Hotel Liene Riga

I usually stay at the Hotel...

by blue-viggen

I usually stay at the Hotel Riga as it is very centraly located and the costs are reasonable about 50 U.S. Dollars a night.
I believe that there is a SAS Radisson located accross a bridge a short taxi fare from Riga main shopping centre though the extra cost of staying there would not entice me for the believe small increase in quality of rooms. Better to stay more central in the Hotel Riga. Directly opposite the Theatre in Riga it is well located and has a nice Historic and Architectual features about it.

Good Central Location

by scubaphoto about Hotel Riga

Hadn't planned on staying here, but my first accommodation didn't work out. I arrived very late to the hotel at about 03.00. Must compliment the female hotel receptionist who was totally professional and helpful, I even got a discount on the room rates for l arriving late and for booking two nights. The rooms are of high quality as the hotel in general but with European prices to match. Not for one on a budget but I would recommend it highly because of the location. I’m sure prices will rise further as Latvia is made more accessible to Europeans by the low fares airlines. It's strong point is it excellent location opposite the National Opera House and over looking the river. Make sure to request a room over looking the river!

The Great Latvian Taxi Crimefest

by Lorcanada

Riga taxi drivers generally look like gangsters, but engage in worse extortion rackets. The taxi from the airport to town will cost you approximately LVL 7 (about EUR 10). On the way back, I was fleeced for nearly LVL 15. I ate the head off the driver, but he didn't care. When you're in an Eastern bloc country, you have to remember that corruption reigns - and the police wouldn't care about one foreigner. I took this taxi from outside the Hotel Riga - a travesty to have this place rated as a 4-star hotel - and now that I think about it, I don't remember a taxi light on the top of the car. Riga in general is not a rewarding place to visit, and the taxi rip-off just makes you want to get out of there as quickly as possible. Get the hotel to ring for a taxi - there's a slight chance you won't be robbed blind. Otherwise, take the bus - it costs just LVL 0.30.

Trip to Riga, Latvia!

by aah_stone

"Let the trip commence...."

Saturday - 29th January

OK, so today wasn't the day I left to go to Riga but it was the day I picked up Susan from the train station and my holiday begun. After driving back to my house and relaxing for a while and eating some yummy beef casserole we headed in to Brighton to see a film. We ended up seeing The Aviator which overall was a good film. But we both thought it was too long and that the middle section was drawn out and to be honest quite boring. We got back later than expected and ate some delicious prawns and then went to bed.

Sunday - 30th January

Woke up at a relatively reasonable hour and both had showers in readiness for our trip. After a cooked breakfast, we drove north to pick up James and Tom from James's house in London. We eventually got to the Mid Stay Car Park at Stansted at 12:15pm, almost exactly as Morna and Bob arrived (the final 2 people on our trip). So as you can see it was quite a big group.

I had earlier panicked because I couldn't find my point and shoot digital camera. So after getting my boarding card (sequence number 5). The sequence number is very important as when flying Ryanair the first 65 are allowed to board first and selec their seats. I went in to Dixons after going through security through the fast track and bought a film point and shoot camera that had been reduced with a very good zoom.

We ate a big lunch in the airport pub and I enjoyed a pint of Spitfire beer. Bought a bottle of water for the flight and a few wine gums to eat. Also thought I would be kind and bought everyone a chocolate and caramel egg to munch before the flight.

"Riga"

Sunday - 30th January (still)

We landed on time into Riga airport and waited for our bags. Tom waited a lot longer than the rest of us becaue it had fallen off the luggage belt on the other side to where we were waiting.

Next we hunted down a taxi for the 6 of us. It was a hort wait so we found the airport arrivals bar and sampled the first of many Latvian beers.

Went outside into the freezing cokl, -18C or something like that and got into our shiny red van! Much snow and a few minutes later we were checking in to the Hotel Riga.

We managed to get 3 rooms very close to each other, and more importantly very close to Breakfast. After some initial room comparisons, we all seemed to congegate in mine and Susan's room.

Soon we were out in the cold again hunting some dinner. It was getting on a bit by this stage, 9pm or something so I was very hungry. We eventually tracked down an Italian restaurant, Il Patio. We headed downstairs and our waitress found us a nice seat. I ate some Bruschetta and a rather nice pizza. I was well and truly full after that. We also tried out some Latvian on Anna the waitress which went down well, well she understood we wanted the bill anyway.

"Dinner......."

Sunday - 30th January (still)

We went for a little walk around afterwards to help with digestion. Stumbled across St Peter's church and The House of the Blackheads (above).

Made it back to the hotel around 11pm or so and had a few drinks in the bar and decided on our plan of action for the next few days in and around Riga.

"The morning........."

Monday - 1st February

We got up and I went out on to the balcony and decided that putting more clothes on than a t shirt and shorts would be a good plan! But the small park in front of the Opera House was so pretty in the snow. Myself and Susan turned up at Breakfast a little later than the others but there was still plenty of food left :)

"Out we go....."

Monday - 1st February (continued)

We headed out soon after breakfast to find the railway station to get a train to Darzini so we could visit the Salaspils Concentration Camp Memorial site. Quite moving as the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auchwitz had just been marked.

"The train to Darzini"

Monday - 1st February (continued)

After eventually finidng the train station and several conflicting reports on train times we bought our 0.45 Lat train tickets (£0.45) for the return journey.

"Darzini and Salaspils"

Monday - 1st February (continued)

We arrived at Darzini, or we assumed so as we didn't see asign but the ticket inspector assured us that it was the right place.

Darzini was a very strange station, not really near to any houses and surrounded by pine forest, and covered by snow. It had only a small shelter on the north side of the tracks. There was also a man on the platform scraping a path for us throught the snow. Very kind of him.

"Finding the memorial"

Monday - 1st February (continued)

After a lot of searching we eventually found the 'well signposted' path. OK so there were signposts, just no signs attached to them. It took a few minutes of trudging along through the snow in the woods. Our progress was slowed further by our need to throw snow at each other :) As we got near to the memorial our mood changed and it became more reflective.