Soviet Riga Tours: Walking Tour, Bunker or Vintage Car?
5 min read
Take the two-hour walk for a first look at Riga’s Soviet years in the city centre. Take the Ķengarags walk if you want to see a Soviet housing district where people still live, and a bunker trip only if you have half a day or more. The offers differ in length, in how far from the centre they go, and in whether you share them with other travellers.
The options
The Soviet Riga walking tour takes two hours and costs €60. It is rated 4.9 out of 5 from 40 reviews. The route covers about 2 km from Town Hall Square to the Freedom Monument, past the Occupation Museum building and the Riflemen Monument, Jacob’s Barracks, the Orthodox Cathedral that the Soviet authorities turned into a planetarium, and the memorials to the January 1991 barricades. The Museum of the Barricades is visited when it is open. The guiding is in English, by local guides who, according to the description, mostly lived under the system or grew up with parents who did. Groups are up to 20; the page gives the minimum as two participants in one place and three in another.
The Behind the Iron Curtain communism tour is a 3.5-hour private walk for up to 8 people at €90, with 45 reviews. It does not stay in the centre: it goes through Ķengarags, a large Soviet-era suburb, past schools and residential yards and to the train station from which Latvians were deported to Siberia. Pick-up is included, and the guide lives in the area. Guiding is in English or Latvian.
The Soviet bunker and seaside fortress tour takes 5.5 hours at €115. It starts at St. Peter’s Church and drives about 30 minutes to a Soviet communication bunker with a one-hour guided visit. Then come Mangaļsala Fortress, where you can enter some of the structures with torches, a walk by the sea and a Soviet-style BBQ with a local beer. The includes list the fortress and the BBQ, while the itinerary marks both as optional; ask the operator which applies. Groups are up to 10 with a minimum of three.
The secret Soviet bunker, Sigulda and Turaida tour is a private day trip with hotel pick-up for €189. It goes nine metres down into the once-secret nuclear bunker at Līgatne with a bunker guide and includes entry to Turaida and the Sigulda castles. The classic option takes about 7.5 to 8 hours, the option with Cēsis about 9.5 to 10. Bring warm clothes for the bunker.
The Soviet-era city tour in a vintage Soviet car uses a 1979 VAZ 2103 driven by your guide and costs €190 per person for 2.5 hours, as a private tour in English. It starts at 18:00 in front of Riga Cathedral and stops at the Daile Theatre, the VEF factory grounds, the Purvciems housing district, the Academy of Sciences and the TV tower, ending at the Vanšu Bridge with a symbolic vodka toast. The tour is new and has no reviews yet.
The Old Town tour with Occupation Museum entry costs €70 for two hours. It starts at St. Peter’s Church, spends about an hour in the Old Town and then continues into the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, with the entry ticket and a multilingual audio guide included.
| Option | Length | Where | Shared or private |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soviet Riga walking tour | 2 hours | Old Town and centre, on foot | shared, up to 20 |
| Communism tour | 3.5 hours | Ķengarags suburb, with pick-up | private, up to 8 |
| Bunker and fortress | 5.5 hours | bunker 30 minutes away, Mangaļsala | shared, up to 10 |
| Bunker, Sigulda and Turaida | 7.5 to 10 hours | Līgatne and the Gauja valley | private |
| Vintage Soviet car | 2.5 hours | city by car, from 18:00 | private |
| Old Town and Occupation Museum | 2 hours | Old Town, then museum | ask the operator about group size |
The Occupation Museum
If you visit the museum on your own: its main exhibition is open every day from 10:00 to 18:00, except on 1 January, 23 and 24 June and 24, 25, 26 and 31 December, and an adult ticket costs 8 EUR (Museum of the Occupation of Latvia). The two-hour walking tour passes the building but does not go in.
For and against
The two-hour walk is central and easy to fit in, but you mostly see monuments and buildings from outside. The Ķengarags walk shows everyday Soviet housing that the centre does not have, and it is private, so it is priced for a small group. The bunker tours need half a day or a whole day. The trip to Līgatne goes well beyond Riga, while the fortress tour stays near the coast north of the centre. The vintage car is an evening tour for a small group that wants its own pace. Three pages mark their tours as not suitable for wheelchair users: the vintage car, the fortress tour and the Līgatne trip. The Līgatne trip also excludes babies under one and does not allow prams.
Our recommendation
For most visitors we would book the two-hour Soviet Riga walking tour. See every option on the Soviet Riga page, and combine it with the Old Town the next morning.
