Hotels we would book ourselves, from splurges to good-value bases.
Old Town (castle quarter)
Riga’s classic five-star, tucked into a quiet Old Town street between Riga Castle and the Cathedral, with a Michelin-recommended restaurant, a calm bar and the medieval lanes on the doorstep.
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$$$Old Town (Dome Square)
A boutique hotel in a 1903 Art Nouveau building beside the Cathedral, with apartment-style rooms and two-storey suites, a well-regarded restaurant and views over the Old Town roofs to the Daugava.
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$$City Centre (Elizabetes iela)
The big modern tower of central Riga, with the Skyline Bar on the 26th floor, an ESPA spa with an 18-metre pool and the Old Town a short walk away. Reliable comfort with the best bar view in town.
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$$Old Town (Kalēju iela)
A four-star superior in the medieval lanes, a few minutes from the Town Hall Square, with a pool, jacuzzi, Finnish sauna and Turkish steam bath to warm up in after a day on the cobbles.
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$Old Town edge (by the Central Market)
Good value on the southern edge of the Old Town, between the Daugava and the Central Market, with river and spire views, breakfast included and rooms renovated in 2020.
Check rates →The practical primer for a first visit: the few tickets worth booking, the closing days to plan around, getting in from the airport, and how to fit the Old Town, the Art Nouveau district and the market into two or three days.
How to choose your base in Riga, from a five-star by the castle and an Art Nouveau boutique beside the Cathedral to a central tower with a pool and a good-value hotel by the river, matched to the trip you want.
