If you can make to Riga during the summer months, you will be rewarded with incredible weather and SO MUCH sunlight! We were there in August when the sun sets after 11:00 PM and is back up around 4:00 AM, so were almost never in the dark. It gave us so much time to be out & about, exploring all that this incredible city has to offer.
Things to Do
Hunt for Art Nouveau style buildings: To start, just walking around Riga is incredibly gorgeous. The Art Nouveau style of the buildings is so impressive and unique to see. In fact, Riga has the highest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings anywhere in the world. It feels almost like a scavenger hunt to walk around looking for all of them. We spent many hours strolling around and craning our necks up at buildings to see all of the beautiful designs and artwork.
Central Market Food Tour: One of our favorite things we did in Riga was our food tour. The Central Market is located in old German Zeppelin Hangers. A Zeppelin is a large German airship and the hangers were used to build them. They are HUGE, and an incredible idea for a place to have a market. We had so much fun exploring and it was a great tour. We may have been able to navigate it on our own, but we definitely wouldn’t have tried some of the things that we got to try on the tour.
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House of the Blackheads: As far as major sites in Riga go, one of them that you can’t miss (literally can’t miss it, because it’s huge and on a square) is the House of the Blackheads. The House was originally created as a venue for meetings and banquets all the way back in the 1300’s. Now, it is partially a museum that you can visit to see what things must have looked like in the past. It reminded me of what old castles and palaces look like on the inside from centuries ago. It was interesting to learn about the history of Riga and explore this incredible building.
St Peters Church: Nearby to the house of the Blackheads is St Peters church. This church is stunning to view but one of the best parts is going up into the tower to get panoramic views over all of Riga. You can look out across the whole town, get a lay of the land, and get really nice photos from above.
Explore Riga’s Parks: Another highlight of Riga was the parks. The parks in Riga have canals running through them and you can go on scenic little boat rides up and down them. They had wonderful walking paths and were such a nice place to spend some time wandering.
Where to Eat & Drink
Domini Canes: We were lucky enough to stop for lunch and get a spot at Domini Canes. This place was FANTASTIC. It was so charming, the wine list was written ON a wine bottle, and the food was so fresh and delicious. The location is perfect and is right in the middle of all the action in Riga. It was nice to sit outside and have a delicious meal and people watch! It was also nice to have “light jacket” weather in August! This is another reason the Baltics can be such a great summer trip – perfect weather to walk around in and be a tourist!
Ristorans 1221: Another very popular place for lunch or dinner, which we unfortunately didn’t make it to, is called Ristorans 1221. You can’t miss it when you’re walking through Riga, it is one of the cutest looking places ever! But make a reservation if you want to eat there on your trip.
Skyline Bar Riga: Looking for rooftop bars is always on my list of things to do, and we found an excellent one in Skyline Bar Riga. This bar is indoors and serves very delicious cocktails. You have views looking over all of Riga, the park, and the Nativity Church. There are even incredible views from the elevator and bathrooms.
Rozengrals: Riga also has the opposite of rootop bars… underground bars. There are many surprises in Riga and one of them is underground bars and restaurants. My husband really wanted to have a dinner underground, the places were incredibly beautiful with vaulted ceilings and candles everywhere. We ate at Rozengrals and the atmosphere was worth the visit. This place is listed in history as dating back to the 1200’s and was known as a wine vault & festival place for the city council. The food wasn’t the best of our trip, though it was just fine, but it was neat to experience eating in that environment underground. They serve authentic Latvian food, which is something we always want to have when we’re visiting a new place.
Ala Pargrabs: We also grabbed drinks in another underground spot, Ala Pargrabs, which is described as a folk cave. They sometimes have live music and they also have a wonderful atmosphere. They also had a lot of different local beers and wines to offer so you can try authentic Latvian drinks!
Where to Stay
We stayed at Avalon Hotel & Conferences which was right on the edge of the old town. The hotel didn’t have any specific charm to it, but it had parking (we were on a road trip) and we had easy access to everything Riga had to offer. We could see the hangers of the market across the street and we could be within the center of the old town in minutes. The hotel was clean and nice and did the job for us!
Another spot that looks really nice and is the Grand Palace Hotel. Located right in the center of Riga and with a sauna, gym, and more.
You can book either of these hotels, or any other hotel you might love through my affiliate link below. This helps me to keep this blog ad free and to provide you with information for free as well. There is NO charge to you for booking through my link and I may earn a small commission!
Plan for me dani 