CAPITAL RIGA - POPULATION 2.3 MILLION - AREA 64,589 SQ KM -OFFICIAL LANGUAGE LATVIAN
Now that low-cost airlines have landed in Riga, the country is welcoming tourists as never before. New foreigner-friendly signage, roads and cycle paths are appearing and the railways are getting a revamp, the aim being to improve the whole of the Baltic region's tracks by 2013. Visitors are exploring beyond the art nouveau capital too, from taking the medicinal waters at seaside Jurmala (where the painstakingly restored 1930s sanatorium is due to open as a plush spa by 2009) to hitting the ecotrails in bog- and bird-full Kemeri National Park. Don't miss Kuldiga, recent recipient of a European Destinations of Excellence award: this Latvian Venice is touted as one of the continent's best emerging rural tourism spots. |
