I’ve been to Riga three times, and I’ve stayed long enough that I’ve experienced the city as more than just a tourist passing through. My first visit was as a backpacker traveling through the Baltics, and the other two were completely different — I was working as a flight attendant and based in Riga for about a month each time. So if you’re trying to figure out where to stay in Riga, I’m not basing this on a weekend visit or just looking at a map. I’ve spent more than two months in the city altogether, stayed in different parts of the Riga area, used the buses, walked around constantly,…

I’ve been to Riga three times. Not three weekend trips — more than two months total, including two separate stints where I was based there for about a month at a time, working as a flight attendant. So when someone asks how many days in Riga they actually need, I’m not guessing based on one quick visit. I’ve had Riga as a backpacker passing through, and I’ve had it as somewhere I actually lived for a while. That makes a difference here. How many days in Riga you need depends on what kind of trip you’re planning. If you just want to explore Riga itself, you don’t need a huge…

I’ve been to Riga three times, and none of them were a quick weekend trip. The first time was during my first solo backpacking trip around Europe, when I traveled through 13 countries in three months. I’d met a group of Portuguese people in Slovakia doing Erasmus in Poland, ran into them again in Poland, and ended up traveling with them through Poland and all three Baltic countries by bus. We came into Riga from Lithuania and I stayed at Cinnamon Sally Backpackers Hostel. The other two times were different. I was working as a flight attendant, based in Riga for about a month each time. That’s not visiting a…

I’ve visited Riga three times, and I’ve spent more than two months there altogether. My first visit was during my first solo backpacking trip around Europe, when I traveled through 13 countries in three months. I later returned twice while working as a flight attendant, when I was based in Riga for about a month each time. That means I’ve experienced Riga in a few very different ways — as a solo backpacker passing through and as someone who had weeks to actually live there and get to know the city. In this guide, I’ll share my personal experience of is Riga safe for solo female travelers, including how I…

I’ve been to Riga three times, and I’ve spent more than two months there. My first visit was during my first solo backpacking trip around Europe, when I traveled through 13 countries in three months. I later returned to Riga twice while working as a flight attendant, when my company based me there for about a month each time. I’ve experienced Riga both as a backpacker passing through and while spending weeks there for work, and I’ve visited in both winter and summer. In this guide, I’ll be answering the simple question: is Riga worth visiting? I’ll share my personal experience, what I liked and didn’t like, and some practical…