Riga from the UK: A Latvian Guide’s Briefing for British Travellers

There is a longer and more interesting story behind British travel to Latvia than most British travellers realise — it does not begin with cheap flights and stag weekends. It begins, properly, in the spring of 1919, with a Royal Navy squadron in the Baltic and a Latvian prime minister sheltering on a steamship under British protection while his country fought for its life. That is genuinely how Latvia got to be a country, and the British did the protecting. I think it is worth knowing before you visit.

I’m Daiga, a licensed Latvian tour guide based in Riga. This is the briefing I’d give a friend from London, Manchester, Leeds, or Edinburgh who’s thinking about a trip to Latvia in 2026 — the historical bit, the “is it still a stag-do town?” bit, what to expect on price, the flight routes that actually work, the small airport quirks I wish someone had told me about, and the everyday etiquette I find British visitors most often ask about.

Short answer, before the long version

Riga is a two-and-a-half hour direct flight from London Gatwick on airBaltic, around £90–200 return for most of the year. It’s significantly cheaper to be in than London — food, drink, taxis, hotels — while delivering a properly distinct city break: medieval Old Town, the largest collection of Art Nouveau architecture in Europe, beautiful forests within an hour of the centre, and a beer culture that surprises almost everyone who finds it. It earned a stag-do reputation in the late 2000s and that reputation has lingered longer than the actual stag traffic. Today the city is mostly families, cultural travellers, and weekend escapers from the rest of Europe.

If you’ve never been, plan three or four nights, do at least one day trip out of the city, drink a beer that doesn’t exist in the UK, and bring a slightly warmer jacket than you think you need.

The forgotten Royal Navy chapter, 1918–1920

I want to start with this because most British visitors I take around have never heard it, and I think it changes how you see the country.

When the First World War ended in November 1918, the Russian Empire had collapsed, the German Empire was collapsing, and a small handful of Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — declared independence into the chaos. The catch: declaring independence does not actually deliver it. Latvia immediately found itself fighting on multiple fronts at once: against Bolshevik forces pushing in from the east, against German Freikorps units who had not gone home and did not intend to, and against a peculiar German-Russian formation called the Bermondt-Avalov army that wanted to put a puppet government in Riga. The new Latvian government had a few thousand soldiers, no navy, no air force, and almost no diplomatic recognition.

What it did have, by some unlikely combination of geopolitics and individual British stubbornness, was a Royal Navy squadron in the Baltic.

The British operation went under the codename Operation Red Trek. From January 1919 it was commanded by Rear-Admiral Walter Cowan, a small, intense, terrier-tempered career officer who at one point commanded around fifty vessels — light cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers — from his flagship in the Gulf of Finland. The fleet’s job was to keep the Bolshevik Baltic Fleet bottled up in Kronstadt, to deny German naval forces use of the Baltic ports, and to support the new Estonian and Latvian governments however practical force allowed.

In April 1919, Riga briefly fell to a German-led coup against the Latvian government. The Latvian Prime Minister, Kārlis Ulmanis, escaped to the port of Liepāja and went aboard the steamship Saratov. For weeks the Latvian government, in any meaningful sense, existed only on the deck of that ship, anchored under the guns of British and French warships that made it abundantly clear no German force could touch them. It is hard to overstate how thin the thread was. If the Royal Navy had not been there in those weeks, there might never have been a continuing Latvian state to speak of.

Through the summer and autumn of 1919, Cowan’s ships and a small French flotilla provided artillery support for Latvian forces fighting around Riga. They covered the recapture of the Daugavgrīva fortress at the mouth of the Daugava river — if you stand on the Riga waterfront and look downstream, that is where the fight was. They helped turn the flank of the Bermondt forces during the decisive battles of October and November 1919. By the time Cowan sailed for home on 28 December 1919, Latvia was a country with secure ports, a recognised government, and a Bolshevik Russia which had agreed (through gritted teeth) to leave it alone for the next twenty years.

Today, 11 November is Lāčplēsis Day in Latvia — the national day of remembrance for the soldiers who fought for independence. It happens to be the same date the British and the Commonwealth keep Remembrance Day, and that is not a coincidence either: 11 November 1919 is the date Latvian forces (with Royal Navy fire support) finally drove Bermondt-Avalov out of Riga. If you are in Riga on or near 11 November you’ll see candles in windows along the Daugava embankment, sailors in the parade, and — if you go to the Brothers’ Cemetery — a quiet acknowledgment of the foreign sailors who died here too.

The British war graves in Riga are at the Brothers’ Cemetery (Brāļu kapi) on the north side of the city. There is also a memorial to the Royal Navy losses of 1919 in the British Cemetery in Old Town. They are quiet, well-kept, and almost completely unknown to the British visitors who walk past them every weekend.

If only one piece of background goes with you to Latvia, let it be that one.

The stag-do era, and what Riga is now

Let’s deal honestly with the other thing every British traveller has heard about Riga.

For about a decade after Latvia joined the EU in 2004, Riga was one of the great stag-do destinations of Europe. The combination of cheap flights from Stansted, very cheap beer, very cheap accommodation, a beautiful Old Town that was extremely walkable, and a regulatory regime that was relaxed about late-night drinking made it irresistible to certain kinds of British weekend group. There was a period, roughly 2008–2014, when you could not walk through the Old Town on a Saturday night without encountering at least one matching-T-shirts party, usually loud, usually drinking, usually English.

That era has substantially passed. The reasons are mundane: Riga isn’t the cheapest city in Europe anymore (Kraków and Budapest both undercut it now), the Latvian authorities tightened up enforcement of public-drinking and disturbance rules, and the stag market itself moved on. By 2026, the city centre is mostly families, couples, cultural travellers, and weekend escapers from Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Helsinki.

That said: weekend stag and hen groups still come. They’re a noticeable but small minority of the Old Town crowd, mostly concentrated in two or three pub streets near the river. They’re reasonably well-behaved compared to a decade ago. If you’re not one of them, you’ll see a handful of matching shirts on a Friday night and that’s about it. If you are one of them — welcome, please be quiet on the trams, don’t jaywalk, tip your bartenders.

The bigger point: a city’s reputation lags its reality by a decade or more. If your mental image of Riga is set in 2010, it is out of date. The Riga of 2026 is closer in feel to Bruges than to Magaluf.

Why Riga is still affordable for British travellers

Compared with London, Riga in 2026 is genuinely inexpensive. Specific numbers help:

• A pint of local beer in a normal Old Town bar: €4–5 (about £3.50–£4.30). In a craft-beer place, €6–7. In London, you’re lucky to find anything under £6.
• A proper sit-down lunch with a starter, a main, and a coffee: €15–20 per person. The same lunch in central London runs you £25–35 minimum.
• A nice mid-range hotel in the Old Town in shoulder season: €90–130 a night. The London equivalent in zone 1 is £200+.
• Public transport: a single bus or tram ticket is €1.50. A 24-hour pass is €5. The Riga Card (24 hours, includes most museums) is €25.
• Airport taxi to the Old Town: €15–20 with a metered taxi, or use Bolt (the local Uber-equivalent). The bus is €2 and takes 25 minutes.
• Restaurant tipping: 10% is customary but never automatically added (more on this below). At London percentages, you’ll feel rich.

The way I’d frame it for a Londoner: a long weekend in Riga, with flights, hotel, food, drink, and one day trip out of the city, runs you between £400 and £700 per person depending on the season and how comfortable you want the hotel. Try doing the same long weekend in Edinburgh and see what it costs.

Flying here from the UK in 2026

Direct from London (the easiest option)

airBaltic flies London Gatwick to Riga direct, eleven flights per week as of April 2026, with departures spread between morning and late afternoon. The flight time is around 2 hours 40 minutes. They’re currently the only carrier doing the route non-stop — British Airways doesn’t fly Riga, despite a lot of British travellers searching for it. Don’t waste your time looking; just book airBaltic.

I’m partial to airBaltic for reasons beyond convenience. The fleet is genuinely well-maintained, the cabin staff are calm and competent, and the aircraft — mostly Airbus A220-300s — have a quiet, modern cabin with proper legroom in standard economy. The whole airline has style, in a way that surprises people who’ve only flown Ryanair to the Baltics.

Via Sweden or Denmark (the comfortable option)

If you’re not in London, or you fancy breaking the journey, SAS connections via Stockholm Arlanda or Copenhagen are excellent. Total journey time including transit is roughly six hours — longer than direct, but the airports at both ARN and CPH are pleasant places to spend an hour, the SAS cabin product is comfortable, and you arrive less tired than you would after some “direct” budget options. SAS connects from Manchester, Edinburgh, and Glasgow as well as Heathrow.

Ryanair, with caveats

Ryanair flies from London Stansted to Riga. The fares are sometimes excellent. Two specific things to know:

• If you’re tall, pay for the fire-exit row. On the Boeing 737-800s Ryanair runs to Riga, that’s typically row 16 or 17. The legroom difference is the difference between a tolerable flight and a miserable one. It’s usually £15–25 extra and worth every penny if you’re over six feet.
• The baggage rules are merciless. Ryanair will weigh your cabin bag at the gate and they will charge you £60 if it’s a centimetre or a kilo over. Pack to their published dimensions, weigh your bag at home, and don’t take chances. I’ve had guests pay more in baggage fees on the day than they paid for the flight itself.

Riga Airport (RIX): two practical insider tips

Riga Airport is small, well-organised, and easy to navigate. Two specific things will save you time and stress.

On the way in: pick the left-most security lane

Riga Airport has rolled out modern ClearScan / CT scanners on its security lines, but unevenly across the lanes. As of early 2026, the left-most lane in the main security hall is the one with the new CT scanner. If you go through that lane, you do not need to take liquids or electronics out of your bag. The other lanes still use older X-ray machines and the old liquids-out, laptops-out routine applies. This can save you genuinely 10–15 minutes if there’s a queue. Look up at the lane signage when you walk in — the new CT lanes are signposted but not loudly.

On the way out: budget extra time at immigration

This is the one that catches British travellers out, and I’ve had guests literally miss flights over it.

For your return flight to the UK, you’ll be flying out of Schengen-external gates in C wing (because the UK is no longer in Schengen, post-Brexit). To get to the C wing gates, you have to clear Latvian / Schengen exit immigration — passport stamping, often a queue, increasingly biometric checks under the EU’s new Entry/Exit System. In peak summer (June–August) and around Christmas, that immigration queue can run 45–60 minutes. The signage is not always great. Several British guests of mine have come close to missing flights because they aimed for the standard 90-minutes-before-departure arrival and got stuck.

My rule of thumb for British flights out of Riga in summer: arrive at the airport two hours before departure, minimum. In quieter months you can relax to 90 minutes. The C-wing duty free is decent, so even if you arrive early, you’ll find places to spend the time.

Tipping in Latvia: lower-key than you’re used to

The American way of treating tipping as a percentage owed has not, mercifully, made it to Latvia. Here’s the local pattern:

• Restaurants do not add a service charge. Look at the bill. There won’t be a 12.5% line item.
• The customary tip is 10% for good service. Less for ordinary service, nothing if the service was bad. There’s no expectation if the meal was a quick coffee or a takeaway sandwich.
• Latvian wait staff don’t hover for the tip. They are generally proud people and they will not stand at your table waiting. The tip is something you leave on the table when you go, or add to the card payment with a quick instruction. They will not chase you down the street if you forget.
• Bar staff: rounding up is normal (€4.30 beer → you say “keep five”). Cash tips are appreciated.
• Taxis: rounding up is fine. Bolt rides have an in-app tip option which is fine if you want to use it.
• Hotel cleaners and porters: €1–2 per bag for porters; €1–2 a day for housekeeping if your stay is longer.

If you tip British amounts (which are still less than American amounts), you’ll be a memorable customer in a good way. If you tip American amounts, you may slightly bewilder the staff, but they’ll take it.

The beer, which is genuinely excellent

This is the section I most want British visitors to read carefully, because the Latvian beer scene is not what people expect, and most British visitors leave without trying any of the actually good beer.

Latvia sits on top of one of Europe’s cleanest aquifers. The water that goes into Latvian beer is genuinely soft, mineral-balanced, and extraordinary. Combined with locally-grown barley from the Zemgale plain, regional hops, and a brewing tradition that goes back to the medieval Hanseatic trade, you have what beer people sometimes call “liquid gold” ingredients — the basics are right.

The mass-market lagers (Aldaris, Cēsu Alus) are fine and ubiquitous. The interesting beers are the ones from the small regional breweries, and most of them never leave Latvia. A few names to look for on a menu:

• Bauskas Alus — my own favourite. A small brewery from the town of Bauska, about an hour south of Riga. Founded in 1981, it has won Latvia’s “Product of the Year” award seven times since 2006. Open-tank fermentation, no artificial preservatives, 42–45 day brewing cycle. Their Gaišais (light) and Tumšais (dark) are both wonderful, and their Speciālais is one of the best Baltic-style lagers I’ve had. Worth knowing: they don’t export. The only place to drink Bauskas is in Latvia. If you go on our Rundāle Palace, Bauska Castle & Brewery day, the brewery itself can be visited.
• Valmiermuižas Alus — from a small estate brewery in Valmiermuiža, north-east of Riga. Their unfiltered light beer is excellent, and their seasonals (a winter porter, a midsummer ale) are properly memorable.
• Lābilles Saimnieks — a tiny “farm brewery” in Kūrzeme, classic Latvian style.
• Malduguns — modern craft, Riga-based, the Latvian answer to BrewDog without the politics.

If you want a beer-focused half-evening, the Ala Pagrabs on Kārļa Ulmaņa (named, yes, after the prime minister who lived on the Saratov) carries a strong rotation of Latvian craft. The unmarked door is part of the charm.

Practical odds and ends for British travellers in 2026

Visas and the Schengen 90/180 rule

Post-Brexit, British passport holders can visit Latvia (and the rest of the Schengen area) for up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period, visa-free. That covers virtually any holiday. What it doesn’t cover: working, studying, or living long-term — for those you need a residence permit. The 90/180 rule is enforced; if you’ve been to other Schengen countries recently, those days count too.

From late 2026, the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) will take a fingerprint and photo on your first post-rollout entry, then track you electronically on subsequent trips. If you’re visiting before then, the standard passport stamp is what you’ll get.

Your passport must have at least three months of validity remaining beyond your departure date, and it must be less than ten years old on the date you enter. Both rules are a Brexit consequence. Check your passport before you book.

Currency, cards, and cash

Latvia is on the euro. Card acceptance is excellent — almost universal in Riga, and Apple Pay/Google Pay work everywhere. UK debit cards from Wise, Revolut, Monzo, and Starling work without fees. Old-school British high-street cards work but charge a typical 1–3% on conversion. ATMs are common in the centre but check your card’s overseas withdrawal fee before you rely on cash.

Carrying €30–50 in cash is sensible for small transactions (some markets, taxi tips, the occasional small bar), but you can run a long weekend on cards alone without difficulty.

Language and getting around

The official language is Latvian. Most people in Riga also speak English, especially in the tourism, restaurant, and retail trade. Russian is widely spoken too. A few Latvian words go a very long way:

• Sveiki (svay-kee) — hello (formal)
• Paldies (pul-dee-ehs) — thank you
• Lūdzu (loo-dzoo) — please / you’re welcome
• Atvaino (at-vai-no) — sorry / excuse me
• Priekā (pree-eh-kah) — cheers

Saying any of these earns you visible warmth in a way that’s genuinely a British weak spot. Try them.

When to come

For most British travellers, late May through early September is the ideal window — long days (it doesn’t really get dark in June), warm but not hot weather, every excursion at full quality, the parks and forests at their best. Late September is my own favourite: the colours in the Gauja valley are extraordinary, the city is quieter, and the Baltic coast is dramatic in the post-summer light.

Riga in December is beautiful (the world’s first decorated Christmas tree was put up in Riga in 1510) but properly cold — bring a real winter coat, gloves, and warm boots. January and February are stark and stunning if you’re a snow person, and brutal if you’re not.

Day trips out of the city

Riga is a wonderful long weekend, but Latvia is most herself outside the city. If you have four nights or more, do at least one day trip. The three I run are:

• Rundāle Palace, Bauska Castle & Brewery — the 18th-century baroque palace by Bartolomeo Rastrelli (the same architect who built the Winter Palace in St Petersburg), the medieval Bauska Castle, and the Bauskas Alus brewery for lunch. Ten hours, €85.
• Sigulda, Cēsis & the Gauja Valley — three medieval castles, a cable car over the Gauja river, and the medieval town of Cēsis explored by candle-lantern. Ten hours, €85.
• Ḳemeri Bog & Jūrmala — sunrise walk across a 10,000-year-old raised bog, then Jūrmala’s wooden Art Nouveau seaside villas. Six hours, €45 (May–August only).

If you want to plan a longer trip and are debating Latvia against the other Baltic capitals, my honest comparison of Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius may help.

Frequently asked questions from British travellers

How long is the flight from London to Riga?

Around 2 hours 40 minutes direct from London Gatwick on airBaltic, the only carrier currently flying the route non-stop. From Stansted, Ryanair takes about the same time. From other UK cities, the realistic option is a one-stop via Stockholm or Copenhagen on SAS — total time about six hours including transit, but more comfortable than the direct budget options.

Do I need a visa to visit Latvia from the UK?

No, not for short trips. British passport holders can visit Latvia and the rest of the Schengen area visa-free for up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period. Your passport must have at least three months of validity remaining beyond your departure date and must be less than ten years old on the date of entry. The EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES) will start taking biometric data in late 2026.

Is Riga still a stag-do destination?

Less than its reputation suggests. The peak stag-do years were roughly 2008–2014; since then the Latvian authorities tightened public-drinking enforcement, prices crept up, and the market moved to Kraków and Budapest. Weekend stag groups still come to the Old Town, mostly for cheap local beer, but they’re a small minority of the visitor mix in 2026. Most weekend visitors today are couples, families, and cultural travellers from across northern Europe.

How expensive is Riga compared to London?

About half. A pint of local beer is €4–5 versus £6+ in London. A proper sit-down lunch is €15–20 versus £25–35. A nice mid-range Old Town hotel is €90–130 a night versus £200+ in central London. A long weekend with flights, hotel, food, drink, and one day trip out of the city realistically runs £400–700 per person.

Why should I arrive at Riga Airport early for my UK return flight?

Flights to the UK leave from Schengen-external gates in C wing, which means clearing exit immigration after security. In peak summer the immigration queue can be 45–60 minutes long. I tell my UK guests to arrive two hours before departure in summer, 90 minutes in quieter months. Several British travellers have come close to missing flights by arriving on the standard schedule.

What was the British connection to Latvian independence?

The Royal Navy’s Baltic campaign of 1918–1920, codenamed Operation Red Trek and commanded from January 1919 by Rear-Admiral Walter Cowan, was decisive. In April 1919 the Latvian government took shelter on the steamship Saratov under British naval protection. Through the rest of 1919, Cowan’s squadron provided artillery support that helped Latvian forces recapture the Daugavgrīva fortress and drive the German Bermondt-Avalov forces out of Riga on 11 November 1919 — the date now marked annually as Lāčplēsis Day. There would not have been an independent Latvia, in the form there was, without the Royal Navy in those months.

Do they speak English in Riga?

Yes, widely. The official language is Latvian, but most people in Riga — especially anyone working in tourism, restaurants, hotels, or retail — speak good English. Russian is also widely spoken, though using it conversationally with strangers is sometimes politically loaded; English is the safer default. Learning Sveiki (hello), Paldies (thank you), and Priekā (cheers) earns you visible warmth.

Should I tip in Latvian restaurants?

Yes, but it’s not added automatically. The customary tip is 10% for good service, less or nothing for ordinary or bad service. Latvian wait staff don’t hover for tips; they’re generally reserved and proud. Round up at bars and taxis. The American tipping percentages are not expected here.

Which Latvian beer should I try first?

Skip the mass-market lagers and go straight to a regional brewery. My own favourite is Bauskas Alus, a small brewery from the town of Bauska that doesn’t export outside Latvia — their Gaišais (light) and Speciālais are excellent. Other names worth ordering: Valmiermuižas Alus, Lābilles Saimnieks, and the modern craft brewery Malduguns in Riga. The Latvian water and barley produce a beer style that genuinely doesn’t exist anywhere else.

What’s the best time of year for British travellers to visit Latvia?

Late May through early September for most travellers — warm weather, long days, every excursion at full quality. Late September is exceptional for autumn colour in the Gauja valley. December is beautiful and cold (the world’s first decorated Christmas tree was raised in Riga in 1510). January and February are stark and stunning if you’re a winter person and brutal if you’re not.

If you’re planning a trip and want a guided day out of the city, or just want a question answered, you can message me directly. I read every enquiry myself.