Official language: Latvian
Capital: Riga
Currency: Euro
Population as % of total EU: 0.39
Joined EU: 2004

Did you know?

• Gender equality is arguably further ahead in Latvia than in much of the rest of the European Union. It has the highest share of women in managerial positions (53%) and the highest share of women employed in research (52%) in the EU. It also has the highest share of women doctorates in the world (60%).
• It is estimated that 12.5% of Latvia’s population were killed during the Second World War. In Europe, only two countries suffered greater losses (Poland and Lithuania). After the war, as many as 190,000 people were sent to Soviet labour camps (gulags).
• On average, Latvian women are the tallest women in the world (170 centimetres).
• Latvia is home to the widest waterfall in Europe. The Venta Rapid waterfall on the Venta River in Kuldīga in the west of the country is 249 metres wide (though this can go up to 270 metres during spring floods). However, it is also rather short, measuring between 1.8 and 2.2 metres depending on the water level in the river.

Visiting Latvia: pagan celebrations and (nearly) round the clock sunshine

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend and I made some last-minute plans to spend a long weekend in Riga. When doing so, we didn’t give much thought to dates – and, quite fortuitously, ended up spending the summer solstice in the Latvian capital.

Not only did this mean we had about 20 hours of daylight each day, but we also got to witness Latvian midsummer celebrations. In Latvia, the midsummer festival is called Jāņi or Līgo and it saw the capital transformed with flowers, markets and stages hosting traditional Latvian singing. If you’re planning a trip to Latvia and can make it for 23 and 24 June – go for it!

We chose to base ourselves in the heart of the Old Town, whose cobbled streets and historic squares are a joy to wander around. Our choice of accommodation was the extremely quirky Sherlock Art Hotel, a complex of self-catering apartments in an old and lovingly renovated building. As the name suggests, the décor of the hotel all relates back to fictional detective Sherlock Holmes – the motivation for this being a mysterious wooden box containing a letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that was found under the floorboards when the building was being renovated. A secondary Holmes connection is the fact that the street that it looks out onto was an important location in all the Soviet-made Sherlock Holmes films. The rooms are beautiful and, if you really want to dedicate yourself to the theme, there are riddles to solve all over the building (including coded messages in the artwork on the walls).

The Old Town was a great place from which to explore Riga and further afield – some of our top recommendations from the trip are listed below.

A touch of luxury
Part of the motivation for the trip was my recent birthday and, as a result, we decided to add a bit of luxury to our holiday. Combining my love of spas with the fact Latvia has a long tradition of saunas (with birch playing a key role), we spent a long afternoon at the super posh Kempinski The Spa. Opting for the ‘Complete Latvian Experience’, we had a swimming pool to ourselves, a private 90-degree sauna and cold plunge pool and a full body massage. Definitely not as traditional as other alternatives, but pretty wonderful nevertheless.

Bastejkalna and Kronvalda parks
The Riga Canal runs to the north east of the Old Town and is surrounded by a series of green spaces that are lovely to walk around, especially during the late night sunlight. You can walk through Bastejkalna park and take in the views from Bastion Hill, and then continue along the canal straight into Kronvalda park. Both parks are filled with sculptures and gardens that are fun to stumble upon and, if you’re lucky, you might spot some beavers frolicking in the water (we saw two).

Art Nouveau
Riga practically overflows with beautiful buildings, from traditional wooden houses to the elaborate architecture of the Old Town. But the jewels in its crown (in my opinion, anyway) are the Art Nouveau edifices that make up about a third of all buildings in the city. Particularly beautiful are those on Alberta iela and Elizabetes iela, many of which were designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, the father of film director Sergei Eisenstein.

Riga from above
For a bird’s eye view of the city, head to the Latvian Academy of the Sciences. One of the first high-rise buildings in Latvia, it has a panoramic viewing deck on its seventeenth floor. When we visited, we had it almost to ourselves.

The Academy is just over the road from the bright yellow Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady Church (Rīgas Dievmātes Pasludināšanas baznīca). We arrived just as the church’s bells were ringing, and it was one of the strangest, most discordant tunes I’ve ever heard. If you’re passing – please let me know if you hear it too!

A day at the beach
Latvia has over 300 miles of sandy coastline, much of it easily accessible from Riga. We opted to enjoy a sunny day on the beach in Jurmala, which also has lots of wooden, Art Nouveau seaside villas to gawp at.

To get to Jurmala, we took a train from Riga to Majori (about 30 minutes and € 3 for a return ticket). The main road in Majori (Jomas iela) is also nice to stroll along, with lots of small shops, restaurants and bars.

Chocolate, anyone?
The Laima Chocolate Museum is in a nice, arty neighbourhood about half an hour from the city centre (on foot). Laima is Latvia’s largest chocolate producer, and the small museum summarises the company’s history as well as that of chocolate itself. You get lots of freebies (a cup of thick, liquid chocolate and a customised chocolate bar, amongst others) and parts of it made us collapse in peals of laughter (intentional, I think). Worth a trip if you have an hour to spare.

Food and drink
Riga is peppered with inviting little cafes and bakeries, and it’s nice to wander around and pop into places as you go. Nevertheless, below are a few of the places I’d recommend maybe making just a slight detour for.

• Late night munchies: a great option if you’ve lost track of time and need somewhere good to eat after 10pm. A small burger and pizza bar in the Old Town, it has bags of character and the food (including the vegetarian options) is tasty.
• Kanepes cultural centre (Kaņepes kultūras centrs, KKC): a fun, alternative bar in a historic wooden house that used to be a music school. Hosts many events and has a wonderful garden where you can enjoy cold beers in the sun.
• Pelmeni XL: a fast food Russian dumpling joint where you pay by the weight. Need I say more?
• Central Market: a sprawling food market spread across five former zeppelin hangars (and outside space between them) just outside the Old Town. Go to buy obscene quantities of strawberries at rock bottom prices.

And, as ever, just wandering without direction often yields some very fine sights. Here are three of my favourites: