Rundāle Palace, Bauska Castle & Ķemeri Bog Boardwalk

The full day is approximately 10 hours, departing Riga in the morning and returning by early evening. You'll spend around 2–3 hours at Rundāle Palace and gardens, plus time at Bauska Castle, a local restaurant, and a gentle boardwalk visit to the Great Ķemeri Bog (sequenced at the start or end of the day depending on weather and traffic).

Rundāle Palace is about 70 km south of Riga, roughly 75 minutes by car. You can drive, take a bus via Bauska (around €4 each way with a connection), take a taxi (€80–100 each way), or join a guided excursion like this one, which handles all transport and bundles in Bauska Castle and a Ķemeri Bog boardwalk visit. The three stops together are not reachable in a single day on public transport.

Late May to mid-June for the rose garden in full bloom (2,300 roses, 600 varieties). September for fewer visitors. Weekday mornings are quietest.

Yes. Rundāle is a fully restored, 138-room baroque palace designed by the architect of St Petersburg’s Winter Palace, set in 10 hectares of French formal gardens. On a weekday morning you can stand in the Gold Hall with very few other visitors.

Yes. The boardwalk loop at Ķemeri is flat and pram-friendly. Let Daiga know the ages when you book and she’ll plan accordingly. Child price €70.

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the excursion for a full refund. Cancellations within 24 hours are non-refundable.

Our default guide languages are English and Latvian. We can also offer the tour in Russian, German, or French on request, just let us know which language you’d prefer when you book and we’ll do our best to arrange the right guide. There’s no extra charge for non-English languages, but on-request languages are subject to guide availability and we’ll confirm by message before your tour.

Booking platforms like GetYourGuide and Viator charge commission, typically 20–30%. When you book directly with Daiga, there’s no middleman, so you pay less for exactly the same tour with the same guide. €94 direct vs €139 on platforms.

Technically yes, in practice it’s a very long day and I don’t run it as a combined tour. Rundāle is about 85 km south of Riga, and the Hill of Crosses is another 100 km further south across the Lithuanian border, near Šiauliai. Combining both means roughly 12 hours door-to-door including the drives. I recommend doing them on separate days: Rundāle from Riga on one day, and the Hill of Crosses from Vilnius or Kaunas if you’re continuing into Lithuania. If you want both in one day, I can arrange it as a private hire on request.

Yes. Take a bus from Riga International Bus Station to Bauska (roughly 1.5 hours, €5–7, several departures daily). From Bauska, a local bus goes to Pilsrundāle (the village next to the palace) but runs only a few times a day; check the return schedule before you go. Total journey is about 2.5 hours each way. The palace entrance fee is €12–15 depending on which rooms you visit. By public transport you would not be able to combine Rundāle with Bauska Castle and the Ķemeri Bog boardwalk in a single day. For independent travellers on a tight budget the palace alone is a workable day.

A very different palace in winter. The rose gardens are dormant and the formal parterres are covered in snow. The interior is fully heated and far quieter than in summer, especially January to March. The Ķemeri Bog boardwalk in winter has the pools half-frozen and frost on the dwarf pines. We run this excursion year-round.

Partly. The ground-floor state rooms at Rundāle Palace are accessible and wheelchair-friendly, and that’s where most of the visual highlights are, including the White Hall. The formal gardens are on flat gravel paths which work for most mobility aids in dry weather. The second-floor rooms require stairs and there’s no lift. The Ķemeri Bog boardwalk is flat wooden boards and works for most mobility aids in dry weather. Bauska Castle involves cobblestones, uneven stone steps, and a tower climb, so it’s the hardest stop on our itinerary for reduced mobility — we can skip it and extend the palace or bog visit instead if you’d prefer. Please tell me when you book if anyone in your party has specific needs, and I’ll plan the day around them.

Smart-casual is fine, there’s no dress code. The palace interiors are climate-controlled and cool even in summer, so a light layer is useful. Comfortable walking shoes are more important than smart ones, you’ll be on your feet for several hours across palace floors, gravel garden paths, and Bauska Castle’s uneven cobbles. In summer bring a hat and water for the open garden walk; in shoulder seasons a warm jacket for the castle ramparts (it’s exposed and windy).

Yes, photography for personal use is allowed throughout the palace interiors, no flash and no tripods. The Gold Hall, the White Hall, and the Duke’s private apartments all photograph beautifully even on a phone. The French gardens and the rose garden are unrestricted, no permit needed. Drones are not permitted on the palace grounds. If you want professional gear or a wedding shoot, that needs separate arrangement with the palace administration.

The French rose garden, more than 2,300 varieties, has its main flush from mid-June through July, with a strong second wave in late August and early September. Late June is the peak: the formal beds are at full saturation and the historical-variety section is at its most fragrant. May and early June give you the gardens with the geometry visible but few flowers; October gives you the last roses against the autumn light. The garden is included in your palace ticket and we always allow time for a slow walk through it.

Lunch is a sit-down meal at a local restaurant in Bauska, simple Latvian country cooking — soup, a meat or fish main, dessert. You order from the menu and pay the restaurant directly; lunch is not included in the €94 tour price. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and most allergies can be accommodated if you tell us at least 48 hours before departure. Soft drinks, water, beer and wine are available at the table.

An on-boardwalk-only visit, not a hike. We stay on the wooden boards the whole time and walk a flat loop into the Great Ķemeri Bog, one of the largest and best-preserved raised bogs in the Baltics. From the boards you’ll see sphagnum moss, dwarf pines that may be 200 or 300 years old and still no taller than a Christmas tree, and dozens of small dark bog pools. Your guide points out the carnivorous round-leaved sundew right beside the boards (Charles Darwin’s favourite plant). EU peatland-restoration scientists treat Latvia’s peatlands as a working model of an intact ecosystem. No special equipment, no waiver, no off-boardwalk walking.

The standard excursion is all three because they make a coherent day — palace in the morning when it’s quiet, lunch, castle in the afternoon, and the bog boardwalk slotted in at the start or end depending on weather and traffic. Doing the palace alone is technically possible but the day becomes a five-hour round trip from Riga for two hours of palace, which doesn’t feel like good value. If you’re short on time, a better option is the standard excursion done at a slightly faster pace. If you have specific reasons for wanting palace-only, message us and we’ll see if a private-hire arrangement works.

Depends on the child and the day. Bauska Castle has tower stairs and wide-open river views. Rundāle is slower-paced, the palace rooms are about looking rather than touching, and the rose garden walk asks for patience. The Ķemeri boardwalk loop is flat and pram-friendly. Tell us your children’s ages when you book and Daiga will plan the day with the group in mind. Child price: €70.

Tipping is not expected in Latvia and our guides are paid properly. If you’ve had a brilliant day and want to tip, €5–10 per guest in cash is generous and appreciated. If you’d rather not tip, please don’t feel awkward, an honest review afterwards is worth far more to us.

Per the standard GYG itinerary, the bog is the last stop before the drive back to Riga. Where weather, traffic or palace timings make it sensible to flip the order, your guide will move the bog earlier in the day. The decision is made on the morning.

Three Latvian places that are not reachable in a single day on public transport: Rundāle Palace (baroque), Bauska Castle (medieval), and the Great Ķemeri Bog (a 10,000-year-old raised peatland). Bundling them in one day with the same guide gives you the historical and ecological context across all three, plus the transport logistics handled.