Gettin' to Riga

Hi, i gotta get to Riga for work reasons, but as i have little work to do, and it will take just a couple of days, i decided to stay a couple of days more and visit the city.
Sure, can check the infos on wikipedia, but i'd like feedbacks from people who've been there so:
what's interesting to see in Riga? Don't say girls please, a blind man could see that, but i don't fly 2 thousand miles for a girl, even though once i'm there...

would you suggest spending a day in another ciity? I'll have just 3 days for fun

Thank you

Oh, and one more thing...I've read on this forum that some clubs are not so honest up there - just like anywhere in the world.
Well, i won't go to strip clubs, swinger clubs etc, as i never pay for sex and i'm just not interested in it.
What i'd like to know is if such things happen even in discos and pubs...
If so, can someone please write a list of the clubs which he thinks are not "trustable"?
May you even write down a list of the "unsafe" districts of the city?

Thank you very much.

In regular clubs you won't experience that for sure Still we would recommend you to hide a fact you are foreigner, so if you call for a drink, just say something simple or show with your finger in the menu like you can't say it because there is too loud. Anyway if you go to such places, you are always under risk, not just because you are foreigner...


As deeper you go from the center, as less safe there is. Like in any other city probably.

The districts full of gypsies are Kengarags (specially it's closest to the city part, so called "Maskavas" street, or "Maskachka") and Plavnieki. Plavnieki probably is currently one of the most dangerous districts. You will find a lot of drugs and criminals there I would say, the dark district is also everything which is placed on the "left coast" of Daugava river. When you arrive to Riga by air, you are actually on the "left coast", when you cross the bridge, and if you are in the Old Riga or Central Station, you are on the "right coast". I would not recommend to stay for a long time on the right coast.

The Old Riga, however, is stitched with video cameras and the police, so it's quite safe place to walk. I think districts near Central Station, Reval Hotel are also visited by foreigners at most, because they are quite safe.

If you have one day free, I would recommend to visit Kuldiga... it's a small town located about 3 hours by bus from Riga, in the very deep country. It has a unique atmosphere which you will see nowhere in Latvia anymore. A lot of historical movies are filmed here. It's like you are getting into the 19th century - old houses, fresh air, museums and the widest waterfalls in Europe. It's very impressive and it's worth visiting if you come to relax your body by the safe method

In Riga... well, I would say you don't need to have a plan, just walk the town in any direction, and visit what you discover on the way There is nothing special...

And you have a lot of chances to meet the girl offline, because you are looking like a nice guy Good luck!

Plomb:
first of all, thanks for your reply!


Thanks even if, written by a guy... :P

By the way:


I didn't understand what you mean...First you say left coast is the worst, but then you son't recommend to stay long on the right one...did you mean left on the last sentence?

Thanks for your suggestions, i'll make good use of it

Ciao!

Plomb definitely has a typo, and for sure you don't need to stay on the "left coast" I.e. when you arrived by plane, just get out of the airport as quickly as possible to cross the river and get to the "right coast"... Good luck in traveling!

Yeah, i had got it. By the way, you latvian people should advertise something different than the girls...
Sure, you've got some pretty ones, and some even more, but the city here is wonderful!
I went just for a walk and i saw all those beautiful buildings, with the sun setting and the wind moving the snow flakes, and i thought myself that if you would sell this to tourists you'd be all rich!
I even thought of moving here, it's so nice, but the salaries are too low.

Well, thanks again for the advice. Ciao!

i was in riga jurmala kemeru and in some other places,its so sorry that this country have so short summer...anyway i like it....

dario
I hope you solved the riddle with left and right coasts I actually asked my friends, which exactly coast is left and which is right, and opinions differ. But ok, if you arrived back, it seems you did everything correctly

You've got luck to catch sun and snow at the same moment, it's a very rare happening here. With every year we have even less sun shining in Summer and even less snow in winter... all is related to bad ecology.

The salaries... well, they just correspond to the overall living level. In Europe, you will find no place where you could go by tram or by bus for a half-euro. Not saying about regular food prices, like milk, bread etc. Prices are raising up for the past two years, but still, they are lower than in Europe. I guess they will be lower all the time

Plan to visit Riga?
Make sure you bring
RIGA SEX GUIDE

latvian girls are the best

papaki
What is "RIGA SEX GUIDE"? Could we get a copy?

On my first visit to Riga; I spent almost a full day walking around in old town... Amazing buildings! And a lovely panorama picture taken from the church tower (but the elevator up there felt a bit sloooooooooow)

Another thing (if someone is interested) is the car museum in Riga... I can tell that some of those cars in there is so rare, that a private collector would pick up the BIG wallet... A bit sad that the museum is a bit 'crowded' - it's a bit hard to take good pictures of the cars/motorcycles... Anyway - WELL worth a visit!

Even Jurmala beachside is excellent - I was there for two weeks ago, took almost 200 pictures on that LOVELY winters day. I can only imagine how it will be during summertime - wich I HAVE TO discover this summer...

Riga zoo could also be an alternative activity, lots of fun/interesting/awquard/lovely animals... The 'new' giraffe-house was sweet - and the possibility to take pictures on them in 10 cm distance is awesome...

Well, that was some tips...

hi all,

I am interested to know whether any low-cost airlines of the typoe of ryanair and easyjet have direct flights from western europe to Riga. To date, apart from AirBaltic which is the national carrier in Latvia I did not succeed in finding a no-frills airline serving Baltics. Please for info and advice?

Unfortunately Airbaltic and Ryanair are top flight providers now, because they've got huge discounts on taxes from Riga airport. If you are flying to/from Netherlands, your choice also could be KLM. Other companies are quite expensive, and lot of them left the market in the past year, with no plan to return, because taxes are really high.