Currency in Latvia and available payment methods

What is the currency in Latvia? Can we pay in $ or in Eu?

The official currency is Lat! You need to exchange Euros or Dollars in advance in Exchange Kiosks.

What about the exchange kiosk fraud. Is it quite save to exchange your money anywhere? But I guess I also can use my dutch ATM card and get Lat out of the ATM machines...

best to use your atm card in shops or pick some money from the machine directly at the airport. but mostly you have to pay some extra fee for picking money from the cash machine.
around 5 euros per pick. so it depends on how long you stay in latvia and how much you will drink or eat. but you can spend easily 100 - 150 LatVian Lats (LVL) on a weekend

And restaurants, do they accept Maestro? (as in NOT a credit card?) Or don't they even have the machine for the transaction. Cause in that case you have to carry a lot of money on you all the time.

usually rigas restaurants and shops are good installed with electronic cash devices.
u can see it on the door windows when they have the stickers saying which card u can use.
otherwise u should ask before buying they are all friendly
but i think u don't need much money. some clubs and pubs only accept cash.
you should be fine with some lats in your pocket and using mainly your plastic card.

I suppose this already is a rare case. It all depends on yourself basically. Almost each kiosk will have a warning "calculate your cash immediately on your own" else they are just not responsible. It's like anywhere in the world.

Exchange kiosks are good comparing to banks or ATM because they have the most profitable exchange rate. Also in opposite to Russia for example, you don't need to fill in the official money exchange paper providing your passport data etc. It's a pure cash deal.

Additionally, if you use your plastic card, as already mentioned above, you will pay the high fee for withdrawing cash. In shops, there are regular small fees defined by your bank.

Do not never use plastic card in clubs Here is something about the real fraud.

i need an answer if anybody would like to offer assistance..do the ATMs machine language in only latvian and russian languages or it is also in english...

All our ATMs support Latvian, Russian and English (so far I didn't met any not supporting one of these languages).