Latvia! Riga!

I am thinking about visiting Latvia when I travel to Europe. Any comments, ideas or suggetions? I don't know anything about Latvia or Riga, the capital, but all of a sundden I got interested in it.

Riga is one of the best city's I have ever been to. Just a fantastic city with nice people !! Take a look at my pictures from last year (2006) holiday at http://groups.msn.com/theroadtopeking2008/rigaletland.msnw

If you travel through Europe I can suggest you travel Helsinki, Finland --> Tallinn, Estonia --> Riga, Latvia --> Vilnius, Lithuania --> Warsaw, Poland (or start in Warsaw and go north).

From Helsinki to Tallinn there are nice ferry's. From Tallinn to Riga there is a bus. From Riga to Vilnius there is a train but there are more busses. From Vilnius to Warsaw there is a very nice train.

have heard very good thi ngs about the backpackers there, i cant remember the name but its a stupid one and very distinctive! you can find it on the accom setion of this website

Yeah, Riga is great. Some nice buildings, the occupation museum is good and the night life is very fun. I arrived on a monday night and there was still lots going on and people everywhere.

The only downside was i found it a bit more expensive than Lithuania or Estonia, but it's still relatively cheap. And again, the food and drink is better in Lithuania, but make sure you try Riga Balsam while you're there. It tastes awful by itself, but the bars there mix up some great drinks with it.

I'm in Riga right now and it is definately worth a visit.
I'm staying and Friendly Fun Franks Hostel which has a real party atmosphere. BEWARE, if you are here on the weekends it seems to fill up with large groups of guys on a weekend away - but if you want to party, then it adds to the fun.
Riga itself is a great city to walk around and well beyond the Old Town it is still interesting if you enjoying walking and following your nose.

yeah franks is the one that i was talking about! ive heard often that there are loads of guy groups going there just to piss it up for the weekend lol... is that such a bad thing? :P