Latvia's Hidden Gems: Off the Beaten Path

Kuldiga in the west is a small town with surviving wooden buildings and a calm mood. Its main surprise is the Venta waterfall, the widest in Europe, which reaches 249 metres across in spring. Beside it stands a 19th-century red-brick bridge, one of the longest of its kind in Europe.

Kuldiga's old town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2023 as a well-preserved merchant town, and it's now one of the best places to visit in Latvia outside the capital.

Cape Kolka is the northern tip of Kurzeme, where the Gulf of Riga meets the open Baltic. On windy days you can see two wave directions colliding. The area is home to the Livonians, one of the smallest indigenous peoples in Europe, with their own language and villages along the coast.

The coast near Pavilosta and Jurkalne is empty and wild, with steep banks, some of the emptiest beaches in Latvia and no resorts. Further south, Liepaja, Latvia's third-largest city, pairs a wide white-sand beach with the half-abandoned Karosta naval quarter.

Latgale in eastern Latvia is lake country, with around two thousand lakes. The culture here is distinct, more Catholic, with its own dialect and a pottery tradition. Lake Razna, the second largest in the country, sits at the centre of a national park.

The Aglona Basilica is the most important Catholic shrine in Latvia. On 15 August it draws tens of thousands of pilgrims. The rest of the year it is quiet and empty.