Latvia Tours and Travel

Day 1 – Riga, Latvia

• Arrive at your convenience into Riga and meet your expert guide.
• Explore Riga old town, an UNESCO World Heritage site, seeing the House of Blackheads, and the Rifleman monument. Only recently the Monument dedicated to the Soviet liberators was taken down. We’ll head there to see the remains of the huge memorial complex. We’ll continue exploring Riga heading in the direction of Cathedral Square where we’ll see Latvia’s Radio (Latvia Radio Station), which is always a great spot to have a beer.
• For lunch, we’ll go to a popular local restaurant which serves amazing Latvian cuisine with locally brewed beers. Here you can sample the traditional black pudding with sauerkraut accompanied by a porter. There are plenty of vegetarian dishes also.
• Time to explore the historical old town at your own pace and visit the Museum of Occupation, a difficult and dark time in Latvian history.
• Dinner and overnight stay in Riga.

Day 2 – Riga – Skrunda-1 – Leipaja

• Breakfast at hotel, check out of hotel and depart at 8:00am.
• We’ll leave Riga and head towards Skrunda-1, a secret city. During the cold war, many secret cities were built throughout the Soviet Union. Skrunda-1 was built to house over 5000 military personal to operate radar installations which could detect early warnings of Western European military offences. Now abandoned and derelict, the city is perfect for urbex exploration.
• Before leaving Skrunda-1, we’ll show you a secret area within the complex. Here you’ll find a huge perfectly intact Lenin mosaic, the only known one to still exist in Latvia.
• Continue onwards to Liepaja – a charming city on the Baltic coast. We’ll take a break along the drive for lunch.

Afternoon

• Visit Karosta prison. Here you’ll be met by a local guide dressed as KGB officer. The prison was originally built to be an infirmary but ended up playing a much darker role as it was used as a military prison by both the Nazis and Soviets. It is labelled as ‘’one of the most haunted places on earth”: within these walls hundreds of Latvians were detained, sent to solitary confinement, tortured and shot dead.
• After the hard-hitting tour, we’ll head back to Liepaja, and on our arrival we’ll check into our hotel. We’ll have some time to relax and freshen up or simply enjoy a cool beer.
• Once we’re ready we’ll head to a Latvian Western saloon style bar which serves great dishes and cold drinks! For those inclined for a few more refreshments, this is the perfect place.
• Overnight stay in Liepaja.

Day 3 – Leipaja – Irbene – Riga 

• Breakfast at hotel, check out and depart.
• We’ll head to the naval base of Liepaja. Under the Soviet Union, this city became a top-secret area completely closed to outsiders and commercial maritime traffic. This was where the Soviets built their vital Baltic naval base stocked with nuclear weapons. A total of 26,000 Soviet military staff were based here which made up more than a third of the city’s population. We’ll explore the former Soviet bunkers and remains of the submarine compounds.
• We’ll next visit one of the most epic Soviet military sites in the Baltics, RT-32. The former Soviet radio installation was known as Zvezdochka which means “Little Star”. Its purpose was to listen in on Western communication. It is still functioning and we’ll have a private tour of the facility and area including the underground tunnels.
• Before we leave the radio centre, we’ll visit a huge Yuri Gagarin monument. An amazing tribute to the first man in space! A perfect opportunity for an epic group photo!

Afternoon

• We’ll start making our way back to Riga; along the way stopping for lunch.
• Late arrival into Riga. Check into our hotel. Before heading out for the evening, you’ll hear a story about the famous Black Cat of Riga and have some interesting Soviet relics in old town pointed out to you.
• After a busy day, we’ll head to a local restaurant for some delicious Latvian food and a few drinks. We recommend trying the Kartupeļu pankūkas – potatoes pancakes with various side dishes to choose from.
• Overnight stay in Riga.

Day 4 – Riga – Ligatna – Tartu, Estonia

Morning

• Breakfast at hotel, check out and depart at 8:00am.
• We’ll take a road trip to Ligatna. Along the scenic journey, we’ll take breaks to stretch our legs and pick up supplies.
• Ligatne Bunker, built during the Cold War when the Soviet Union maintained constant high alert for a Western nuclear attack. Built under a sanatorium for discretion, it was designed to protect the Communist elite of Latvia in the event of nuclear apocalypse. The bunker was supplied with everything necessary to survive several months after a nuclear fallout.
• We’ll descend deep underground and enter through a blast proof door to privately explore the entire bunker system with a local expert.
• The Soviets left this bunker in a hurry so all of the interior is completely original, from the government phones with a direct line to Moscow to military canteen with peeling propaganda posters on the wall.
• After a few hours in the bunker complex, we’ll ascend to ground level and enjoy lunch at the sanatoriums Soviet style canteen with great food.

Afternoon

• Once we’re ready, we’ll start heading to Tartu. Along the way, we’ll stop at Zeltini, a secret nuclear missile base. The top-secret facilities housed ballistic missiles ready to attack the West when ordered. We’ll also find the second largest Lenin head in the world!
• We’ll then drive back to Riga and finish our tour in the late evening.