Living in Riga, Latvia:
Tips for Moving and Visiting

Riga is the capital of Latvia, but compared to other cities elsewhere, it’s relatively quiet and may seem uneventful to some. It’s not anywhere near as quiet as a village, but it’s nothing like New York or Shanghai. While many of the locals do speak English to some degree, trying to speak to our citizens “in their native language” can be a bit of a gamble, since not everyone here actually knows Latvian. Due to its legacy as a post-USSR city, Riga, just like Latvia in general, is home to many people whose native language is actually not Latvian, but Russian. There used to be a big social divide between Latvian and Russian speakers, exacerbated by various political groups, but now, this problem seems to be far less acute than it was before. In general, Riga is a nice place but may not be to everyone’s taste. If you prefer your cities relatively quiet, Riga is a great choice. If you prefer your cities loud and full of everything all at once, look elsewhere.

Riga is very different to western cities, and that you will encounter many Russian-speaking residents. A major river runs through the center and several bridges, some which have historical significance, gap the wide waters. Tourists should know exploring the late afternoon can be a little dangerous and that drunk locals might approach you for a cigarette.

We have great people. It’s beautiful and we have a lot of woodlands where you can relax. We don’t have a lot of people in Riga but traffic sometimes is big. Public transports drive regularly but they are all the time full. We have some people who begs for money but some of them feed their dog not buy alcohol.