Free walking tours in Riga

A tip-based walk past St. Peter's Church and the Cat House

Nothing is charged when you book a free walking tour in Riga on GuruWalk, and no credit card is asked for. You tip the guide at the end, as much as you think the walk was worth.

Many walks keep to Old Riga, between St. Peter's Church, St. John's Church, the Swedish Gate, the Cat House and Livu Square, and a typical route is about 1.6 kilometres long. Other walks go looking for the city's Art Nouveau streets or its legends. The tours are shared among 6 local guides and last two hours on average, and their 4.8 out of 5 comes from more than 5,997 reviews.

From the Blackheads to Alberta iela: the kinds of walk Riga offers

The essential walks, from the Blackheads to the Swedish Gate

With 6 free walking tours on offer and 4,683 reviews averaging 4.8 out of 5, the essential Riga tours bring together the Old Town stops that appear on the most routes. Their routes can take in St. Peter's Church, the House of the Blackheads, Riga Cathedral and the Swedish Gate, and some add the Three Brothers, the Powder Tower, the Peitav Shul synagogue or St. John's Church.

Art Nouveau streets and Old Town façades

Alberta iela and Elizabetes iela, with their Art Nouveau buildings, are the streets that Riga's art and architecture tours come for. Other walks of this kind stay in the Old Town and read its buildings one at a time, from the Three Brothers, home of the Latvian Museum of Architecture, to the Art Museum Riga Bourse and St. Jacob's Cathedral.

Legends, Riga Castle and the Great Cemetery

Legend is the common thread of Riga's ghost tours, but the routes differ. Some stay in the Old Town and follow the stories told about its streets and houses, past the Powder Tower, the old city walls, Riga Castle and the statue of Lielais Kristaps. Others head for the Pokrova cemetery and the Great Cemetery.

Antonijas iela and the Central District

Riga's experience tours, rated 4.9 out of 5 in 3,070 reviews, mix walks through Old Riga with walks in the Central District. There the guides take you along Alberta iela, Elizabetes iela and Antonijas iela, the Art Nouveau side of the city.

With a local, from the Spīķeri to the Cat House

Some of Riga's local tours leave the Old Town for the Spīķeri, the Latvian Academy of Sciences, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jesus and the passenger railway station, and go on to the Latvian National Opera. Others keep to the classics: the House of the Blackheads, St. Peter's Church, the Cat House, the Swedish Gate and Riga Cathedral.

St. Peter's Church to Livu Square: Old Riga stop by stop

A typical free walking tour in Riga covers about 1.6 kilometres in two hours on average. These five stops appear on more routes than any other, roughly in this order:

1. St. Peter's Church has the tallest church tower in Riga.
2. St. John's Church often appears soon after St. Peter's.
3. The Swedish Gate is the only one of the city's gates still standing.
4. The Cat House is decorated with a cat and tied to Riga's best-known urban legend.
5. Livu Square is where some of these walks end.

In between, some guides stop at the House of the Blackheads to explain who the Blackheads were and how they used the building, and at Town Hall Square, with its statues of Roland and the Latvian Riflemen. Dome Square and Riga Cathedral also appear on some routes: you see the cathedral from outside while the guide describes the treasures it holds. A few walks reach the Three Brothers, the Powder Tower, Riga Castle or St. Jacob's Cathedral as well.

Planning a Riga walk from Meistaru iela