Riga
Art Nouveau façades by the street, a market in five zeppelin hangars, and a medieval core on the Daugava, nine kilometres from the runway.
- Arrival
- Riga International Airport · RIX
- To the city
- About 9 km west of the centre
- Private jets
- Business Aviation Center at RIX, open 24 hours
- Best time
- June to August
The city
Gables, hangars and Jugendstil.
In Riga, the Old Town on the Daugava keeps its cathedral, begun in 1211, and the rebuilt House of the Black Heads above a fourteenth-century cellar. Beyond the canal and the parks, the new town of the early 1900s holds one of the densest runs of Art Nouveau façades anywhere, with Alberta iela, designed almost entirely by Mikhail Eisenstein, as its showpiece.
The city's three MICHELIN Key hotels are small and particular: the former American Embassy, a seventeenth-century house under the cathedral dome, and a nineteenth-century building facing Bastejkalns park. JOHN Chef's Hall cooks for twenty at the first; Max Cekot Kitchen serves fifteen courses in a red-brick warehouse across the river.
Arriving
Nine kilometres west of the river.
Nine kilometres west of the centre, Riga International has a 3,200-metre runway and its own customs.
- Vienna 1 h 45
- Amsterdam 2 h 05
- Amman 4 h 10
- Beijing 8 h 45 long-range jet
- Miami 11 h 10 long-range jet
When to go
June to August.
From June to August afternoons reach twenty or twenty-one degrees and the long evenings bring the city outdoors. July and August carry the most rain, and from December to February the highs hover around freezing.
- -2° J 36
- -2° F 27
- 3° M 32
- 10° A 41
- 17° M 48
- 20° J 58
- 21° J 77
- 21° A 76
- 16° S 73
- 11° O 61
- 4° N 61
- 0° D 49
What to see and do
Days in and around Riga.
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Landmark
Alberta iela
A street of Art Nouveau façades built between 1901 and 1908, almost all of them by Mikhail Eisenstein.
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Landmark
Central Market
Opened in 1930 in five former zeppelin hangars, one of the largest markets in Europe.
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Landmark
Riga Cathedral
Founded in 1211, with an organ that was once the largest in the world.
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Opera & music
Latvian National Opera and Ballet
Opened in 1863 as the city theatre, the house mounts about five new opera and ballet productions each year, closing with the Riga Opera Festival.
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Culture
Latvian National Museum of Art
Wilhelm Neumann designed the building of 1905 by the Esplanade park, restored and extended underground between 2013 and 2016.
Official site -
Culture
Ethnographic Open Air Museum of Latvia
On the shore of Lake Jugla, 118 rural buildings stand across 87 hectares, and a traditional crafts fair has been held each year since 1971.
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Nature
Great Ķemeri Bog Boardwalk
In Ķemeri National Park, two boardwalk loops of 1.5 and 3.7 km cross the raised bog, the longer one reaching a viewing tower.
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Culture
Turaida Museum Reserve
Above the Gauja valley, the brick castle begun around 1214 stands beside a church of 1750 and the Dainu Hill sculpture garden.
Where to stay
By the Opera, in the Old Town, under the dome.
Shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these hotels.
- Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga A hundred and forty-one rooms and suites near the Old Town, a spa, and the Stage22 restaurant on the roof.
- Grand Palace Hotel Fifty-six rooms in a bank building of 1877, with breakfast in the Orangerie Hall.
- Dome Hotel & Spa Fifteen rooms in a seventeenth-century house, with a Finnish sauna, one Key and a roof terrace facing the cathedral.
- Grand Poet Hotel and SPA by Semarah A nineteenth-century building with 168 rooms, one Key, a full spa and works by young Latvian artists.
- A22 Hotel Twenty rooms in the former American Embassy of the 1930s, one MICHELIN Key and the starred JOHN Chef's Hall.
Where to dine
Two starred kitchens, and the tables around them.
From the MICHELIN Guide 2026, shown for information. We have no arrangement with any of these restaurants.
- JOHN Chef's Hall One Michelin star Modern €€€€ A22 Hotel
- Max Cekot Kitchen One Michelin star Creative €€€€ Across the Daugava
- Le Dome MICHELIN Guide French €€€ Dome Hotel & Spa
- Seasons MICHELIN Guide Traditional €€€ Grand Palace Hotel
- Stage22 MICHELIN Guide Asian €€€ Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga
- 3 Chefs MICHELIN Guide Modern €€€ Riga
- Entresol MICHELIN Guide Modern €€€ Riga
- Chef's Corner Restaurant MICHELIN Guide Modern €€€ Riga
Flying to Riga?
Choose how you arrive.
A Business or First Class seat on a scheduled airline, or an aircraft of your own. Tell us the date and how many are travelling, and we reply with one final price, our margin included.