Riga
Riga's passenger terminal sits on the right bank just upstream of the Vanšu bridge, which puts the House of the Blackheads about ten minutes away on foot. You do not need a coach transfer to see this city, and any excursion that sells you one is charging you for a walk.
What you do need is a decision about depth. Riga holds the densest concentration of Art Nouveau architecture in the world, and it is twenty minutes on foot from the medieval core, so a good half day gets you both. A full day gets you out of the city entirely: Rundāle to the south, or the castles of the Gauja valley to the northeast.
Excursions from this port.
- Old Riga and the Art Nouveau district on foot
- From the gangway into the Hanseatic core: the House of the Blackheads, the Three Brothers, the Dome Cathedral. Then twenty minutes north to Alberta iela and Mikhail Eisenstein's facades, with an architect leading if we can get one.
Duration: 3 to 4 hours · From $88 (≈ €75) per person at two travellers, walking, no vehicle needed - Rundāle Palace, Rastrelli's Latvian Versailles
- An hour south to the baroque palace built in the 1740s by the Italian who designed the Winter Palace. Timed entry held, the three private state rooms where we can, and lunch in the gardens.
Duration: 6 to 7 hours · From $193 (≈ €165) per person at two travellers, including entry - Sigulda, Turaida and the Gauja valley
- Northeast into the national park: Turaida's red brick castle above the river, the sandstone caves on the valley floor, and the medieval ruin at Cēsis if the call is long enough.
Duration: 6 hours · From $176 (≈ €150) per person at two travellers, including entries - Jūrmala and the Central Market
- The gentle option: the five zeppelin hangars of the Central Market for an hour, then twenty-five minutes west to the belle-époque beach suburb, its wooden villas and its pine-backed white sand.
Duration: 4 to 5 hours · From $129 (≈ €110) per person at two travellers
What you get.
- A guide holding a name board at the terminal exit
- Private vehicle for your party only, or walking where a car adds nothing
- All entrance fees named in your itinerary, booked in advance
- Your ship's actual arrival time monitored, not the scheduled one
- A written back-on-board plan with a 90-minute buffer
- Bottled water, and a wheelchair-accessible vehicle on request
You get back to the ship.
Booking independently means your ship is not obliged to wait for you, and no operator can honestly promise otherwise. What we can do is build every itinerary backwards from your all-aboard time with a 90-minute buffer, track your ship's actual arrival rather than the schedule, and drop a stop rather than run late. That is the whole discipline, and it is why these pages lead on timings instead of photographs.
- Can we walk into town ourselves and meet you there?
- Yes, and for the Old Town walk many people do. We will meet you at any landmark you name. We still recommend the pier for the longer excursions, because it is the only place we can be certain of finding you if the berth changes.
- Is Rundāle possible on an eight-hour call?
- Yes, comfortably, but it uses most of the day: an hour each way plus two hours at the palace. If your call is under seven hours we would steer you to Sigulda or keep you in the city instead.
- What if our berth is moved to the cargo side?
- It happens on busy days, and it puts you about 3 km further out. We check the berth assignment the evening before and again on the morning, and we come to wherever you actually are at no extra cost.
- Do you run these for larger groups off the ship?
- Yes. Two to seven in a V-Class, up to nineteen in a minibus, and coaches with notice. Per-person pricing falls a long way with numbers, so it is worth asking around the ship.
- Is the Old Town walk suitable with limited mobility?
- Partly. The Old Town is cobbled and uneven, but the route is flat and we can shorten it and bring the car closer. Tell us in advance and we will send the version of the walk that works, rather than improvising on the day.