What is it?

Latvia is the green heart of the Baltics — a small country where medieval Hanseatic wealth, Soviet-era concrete, Art Nouveau exuberance and half a million hectares of untouched forest all exist within an hour's drive of each other. Riga, its capital, holds the world's densest collection of Art Nouveau architecture: streets where stone faces, screaming masks, peacocks and sphinxes stare down from facades designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, all a short walk from cobbled lanes and the spice-scented chaos of the Central Market's zeppelin hangars. Beyond the city, Latvia unfolds into pine forests and white-sand Baltic beaches that stretch for kilometres with barely a footprint, wooden manor villages, and the sandstone cliffs and castle ruins of the Gauja River valley. Culturally, this is a nation that sang itself free — the Baltic Way human chain of 1989 and the Song and Dance Celebration, a UNESCO-listed festival where tens of thousands of costumed singers perform as one, remain the emotional bedrock of national identity. Add smoked fish, black rye bread, foraged chanterelles, birch sap and the herbal punch of Riga Black Balsam, and you have a destination that feels genuinely undiscovered by mass tourism.

Where is it?

Latvia sits on the Baltic Sea between Estonia and Lithuania, with Riga — served by direct flights from most European hubs — as the natural base. Don't stop there: Jūrmala's pine-backed beach and wooden villas are 30 minutes by train, the Gauja National Park towns of Sigulda and Cēsis an hour, the baroque splendour of Rundāle Palace 90 minutes south, and the wild, windswept coast of Kurzeme (Ventspils, Kolka Cape, the Livonian villages) a half-day west. June to August brings warm days, near-endless light and the pagan bonfires of Jāņi midsummer; September paints the Gauja valley gold and fills the forests with mushroom foragers; December turns Riga into a Christmas-market fairy tale.

What makes it worth it?

Latvia rewards travellers who like their Europe uncrowded, affordable and a little bit mysterious. Visitors consistently say the same thing: "I came for two days in Riga and wished I'd stayed a week." There's the disorienting joy of standing in a forest at 11pm in June with the sky still glowing, the goosebumps of hearing 15,000 voices rise together at a song festival, the quiet pride of Latvians explaining how their grandparents held hands across three countries to face down an empire. It's a place where you can eat a world-class tasting menu for the price of a London starter, then walk empty Baltic sand at sunset the next evening. Years later you'll remember the smell of pine and smoke, the strange beautiful faces carved above Alberta iela, and the feeling of having found a corner of Europe that still belongs to the people who live there.

How accessible is it?

Very accessible and very affordable. Latvia is an EU and Schengen member, so most Western travellers enter visa-free (up to 90 days; the ETIAS authorisation applies from 2026 for visa-exempt nationalities). Riga International Airport is a 20-minute bus ride from the Old Town, and getting around is easy: intercity buses and trains are cheap and reliable, English is widely spoken in Riga by younger Latvians, and car hire runs roughly €30–50 per day if you want the coast and countryside. Budget travellers manage on €50–70 a day, mid-range comfort sits around €100–150 with good hotels from €60–100 and excellent restaurant meals for €20–35. Nothing here demands fitness beyond gentle walking, though bobsleigh runs, bungee jumping over the Gauja and forest hiking are there if you want them; the only real planning tips are booking ahead for the Song and Dance Celebration (held every five years, next in 2028) and packing layers — Baltic weather changes its mind constantly.