The hook
A green river valley of sandstone bluffs, forest, and old castles that Latvians call their Switzerland, threaded with legends and reachable by a cable car strung across the gorge.
01Why it's worth it
The Gauja is Latvia's longest river, and where it carves through soft red sandstone it makes a broad wooded valley that, in a famously flat country, passes for dramatic. It is a national park dotted with things to walk between: the ruined Sigulda castle, the red-brick Turaida castle with its museum-reserve and folk-song hill, and a scatter of caves cut into the sandstone cliffs, one carrying a centuries-old tragic love legend and generations of carved graffiti. A cable car crosses the valley, and in autumn the whole forest turns gold. It is gentle rather than grand, an easy day or two of castles, caves, and forest paths, and it is the standard escape into nature from Riga an hour away.
02How to experience it
Base in Sigulda, ride the cable car over the valley, and walk between the Sigulda, Turaida, and Krimulda castles with the sandstone caves along the way. Come in autumn for the colour. It works as a day trip or an overnight from Riga.