Riga for Less: A Budget Playbook for the Grandest Baltic Capital

Riga wears its wealth on the outside. The city's fortunes were made in timber, flax and shipping, and much of that money went straight into facades: gilded, tiled, crowned with sphinxes and screaming stone masks. Almost all of it is free to look at, which is why Latvia's capital is still one of the best-value city breaks in the eurozone.

Key facts

• Currency: the euro, at prices noticeably below Western European capitals.
• Airport: Riga International sits roughly 10km from the centre, linked to town by a regular city bus at the ordinary fare.
• On foot: the Old Town, the Art Nouveau district and the Central Market are all within about 25 minutes' walk of each other.
• Cheapest season: November to March for room rates; May to September for daylight that runs past 10pm.

Spend nothing on the best of it

The Old Town is an open-air museum with no ticket desk. Start at Town Hall Square for the stepped gable of the House of the Blackheads, then track down the Three Brothers, the city's oldest surviving houses, leaning into one another like a family photograph. The Swedish Gate, the Powder Tower and the Cat House, with its arch-backed cats on the roofline, are all a few minutes apart.

Ten minutes north, Alberta iela and Elizabetes iela hold one of Europe's densest concentrations of Art Nouveau. The most theatrical of the buildings, several designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, are best appreciated from the pavement with your neck cricked back. There is a museum in the quarter if you want interiors, but the street itself is the exhibition.

Eat where Riga eats

The Central Market fills five cavernous pavilions built from repurposed German airship hangars, and this is where a budget stretches furthest: dark rye bread, curd snacks, smoked fish, sauerkraut, forest berries in late summer. Bakeries across the city sell piragi, small bacon-filled buns, for pocket change. Away from the main squares, look for the weekday set lunch chalked up outside canteen-style places, usually soup plus a main.

Transport, tickets and a day at the sea

Trams, trolleybuses and buses cover whatever the walk does not, and tickets bought ahead from kiosks are typically cheaper than paying onboard. For a proper day out, take the train from Riga Central Station to Jurmala, around half an hour away: roughly 30km of white sand, pine forest and wooden summer villas, reached for the price of a coffee.

Where the money should go

Museums here are modestly priced, and two justify the outlay: the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia and the Latvian National Museum of Art. The tower lift at St Peter's Church buys the best view in the city. Beyond that, a measure of Riga Black Balsam and a local craft beer will not trouble the budget.

Tip: Skip the restaurants ringing Town Hall Square and Dome Square. Walk five minutes in almost any direction, towards Miera iela or across the canal, and the same meal usually costs noticeably less.