Photo: Artis Veigurs / Latvia TravelBears, bogs and birds
Latvia is the wildest of the three Baltic countries: 53% forest, with bears in the eastern hills, wolves in the western wildlands, and one of the great funnels of the European autumn at Cape Kolka.
- Private
- Semi-private
- Self-guided
The route.
- 1ĶemeriRaised bog and the first briefingBy car
- 2SlītereKošrags, the hide, the Livonian coast
- 3PapeRinging station and the migration funnel
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.
Settling in on the bog boardwalk
Ķemeri is the gentlest possible introduction to the Latvian outdoors and the best briefing room we know. Edgars uses the loop to teach you how to read the ground: which pools are ancient and which are three years old, why the pines stay knee-high, where the elk cross. By the time you finish the circuit you are looking at the landscape instead of through it.
- Ķemeri bog boardwalk
- Dinner in Ķemeri
- First briefing with Edgars
Photo: © Melnais Stārķis
Melnais Stārķis
A nine-room guesthouse inside Ķemeri National Park, 200 metres from the beach.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
The Livonian coast
Pītagi is a family guesthouse in Košrags, one of the Livonian villages, with a sauna and the open sea a short walk away. The afternoon paddle is unhurried: two-person canoes, a slow tributary, and a run of dams that have been maintained and rebuilt by the same beaver families for decades. Sit still and they surface. Otters often beat them to it.
- The drive north
- Settling in at Pītagi
- Beaver dam paddle on a forest river
Dawn in the hide and the Livonian coast
The walk in takes twenty-five minutes in the dark and you do it in silence, single file, with red torchlight. The hide seats four with a long horizontal slot facing a clearing that the forestry service keeps open. Boar come most mornings. Foxes are frequent. Wolves are the prize and the honest odds are one or two sightings in ten dawns. Afterwards you sleep, then spend the afternoon among the Livonians, a Finnic people whose last native speaker died in 2013 and whose coast is now a string of very quiet villages.
- 4am hide session
- Late breakfast in the forest
- Afternoon on the Livonian coast
Photo: © Pītagi
Pītagi
A guesthouse and holiday houses in the Livonian village of Košrags, inside the national park, 800 metres from the open sea.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
South to the migration funnel
Pape sits on a narrow isthmus between a shallow lake and the sea, which is exactly why the birds use it: they follow the coast south and the isthmus concentrates them. The ringing station has been operating here since 1966 and if the nets are up you can watch the ringers work. Your guesthouse is simple and a short walk away, shared kitchen, wood stove, and the lake close outside the window.
- The drive south
- A simple guesthouse near the ringing station
- Evening bird tower at Pape
Photo: © Pūķarags
Pūķarags
Five themed guest rooms with a shared kitchen in Pape village, behind the dune and close to the nature park.
Held, not booked, until your deposit clears. If it is gone by then we substitute an equal or better hotel and tell you first.
Migration watch and the return
Pre-sunrise migration watch from the seaward tower. September brings hundreds of thousands of birds an hour over Pape, with cranes, geese and eagles among them. Late breakfast, the drive back to Riga (220 km), and evening departures.
- Pre-sunrise migration watch
- Late breakfast at the guesthouse
- The drive back to Riga
Your trip, your way.
Every day above can be taken three ways, at three prices. The detailed pricing further down is for the private version; we confirm small-group and self-guided prices in your quote.
Private
Just you, with your own guide and driver.
Small group
Semi-private: a few like-minded travellers on the same route.
Self-guided
The same route, at your own pace.
Request your quote.
Tell us your dates and party size. We'll reply within one working day, with a private, fully-costed version of Bears, bogs and birds 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 $503 pp deposit holds your dates
- Protected under the EU Package Travel Directive
Priced by party size.
- Per person
- $2,843(≈ €2,430)
- Total for 2
- $5,686(≈ €4,860)
- Deposit to book
- $1,006(≈ €860)
- Balance, 45 days out
- $4,680(≈ €4,000)
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.
- 4 nights (Ķemeri 1, Košrags in Slītere 2, Pape 1)
- A Latvian wildlife biologist for the whole week (Edgars)
- Two morning sessions in the wildlife hide
- Ķemeri raised bog boardwalk at sunrise
- Beaver dam paddle on a quiet forest river
- Bird migration watch at Cape Kolka (September only, included; a coastal walk substitutes in other months)
- Field-kitchen breakfasts; two dinners in the field
- All transfers from Riga; binoculars and field guides on loan
- International travel to Riga (RIX)
- Most lunches and one dinner
- Travel insurance (mandatory; must cover remote locations)
- Tips for your guide (suggested €10 per day per traveller)
- Optional bear hide overnight in eastern Latvia (€280 supplement, on request)
Latvia, in your pocket.
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