Getting around
Getting Around Latvia: Riga Is the Whole Network
Latvia is compact enough that distance is rarely the obstacle — the real shape to understand is that almost everything worth seeing sits within a couple of hours of Riga, and the transport network itself is built around the capital as a hub rather than a point-to-point grid.
Updated 2026-08-16
Riga's commuter rail reaches the closest highlights directly
Latvia's electrified commuter rail network fans out from Riga's central station, and it happens to serve two of the country's biggest draws directly: Jūrmala, reachable in well under an hour, and towns along the line toward Sigulda in the Gauja valley. These routes are frequent, reliable and don't require a car, making a day trip from Riga to either destination one of the easiest travel decisions in the country — no advance planning beyond checking the timetable on the day.
Buses fill in everywhere the trains don't
Beyond the commuter rail's reach — Cēsis, Rundāle, Kuldīga, Cape Kolka and most of the countryside — long-distance buses are the practical default, generally comfortable and reasonably frequent on the main routes to regional towns. Rundāle in particular has no rail connection, so reaching it by public transport means a bus, while renting a car opens up the manor-country circuit around it that most public-transport-only visitors skip entirely.
Riga as a Baltic hub, not just a Latvian one
Riga's position roughly midway between Vilnius and Tallinn, connected to both by frequent intercity buses and developing rail links, makes it a genuine mid-trip base for a wider Baltic itinerary rather than an endpoint — the whole route runs inside Schengen with the euro throughout and no border stops to plan around. For travellers combining all three Baltic capitals, spending real time in Riga in the middle of the trip, rather than treating it as a one-night stopover between Vilnius and Tallinn, is the difference between seeing the city properly and just passing through it.