"Riga-a well kept secret" a Riga Region Travel Page by Dabs

When I made my travel plans to visit Riga and Vilnius, reactions from friends and family ranged from "where the heck is that?" to "why would you want to go there?"

Riga, located near the Baltic Sea, is the capital city of Latvia, a former Soviet Republic that didn't remind me at all of the Soviet Union or Soviet attitudes. With the exception of a building that reminded me of one of Stalin's seven sisters and some of the housing developments away from the center of the city, the architecture seems free of Soviet influence.

One of the main reasons I wanted to visit Riga was to see some of the Art Nouveau architecture, there are some truly stunning examples located mainly outside Old Riga. The most impressive example is the Stockholm School of Economics located at Strelnieku iela 4a. It is quite hard not to look like a tourist and quite easy to develop neck strain as you are constantly looking up to see the fabulous detail on the buildings.

Old Riga is also a delight, cobbled stone streets wind past churches, more interesting architecture and town hall square. My must see tips are mostly from Old Riga, presented in the order you will encounter them.

Separating Old Riga from New Riga is the old defensive moat known as the city canal and a ring of well maintained parks.

With the exception of our hotel, I found Riga to be extremely affordable. Local bus travel was incredibly cheap and you could easily have heaps of food for $5-$10.

Tourism hasn't hit high gear here, although we did see some tour buses, most attractions and sights were delightfully (for us anyway) free of tourists. We were there a little bit before tourist season started, the weather was on the cool side but very pleasant traveling weather.