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Why nothing on Latvia?

I'm just curious why none of Rick's resources include the country of Latvia, although Estonia and Lithuania are. It caught my attention as I'm stopping in Latvia on a cruise next week, and I would think Riga is a popular stop. Anyone know the answer?

Posted by
4761 posts

Isn't Riga is covered in his Scandinavia/Northern Europe Cruise guidebook?

Posted by
3039 posts

Rick doesn't cover every European country with the forum. Serbia, Kosovo/a, Albania, North Macedonia, Moldova are omitted from the forum. Plus there are the tiny countries - Lichtenstein, San Marino, etc. He has England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, but not Northern Ireland.

Posted by
5687 posts

I do think Riga is covered in that cruise guide. I visited Riga a few years ago. It's a neat city, definitely worth a visit, though it's pretty big. (If you are going to Tallinn also, that has a much smaller, more compact old town.) The Art Nouveau buildings are really neat and I highly recommend a walking tour (maybe on your own) through the neighborhood where most of them are, but it's not super close to the old town. You can walk there but it's not a short walk. There are local buses.

Be careful with your belongings in Riga (as everywhere of course). Riga is the only place in Europe where I was almost pickpocketed, and not in the usual manner (not say on a busy train or tram car or something). The thieves were pretty brazen, and it's easy to get complacent there because Riga does not seem like your usual tourist hotspot like Rome or Paris or something.

Posted by
2 posts

True - it is covered in the guidebook, which my husband won't let go of yet...we've really enjoyed listening to the podcasts on his audio phone app, just noticed Latvia's absence there and as a destination on these forums.

Posted by
5508 posts

I don't think he likes countries that start with an "L". ;) I'm working on a trip to include Luxembourg and its not on the forum either. I get that he can't write guidebooks to cover every country, city and attraction, but it would seem easy to include more countries in the forum for discussion.

Posted by
11033 posts

I wonder if the "Rick Steves of Europe" has devoted a guide book to West Virginia? ( similar size and population)

I suspect it's just a matter of the planet is too big to cover everywhere thoroughly.

Posted by
429 posts

And yet Montenegro gets it's own spot on the forum and it is much smaller and far less populated than West Virginia and Latvia.

Posted by
8377 posts

Imagine the investment in time, money, people, etc., it takes to do even the basic research to support a guidebook on any one country. I suspect they have to weigh the demand versus effort - does RS create the demand, or follow the market. Heck he doesnt even have a Poland guidebook, and he runs tours there.

For just having a forum devoted to all these low interest countries, I suppose they could have just designated a "Baltic" forum or even a "Balkan" forum to be more inclusive.

Posted by
14811 posts

You'll find that most of Rick guidebook's cover areas his tours visit.

Posted by
5687 posts

And yet Montenegro gets it's own spot on the forum and it is much smaller and far less populated than West Virginia and Latvia.

Probably because it is very close to the tourist hotspot of Dubrovnik, so a lot of tourists might be interested in going. Latvia is not near anything like that.

Posted by
2599 posts

One of my best trips was in 2019 when I made a return visit to Tallinn, then by bus to Riga, bus to Vilnius, 4 days in each, and then flew to Budapest. The Baltic states are simply fabulous and I hope to return to see more than just the capital cities. I used a DK Eyewitness guidebook.