Day Trips & Excursions in Riga

Exciting tours in Riga

The pearl of the Baltic States, Riga, never stops fascinating tourists with its permanent charisma and rich architectural collection. The first thing that catches the eye during a highlight tour of the Latvian capital is the original Jugendstil buildings. It amounts a third of the houses in the city centre.

Old Riga still attracts tourists with the Riga Cathedral, the adjacent square, and the lively central market. Architectural masterpieces of the past centuries easily get along here with manifestations of modern urban culture, including twenty-four-hour ATMs and cyber cafes.

English-speaking guides will definitely offer you to visit the Riga Jugendstil Museum. The collection of artefacts of the early 20th century is just fascinating. It is interesting that the museum is situated in the house of the architect-innovator K. Pēkšēns - the author of more than 200 original projects of multi-storey buildings in Riga.

Your tour program will be incomplete if you do not include other architectural landmarks of the Latvian capital:

• the open-air heritage museum - hundreds of traditional wooden buildings brought from all over the country and installed on the bank of Jugla Lake;
• the Latvian Museum of Architecture, the building itself is a witness to the Middle Ages (during the tour of the yard of the museum in English, the guide will pay your attention to the most important exhibit - the wrought coat of arms of Riga of the 16th century);
• the opera house, restoration of which costed $30 million, and the carpets and wall decor are an exact copy of the original of the year 1863;
• the Freedom Monument, which has been rising since 1935 in the centre of the Park Alley of Brīvības iela as the main symbol of independence of the country;
• Riga Castle - a monument of the 14th century serving as the residence of the Latvian President and home to several museums;
• the Powder Tower - a well-preserved fortification of the 13th century where the War Museum is situated.

Few people know that Riga has been famous for its cozy coffee houses for a long time. Excurzilla advises guests of the city to look in one of them. Skilled Latvian baristas will be happy to treat you to a portion of freshly brewed latte.