2 Best Sights in Latvia

The Open-Air Ethnographic Museum is well worth the 9-km (5-mile) trek from downtown. At this countryside living museum, farmsteads and villages have been crafted to look like those in 18th- and 19th-century Latvia, and costumed workers engage in traditional activities (beekeeping, smithing, and so on).

About one hour east of the capital, Gauja National Park is populated by friendly people and a helpful forestry staff. Latvia's deepest river valley, at 280 feet, is little more than a dip, but the gently flowing Gauja and the 13th-century ruins of Turaidas Pils (Turaida Castle), built by the Knights of the Sword, near Sigulda provide amusement, ancient graffiti, and a bobsled track.