Riga Sports & Outdoors

Football is not the national sport in Latvia, but is becoming more popular. The best local side – at the moment – is Skonto Riga, and they are regular winners of both the Latvian league and the Latvian cup.

Skonto Riga play at the Skonto Stadium, and tickets are available at the ground the day before or on the morning of the match. The capacity of the stadium is about 9000 spectators.

I visited the stadium in June 2007 when Denmark played against Latvia in a qualification match for Euro 2008. Denmark won 2-0, so I have good memories of the stadium…

The drivers are from the Latvian National Bobsleigh team and they have the 'Need-for-Speed'. They will run you off the edge and down a thrilling Olympic standard track where you will go over 100 km/h for a 1-minute ride that will simply blow you away!! As you hit the last corner named ''The Wall'' for obvious reasons, you can hit up to 7G!! AWESOME

During winter time you can enjoy winter activities by skating in the heart of the city - in the Dome square. There is open public skating square where everybody who want and enjoy can do it. Skating place is operating by the city council, so you don’t need to pay for entrance only for skates. After skating you can enjoy the meal in the nearest tavern or restaurant.

Another skating square is in Lido centre, also very good, easy to access and after it you can have delicious meal.

Equipment: Nothing to bring with you, skates can be hired on the place. Only take appropriate clothes with you.

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It's an hour on a train or a bus to Sigulda, where there's an Olympic bobsleigh track! And for 5 lats per person you can go down in a soft bob. (5 lats is £5. It's more expensive to go in hard bob but not much more).

It's only available on weekends when the track isn't being used by the pro's and you can just turn up, don't be tricked into booking a tour which will end up costing you more, it's really cheap and easy to get there by yourself!

We arrived, they put helmets on us, told us to sit in and then pushed us down! It's so incredibly fast and quite scary! We bounced off some corners and went really high round others! It seemed a miracle that we didn't overturn! The adrenaline rush is amazing, make sure you have a go!

To get there walk down the railway track from the train station in the direction of Riga for about 5 mins and you can't miss the track on your right.

If you took the bus get off at the stop for Sigulda, cross the road, take the first right and keep walking until you come to the main road (you'll see the train tracks) and turn left and follow the train tracks, the bobsleigh track is on your right.

Equipment: None required.

One of the places where you can relax good and actively. Here, as it shows the name of bowling center, one can play bowling in one of two great halls. Also near the bowling alleys there are tables where playing you can enjoy drinks and some snacks.
Here you can also try laser paintball - nothing painful only some running, and also enjoy more sport activities.
The center offers also restaurant and bar.

I'm not a big professional in bowling play, but here I'll name few places where I like to play it and relax.
The atmosphere in "Spāre" is great and if you're playing in the evening the lights are turned off, but the alleys and bowls stay lighted. The hall is not so big, they have 10 alleys and near them there are chairs and table. So you can enjoy some snacks or drinks. By the way they have good cuisine. You must reserve time, if you want to play there. And the prices depends on what day or what time you're playing.
Besides bowling center here is also located small hotel, but can't tell anything, because never stayed there.

The Latvians are Hockey crazy, they have a number of professionals in the NHL, Artus Irbe is a huge star in Latvija. The fans travel to the World Cup by thousands each year, and always they are the loudest and most dressed up and so. The World Cup in Latvija will be good for sure.

I'm a football fan, and I wanted to buy some merchandising of Skonto Rīga or Latvian national team, but it seemed quite impossible to do that... since no shops sell that merchandise! But walking along the new town of Rīga I managed to get in front of Skonto Stadion, where I was there was a match in the afternoon, and it was a "derby match" between Skonto and FK Rīga.
So i came back in the afternoon to see the match, and it was nice. Very cheap ticket (about 2 euros!), very few people at the stadium, very easy win for Skonto (4-1 the final result) which has become Latvian champion for the 13th time in a row this year!
So, if you are a football fan you can take a walk till Skonto Stadion, it's very nice, they sell the original football shirt (30 euros), and serve good beer, of course... oh and the bar girls are yuuuum! ;-)