Kuldīga Good value
Small-town Latvian: the cafés on Liepājas iela, a bakery, the tavern by the bridge. Sklandrausis, the carrot-and-rye pie, is the Kurzeme thing.
Budget travel in Latvia
What a visitor's money does in Latvia: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Good value average across 6 guides · 5 is very cheap
Money
Euro (EUR) · 1 EUR = 1.15 USD · 1 EUR = 0.86 GBP
Euro, and cards everywhere; the Central Market takes them too. If you have cash to change, the banks and the booths on Vaļņu iela are honest and the rate is posted.
ATMs
Avoid: Euronet, the machines in the old town tourist streets
Use: Swedbank, SEB, Citadele
Cards work everywhere including the Central Market. A little cash for the market stalls and the toilets at the bus station.
Getting around
A short ride in Riga: €5–8 across town — middling
From the airport: From the airport to the centre €12–18, or bus 22 for €2
Cheaper than the taxis at the old-town ranks, some of which have a reputation; the app fixes the price.
City by city, cheapest first
Liepāja Good value
Fish, from the harbour; the cafés and restaurants around Rožu laukums; and the rock clubs’ kitchens. Cheap and honest.
Sigulda Good value
Simple: the cafés by the station and the castle, a tavern or two in the valley, and the Turaida museum café. Bring lunch for the walks.
Cēsis Good value
The Cēsis brewery’s beer, and the restaurants that have moved in behind the old town — better than a town this size deserves. Rye bread, smoked fish, and the market on Saturday.
Riga Mid-range
Grey peas with bacon, rye bread, smoked fish and the Central Market for all of it; a restaurant scene that has arrived in the Miera iela and Kalnciema quarters; Riga Black Balsam, the herbal spirit, in a hot drink. A dinner is €20–30.
Jūrmala Mid-range
Fish, smoked and grilled, on Jomas iela and at the beach cafés; the spa hotels do the rest. The Ķemeri end has the resort of Soviet memory and a good tavern.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
The guides in Latvia
RigaLatviaThe biggest Art Nouveau city in the world with a Hanseatic old town inside it, a market in five zeppelin hangars, and a beach twenty minutes away by train
JūrmalaLatviaThirty kilometres of white sand under pines, wooden villas from the tsars’ time, and Riga half an hour away by train
SiguldaLatviaThe Gauja valley: three castles, a cable car across the river, a bobsleigh track you can ride, caves with medieval graffiti and the country’s autumn colour
KuldīgaLatviaA small town of wooden houses on the widest waterfall in Europe, where the fish jump the falls in spring and the brick bridge is the longest of its kind
CēsisLatviaThe prettiest small town in Latvia: a Livonian castle you explore by lantern, a medieval centre, a beer brewed since 1590 and the Gauja forest around it
LiepājaLatviaThe city where the wind is born: a long white beach, a Soviet naval base you can sleep in the prison of, Art Nouveau streets and the country’s rock music