City Rating: Riga
Population of Riga: 640’000
Date of visit: December 2015
Attractions & sights: 3/5
Nightlife: 4/5
Safety: 5/5
Infrastructure: 4/5
Low budget factor: 4/5
Total: 👍👍👍/5
The city in a nutshell:
Riga is a charming city with medieval Old Town. The city is not only beautiful but also a great place for dining and nightlife. Although Riga doesn’t provide the fairy tale feeling you will find in Tallinn, it’s cheaper and nightlife is more fun.
Where to stay:
Old Town is the best choice. You can choose between hotels and apartments, but apartments are usually the cheaper option.
The Good:
Old town is very charming with its colorful and cute buildings. The architecture of the city is great and one of the city’s highlights. Some buildings are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Most of the sights are in the city center, but there are a few things to do at the outskirts of the city (visiting the beach or the countryside for example). The most beautiful place of the city is in my opinion the area around the market place. Besides, Skyline Bar in the Radission Blu hotel is a great place to see the city from above.
One of the best things about Riga are the cheap prices. This is one of the cheapest capital cities in Europe and way cheaper than Estonia’s capital Tallinn. We (three people) paid 60€ in total in one of the cities best restaurants for 3 main courses, 3-4 appetizers, mineral water, wine, schnaps and dessert. A drink in a bar costs 3-4€. Apartments are cheap too. We ended up paying 15€ per person/night.
There is a fair amount of restaurants with delicious food in the city. The Baltic cuisine is really good and as mentioned before, you don’t pay a lot for the food. Try a Latvian cheese platter!
Another big asset of Riga is the nightlife. The city is very lively at night. I’ve been there in December, and although the streets were empty, the bars and nightclubs were full of people until the early morning hours. I imagine that the bars and clubs are even more packed in summer.
The Bad & The Ugly:
Hordes of stag parties may ruin your experience in summer, as this is one of the main stag party destinations in Europe (cheap booze and beautiful women…). Of course, Riga is not as touristy as Prague, but still… In addition, some of the bars in Old Town are dubious. Be careful that you’ll not get overcharged or even drugged.
Needless to say that Riga is a Northern city and it can be very cold.
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