A weekend in Riga and Jūrmala
Riga is the architectural capital of the Baltics, and its beach suburb Jūrmala has been the region's summer retreat since 1814.
The route.
Day by day.
Daylight is shown for a departure on 3 May, calculated for each day's own location. Ask us and we will run the figures for your dates.
Hanseatic Riga
Arrive, check into an Art Nouveau boutique hotel on Raiņa bulvāris. Afternoon walk through the medieval core: the House of the Blackheads, the Three Brothers, and the Dome Cathedral with a short organ recital. Welcome dinner at an Old Town wine bar.
Read the full day
Riga's Old Town is compact, fifteen minutes to cross, but the layers run deep. The House of the Blackheads was rebuilt from rubble in 1999 on the original fourteenth-century footprint, and the result is startling. The Dome Cathedral holds the fourth largest organ in Europe; if the timing works we sit in on a weekday recital before dinner.
- House of the Blackheads (rebuilt 1999)
- The Three Brothers, Riga's oldest dwellings
- Dome Cathedral with a short organ recital
- Welcome dinner at an Old Town wine bar
Pine forest and wooden villas
Suburban train from Riga Central to Majori, the heart of Jūrmala. Walk the length of Jomas iela, the pedestrian spine. Long lunch at a beach restaurant in a converted 1890s sanatorium. Free afternoon on the wide white sand. Evening train back to Riga.
Read the full day
Jūrmala is a 30 km chain of villages along the Gulf of Riga, the imperial summer capital since 1814. The wooden villas are an architectural tradition of their own: carved verandas, painted shutters, a vocabulary of turned porch posts. The sand is fine and white, the water is warm in August, and the pines come right down to the dunes. Bring a book.
- Belle-époque suburban railway (first class)
- Jomas iela and the wooden villas on foot
- Long lunch at a beachfront sanatorium restaurant
- Afternoon on the white sand
Grand Poet by Semarah
Second night in the same hotel, same room, no repacking.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
Alberta iela and Mežaparks
Morning with an architect on Alberta iela: the Eisenstein masks, the screaming gargoyles, the Egyptian heads. Coffee at the Art Nouveau Museum on Strēlnieku iela. Afternoon in Mežaparks, the 1903 garden suburb. Departures from late afternoon, or stay on with a free evening.
Read the full day
Inga has been on Alberta iela in every weather and every light. She shows you the buildings the guidebooks skip: Eižens Laube's national romantic facades on Brīvības iela, the vertical Art Nouveau on Tērbatas, and Mežaparks, the forest park, where Latvian bourgeois summer dachas became year-round houses. The garden suburb is a quieter relative of Hampstead Garden Suburb in London, with a far shorter history.
- Alberta iela with an architect as your guide
- Art Nouveau Museum (Strēlnieku iela)
- National romantic facades on Brīvības
- Mežaparks garden suburb
Request your quote.
Tell us your dates and party size. We'll reply within one working day, with a private, fully-costed version of A weekend in Riga and Jūrmala to follow within two.
within two working days
Prices shown in USD for reference. You're billed in EUR.
- Private trip: just your party, your pace
- Flexible dates, year-round departures
- No payment taken to enquire
- A $339 pp deposit holds your dates
- Protected under the EU Package Travel Directive
Priced by party size.
- Per person
- $1,989(≈ €1,700)
- Total for 2
- $3,978(≈ €3,400)
- Deposit to book
- $679(≈ €580)
- Balance, 30 days out
- $3,299(≈ €2,820)
Calculated from the same per-person rates as the table below. Final pricing is confirmed with your quote and moves with your dates, room choices and any day you change. Billed in EUR.
Per-person rates by party size
Prices shown in USD for reference. You're billed in EUR.
What's included.
- 2 nights in an Art Nouveau boutique hotel (twin or double)
- Art Nouveau walking tour led by a practising architect
- Return travel to Jūrmala on the suburban railway (first class)
- A Latvian tasting menu with an introduction from the chef
- Daily breakfast
- Door-to-door airport transfers (RIX)
- Detailed pre-departure pack
- International flights to Riga
- Most lunches and one dinner (we send a curated shortlist)
- Travel insurance (mandatory; we can recommend providers)
- Tips for your guide (suggested €8 to €10 per day per traveller)
- Personal spending and beach club entry
