Baltic Visitor

The Latvian capital has a decent selection of hotels to suit every budget, but outside of the capital things are not always so rosy. Major cities such as Ventspils and particularly Liepaja have some good options, but smaller towns may only have one or two hotels and some of them are unappealing Soviet relics.
Earlier this [...]

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[ 2 December, 2007; 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. ] Although there are several rival explanations, the Latvian capital Riga lays claim to being the birthplace of the Christmas tree.

One story goes that it was the handiwork of the members of the House of Blackheads, an organisation for unmarried foreign merchants living in the city. They supposedly set fire to a tree and left it [...]

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The good news, reported in Diena newspaper this week, is that tourist numbers were up in Riga this year and that visitors were spending more money. The bad news is that they were also complaining more. Top grumbles were about poor service and excessive prices – and with rampant inflation the latter issue is not [...]

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Standby News reports that the new Art Nouveau style tram, which started to take passengers just two weeks ago, has already been used by almost 1000 people. Running between the Central Market and Anatomical Theatre, the service has been criticized as being too expensive – tickets cost fifteen times the tariff for ordinary trams.

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The Baltic Times reports on two separate incidents which resulted in the arrest of British nationals over the weekend. In the first, two members of a stag party were arrested for possession of cocaine – a third was detained but released uncharged. In the second incident, a Scotsman climbed the steps of the Freedom Monument [...]

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Visitors to Riga will soon discover that there are a wealth of free guides to the city, most of them pocket sized and available in hotel lobbies. I was looking through my stash of them and thought that it might be useful to run through some of the best.
Of the pocket sized freebies, the best [...]

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[ 22 June, 2007; 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. ] The 22nd June sees an array of events in Riga’s Dome Square. The Green Market (Zāļu tirgus) runs from 9am-5pm, selling traditional Jāņi foods. You can also buy oak leaves and flowers for garlands, which can be threaded while you wait, if you want to go for the traditional Midsummer look. There are musical events [...]

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The Baltic Times reports on the court hearing which dealt with the British citizen who was arrested for urinating close to the Freedom Monument while his friends took photographs. He was not present in court, having been allowed to leave the country, and was fined €64 for a charge of ‘petty hooliganism’. Unsuprisingly, he was [...]

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A new tram service will launch in Riga on 24th June, transporting tourists in an Art Nouveau inspired ‘retro sightseeing streetcar’ between the Central Market and Anatomical Theatre (Kronvalda Boulevard 9). According to an article in Standby News, the tram journey will take 10 minutes if there is little traffic and will cost 3Ls (about [...]

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Last year Riga’s nightclubs – or more specifically its rapidly proliferating strip clubs – became notorious for scamming tourists out of large sums of money. Unwitting punters, often worse for wear by the end of the evening, would be presented with an outlandishly huge bill for drinks and ’services’ such as a brief chat with [...]

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