Latvia travel tips

Is Latvia safe?

6 guides, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.

4.9 average across 6 guides · Safe
Riga, LatviaJūrmala, LatviaSigulda, LatviaKuldīga, LatviaCēsis, LatviaLiepāja, Latvia

Jūrmala Very safe

Very comfortable and family-oriented. The sea is shallow; the rip is rare. Pickpockets on Jomas iela in July are the whole of the risk.

Comfortable: the beach · Jomas iela · the villa streets

  • Jomas iela in July — pickpockets in the crowd

Sigulda Very safe

Very comfortable. The valley paths have drops and are muddy after rain; the bobsleigh is what it says. Ticks in the grass from spring to autumn.

Comfortable: the town · the valley paths

  • the valley paths after rain — mud and drops
  • the grass in summer — ticks

Kuldīga Very safe

Very comfortable and quiet. The rocks by the falls are slippery; the river is swum below them by those who know it. Nothing else.

Comfortable: the old town · the river banks

  • the rocks by the falls — slippery

Cēsis Very safe

Very comfortable and quiet. The castle stairs by lantern are steep and dark, which is the point; ticks in the forest. That is all.

Comfortable: the old town · the castle park

  • the castle stairs by lantern — steep and dark

Liepāja Very safe

Very comfortable. Karosta at night is empty rather than unsafe; the Northern Forts are unstable concrete and the sea takes a piece every year; the beach has rips in a west wind. That is the list.

Comfortable: the centre · the beach

  • the Northern Forts — unstable concrete over the sea
  • the beach in a west wind — rips

Riga Safe

Very comfortable, and the old town is walked late. The old town bars that exist for stag parties overcharge and occasionally worse — choose the bar, and never the one whose promoter found you. Pickpockets in the market crowds. Ice on the pavements in winter.

Comfortable: the old town · the Art Nouveau quarter · Miera iela · Āgenskalns across the river

  • the old town bars with promoters — overcharging and worse; choose your own bar
  • the Central Market crowds — pickpockets
  • the pavements in winter — ice

The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.

The guides in Latvia

The Freedom Monument and the Art Nouveau streets of Riga from aboveRigaLatviaThe 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 trainThe flat Baltic shore at Jūrmala, sea, reeds and a line of forestJūrmalaLatviaThirty kilometres of white sand under pines, wooden villas from the tsars’ time, and Riga half an hour away by trainTuraida castle’s red-brick tower among the forest of the Gauja valleySiguldaLatviaThe 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 colourThe old brick bridge across the Venta at KuldīgaKuldīgaLatviaA 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 kindThe tower of Cēsis castle with its orange roof above the forestCēsisLatviaThe 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 itConcrete of the Northern Forts at Karosta, Liepāja, with a wind turbine behindLiepājaLatviaThe 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