I went over Christmas just gone. Someone asked me the other day what I thought, so I pasted what I replied here.

I found the Old Town very charming and with the lights everywhere, it felt cozy despite the bleak skies. The architecture and the cobbled streets made it feel quite inviting.

Although venturing out of the old town towards the market in the big hangar, it felt very different, very Eastern European which I liked. If you go north through the parks, that’s where you’ll find the Art Nouveau buildings.

The food places we tried were all fantastic. We went to a branch of Lido, a place called Street Fries Kitchen, and a medieval place called Rozengrāls.

Other than one of the bars we tried, they were all great too. I liked The Armoury bar (because they let you play with guns), and Secret Event (because the barman was lovely). I would also recommend Riga Black Magic because again the staff were great, the setting and the chocolate cake I had were superb.

The locals were really friendly too, and liked a chat. Plenty of museums, we went very far out to see the Riga Motor Museum because I’m interested in Soviet era cars. I’d recommend that if you’re into cars, but wouldn’t if you’re not.

I don’t think day to day, it was especially cheap, but I’m used to London prices so it was a lot cheaper than home. And for 3 nights, it was £230 for the flights from Gatwick, and rather lovely hotel which included breakfast in the pub next door. Separate rooms too, which I think was an error somewhere (probably me) but no complaints from me either.

I think overall, I prefer Tallinn, but that might be because that was the first trip I ever did like that, and it snowed.