gauja national park

Gauja is featured on the Worlds Best Bars website. It is a small, retro, old fashioned bar which serves beer in the old Soviet style mugs. The drinks menu also has nice hot wine and the drinks are quite cheap, especially the Vodka! It is located about a 10 minute walk from the Old Town on one of the main streets. You must go and see this bar when in Riga. I think it opens at midday to late.

We biked trail nr 1, nice day trip for usual people with no hurry. Beautiful forest. There is a cafe by Krimulda mansion, that could be updated a bit.

Recommend that you hire a couple of mountain bikes and cycle round the well signposted paths. Hard work but very rewarding. Take in most of the sites on your way round then grab a cold beer in Biskvits when you;re done. If you've cycled up the hill on the way back then you've most definitely earned it!!

Sigulda is one of the towns which is a gateway to the Gauja National Park. There are many hiking trails, steps to climb ap and down in the Gauja Valley. This is exciting place for families, there are at lest two adventure parks and huge Playground (Raiņa parks) in Sigulda town. There are many birds,meadows, nature smells. This is one of the best walking areas near Riga city. Now, the season of mushroom picking starts.

We had a lovely day trip here, walking through the forest and by the river. Train and bus connections with Riga are easy to navigate but timings from Riga are a little odd so check the day before you go. A beautiful area and great walking- possible to do several different circuits of different length depending on your ability- the signposting is not so good yet but it is clear they are working on this. We managed to find out way around as the paths are mostly clear (sometimes a little unclear) but as long as you have a map it should be fine. Go to the information office at the station as the visitors centre which can be found on maps is not easy to find in real life!

Visiting the park is an easy day trip from Riga. Buses & trains go on a regular basis. I took the bus there and the train back. The park is a 30 minute or so walk from thebus/train station; there is also a local bus that goes up to the castle. The signage inthe park is okay; would help if map boards were also provided. There is nothingspecial about this park and recommend only if you have idle time.

We recently had a great day trip to Gauja National Park from Riga.It was easy to take the bus from Riga station (tickets purchased on board for around €2) which took just over an hour to get to Sigulda. We got a map and advice from the tourist info office beside the station which helped us navigate around Sigulda to see the Lutheran church, old and new castles, and walking stick park on our way to the cable car. The ride across the valley was beautiful, then we looked around Krimulda before walking to Gutman cave. At first glance the cave is small and unimpressive but, on closer inspection, it's interesting to read the engravings and drink from the spring. The walking route to Turaida isn't easy to find but we took a path into the forest near the cave and, keeping the traffic noise on our right, we made it to the village.The castle itself is great to see and the views from the tower are beautiful. There is also a lovely garden area and various sculptures. We took a bus back to Sigulda then a train to Riga. All in all a great day.

Take the train from Riga. Round trip tickets about 5EUR. There's an information stand that can give advice in English. Train station toilet at Sigulda very good. You can buy a local map at the store at the station, although there are various maps located throughout town with signs and stuff. It's about a 20-30 min walk out of town to the edge of the park. Once you cross the bridge, if you go right along the river edge, you'll come across a very friendly cat. He will follow you for about a quarter of a mile. From there is is easy to get to Gutman's cave. There is a coffee hut near Gutman's cave.It was raining when we went, so we didn't walk too far. There are places to eat in town, although the little cafe we went to could have had better service. Cheap, though. Great day trip, would have loved it in better weather for longer.

This is amazing place offering a lot of culture, nature and activities. Real diversity. We saw deers in the forest after visiting of real castles.

We went to Sigulda on the train from Riga on a very snowy day in March ( St Patricks Day). We didn't see everything due to the weather conditions but enjoyed our visit. went to the castle and had a cable car ride across the national park . We were the only tourists about but the girl put the cable car on especially for us . Take over an hour from Riga and train is very comfortable and cheap .

Sigulda is a great day trip from Riga with plenty of things to do and to see. It is easy to take the train from Riga to Sigulda, although the train may be a bit cold, when we took the train in december they did not turn on the heating on the way to Sigulda, but on the return trip the train was heated. Both the Knights of the Sword Castle and the Turaida Castle are well worth seeing. December might be a bit cold time for visiting, but with less tourists it is also easier to soak up the medieval atmosphere.

Nature is really wonderful here. We were in the beg. of November but leaves were still hanging on the trees. The river and hills are beautiful and air is reallly fresh, so it is worth to visit for hiking or just walking around, wonderful views would be your best prize...

There are a number of sights near Sigulda that can make for a very entertaining and lovely day. There are castles, parks, great ruins and a beautiful river walk to bbe experienced.

After few days of beautiful but busy Riga we have chosen to relax in the nature. Sigulda and the surrounding Gauja National Park was a good choice. Nice spot with a lot of attractions including Tarzan Park (that 1.5 KM ropes course!!!) or just riding a bicycle along the Gauja River and visiting those 3 castles beautifully located on the edges of the river valley - scenic!

We choose to explore Gauja NP, Sigulda and surrounds by our selves and it was very easy to to do, inexpensive, simple and a great day trip from Riga.We went to the Riga central bus station in the morning and got a one way ticket for the bus to Sigulda (1.50 lats per person). They leave every hour at 20 mins past the hour and the ticket shows which bay the bus will arrive and include an allocated seat. It was evident when you arrive in Sigulda as it is the last stop, well posted and evidently a small town. There is an information center located at the drop off point and we were able to get a map of the area here (also found on www.tourism.sigulda.lv). We had a brief walk around the town (starting about 10:40am) and then headed from Central Station square to the Air cable way over Guuja River Valley, stopping at the sculpture of wind chimes, key square, Sigulda new castle and the Livonian Order Sigulda Castle on the way. The Cable car ran every 30 mins in summer and we caught the 12:30 ride over to Krimulda (2 lats per person), which gave a great view of the Gauja NP and the castles in the area. Arriving at the Krimulda side we were able to view the Krimulda Manor and then follow the signs on a very scenic walk through down Serpentine road and through the Gauja National Park and towards the Gutman's Cave. If you keep to the main path it is very easy to find your way and you shouldn't get lost. Once past the cave we walked to the Turaida Museum Reserve and this part of the walk was less well signposted, but you will come up to the main road from the cave, head left and up walk up the road, you can see the Castle appear to help find your way. We got there about 1:30 pm so the walk/cable car took us about 3 hours in total. We went for a cheap lunch at the soviet kiosk across the road from the Turaida Museum and then spent until 4:07pm exploring the Turaida Reserve (3.50 lats per person) before catching a local bus from out the front direct to Riga (1.50 lats per person) Note: Bobsleigh and luge track can only be ridden on the weekends, but viewed throughout the week.We really enjoyed the day trip through the National Park, it was beautiful and provided many opportunities for photos. We are glad we did it ourselves as it proved to be a very cheap option and allowed us to stay for as long as we wanted.