Getting around Latvia: transport and apps

Buses

• The intercity bus network is comprehensive and runs from Riga's coach terminal next to the central market.
• Ecolines and Lux Express run the international routes to Tallinn, Vilnius, Warsaw and St Petersburg-bound services where they still operate.
• Riga to Tallinn or Vilnius is around four hours and the coaches are comfortable and cheap.

Trains

• Pasazieru vilciens runs the trains and the network is limited but genuinely useful.
• Riga to Jurmala takes about half an hour and is the standard way to reach the beach - far better than driving, because Jurmala charges vehicles to enter in summer.
• Buy at the station or on board. No reservations needed.

Driving

• Winter tyres are compulsory from 1 December to 1 March.
• Headlights on at all times, all year.
• The drink-drive limit is very low and enforced hard.
• Gravel roads are normal outside the main network. A rental car booked for a route through the national parks will spend time on unsealed surfaces, which affects speed, insurance excess and windscreens.
• Jurmala charges a daily entry fee for cars in the resort zone during the season. Pay it or you will be fined; the train avoids it entirely.

Getting around Riga

• Trams, trolleybuses and buses are all Rigas satiksme, one ticket system.
• The old town is small and walkable and the rest of the centre is flat.