Latvia: What to Know Before You Visit Latvia

If you are heading to Latvia there are a few things you should know before you head to this forested land. The captial Riga is chock full of great architecture and some neat churches. The occupation museum is probably the most important museum to visit in the capital. Getting around the country is easist by bus. The Euro is the currency of Latvia. And you have forests in the interior and some nice beaches on the coasts to enjoy.
Filmed on the border of Latvia and Lithuania
Copyright Mark Wolters 2019

#latvia #riga #latvija

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[dacekundrate]

Few tips from local. The best way to explore Latvia is by car. Buses and trains can take you only to bigger cities. If you want to see something outside cities, like our beautiful nature parks (Ķemeri Moorland footbridge or Cena Moorland foothpath (which I highly recomend)), you need a car. Also you can't get to Rundale Palace, which is considered Latvian Versailles, by public transportation. And there are many more such places. Latvia has a lot of beautiful places to offer. Unfortunately people visit mainly Riga. About safety - I would dissagree. Riga is safe. I and my friends love to explore weird places, so we have walked in different areas of Riga, which could be considered dangerous, and never had a single problem. Noone really cares about you. Even drunk people. I have walked alone from Oldtown at night and never had a problem. So I am happy to live in a safe city.

[alp]

I am from Palm beach, Florida and my girlfriend is Latvian. I spend lots of time in Latvia. Latvia is all about nature, peace and serenity.Riga is Busy city but country is different. And Latvian songs and music just increadably beautiful to listen.

[lkrnpk]

As a Rigan I would disagree that Tallinn or Vilnius are better than Riga, the only problem with Riga is that it has made less effort in advertising itself and thought about how to attract tourists, also problems with infrastructure due to incompetent city management. Otherwise Riga has a lot more of great historical architecture than both of those cities. Sadly that also means that it costs a lot of money to renovate all those buildings and because of that a number of them are in bad shape.
Admittedly though, if we compare only the old towns yes, Riga probably loses out as our one is not as big or authentic as in Tallinn or Vilnius, but the early 20th century part, the center area is unrivaled in the Baltics.

[yuk]

In terms of taxi, DO NOT GET INTO TAXI’s at the Airport, they will charge you up to 70euro for a 15 min trip to the centre. It is cheaper to use Yandex Taxi, or Bolt. These are apps equivalent to Uber/Lyft. A trip to the city centre wouldn’t cost any more than 15euro. I suggest downloading these apps as they will save you lots of money. Their prices are very cheap, you can see the exact price you will pay when you book the taxi. Bolt only accepts card prepayments but Yandex Taxi also uses cash.

[Amy-jjnn]

I don't know why am i watching this, when i live in Latvia

[RolandBizjets]

I’m aways excited when seeing that you have uploaded a new video!

[nealluther]

I loved Riga when I had the opportunity to visit it while on a Baltic cruise. It was a beautiful city with good food and beer.

[murderouskitten]

if you come to Latvia - rent a car - 25-30 euros a day is well worth the mobility freedom you get . Trains are nonexistant, bussies also not the best option, and country is small enough to be travaled by car in 4 - 6 days . This is especially true if you travel in packs of 3 or more .

[ligaozolina]

Woow, I can't believe you actually came to Latvia. A year ago, I thought it would be nice if you came to Latvia.

[elmars]

"It's fairly cheap"
- that is if you don't actually work in Latvia... i can see how it can be "cheap" for tourists, though.

[LexUniverse]

Cool tips, thanks :) Latvia is one of the next countries on my bucket list :)

[atoswald]

Thank you, Mark! We never visit a new place without checking out Wolter's World, and Riga is on our list.

[offthebeatenpathadventures]

The apartment rentals sound like the way to go in Latvia. They are such a fun people. For the last six years, we've had students from Latvia stay at our house as they sold books door to door to save up for college. They were so nice. They'd leave presents for Fathers' Day and for my wife and Is' anniversary. I can't wait to see Latvia, and get to know the culture better.

[sigucs]

If you come to Latvia, please try to explore more than Riga. Cities like Cesis, Talsi, Kuldiga. They are wonderful, especially in summer. Personally Riga makes me frustrated after first 3 hours when I'm in there, so if you're like nature and calm places, just go outside of Riga and enjoy :))

[PlanetaryCitizen]

Great advice! I'm booked to go there in May

[RolandBizjets]

Yes. Many taxi drivers are greedy bastards there.
What I would recommend is getting an uber-like taxi. There are currently two companies operating in Latvia. Bolt and Yandex.Taxi. Both very affordable. All you need is to get an app.

[iheartmovieswithryangossling]

I live in Latvia and you are right Latvia is great place

[khryzettelegzdins]

I am Filipina and my husband is Latvian. It is not easy for me to get a Latvia visa here in the Philippines because we don't have Latvian Embassy here. I need to go Japan first so I can apply Latvia visa. But if Japan visa will fail, I don't know where to apply. So sad 😔

[davidopoulos]

Only two things are infinite.
The universe and the time I spend watching WW

[kevin]

My great and greatgreatgranparents left Riga so it might be interesting. You mentioned the homestay tradition there. I wonder if Airbnb is replacing it, or just keeping the same thing going but with a different name.