Zemgale – Aukstaitija: where wholesome food comes from

Arrival in Rīga Popular destinations in Rīga include Old Rīga, St Peters's Church, the Dome Cathedral, the Freedom Monument and a neighbourhood that is full of art Nouveau architecture. Visit the Rīga Central Market, which is one of the largest markets in Europe and offers products grown in Latvia. Outside the city is the popular Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum. You will spend the night in Rīga.

The Konfelāde factory offers sweets made of fruit juices and real sugar without E-substances or preservatives.  The candy is made of pure juice with no water, and that ensure vivid and pure colours and a different taste.  The company only uses fruit that is grown in Latvia.

The Bērziņš family grain farm, Labirinti, grows grain and rapeseed and offers informational seminars, as well as tours for children and adults.  The farm has a collection of ancient farm equipment and dairy processing equipment.

The Celmi farm makes cheese from milk that is produced by its cows, and you can taste and buy the cheese.

The Rundāle Castle is Latvia's best known Baroque and Rococo building, and it is certainly the most important historical monument in the country that applies to these two styles.  The castle was once the summer residence of Ernst Johann Byron (1690-1772), and it was designed by Italian architect Francesco Rastrelli.  The castle currently is a museum, and the restored French Baroque garden is the largest garden of this type in the Baltic States.

Accommodations in Mežotne or Bauska:

    • Mazmežotne Estate

    • Miķelis leisure complex and hotel

    • Rožmalas Hotel

The Bauska Castle is on the banks of the Mūsa and Mēmele rivers, featuring a viewing tower.  The new Bauska City Hall has a collection of old measuring equipment.  You can try your hand at using ancient weights and receive a certificate to show that you did so.

The Vaidelotes farm popularises Latvian lifestyle, traditional rituals and tasty foods such as dumplings, pierogi, grain and flour pastries and other products made of things grown at the farm itself.

The Bauska brewery will tell you all about how beer is made.  Tastings are available.

The Miķelis leisure complex is on the banks of the Mūsa River, offering a look at a topical farm from the 19th and 20th century, as well as a motor museum.  You will enjoy Latvian culinary heritage there.

Accommodations in Mežotne or Bauska:

    • Mazmežotne Estate

    • Miķelis leisure complex and hotel

    • Rožmalas Hotel

Rožmalas offers a fine restaurant and bakery in an old windmill.  Tour the windmill, which features an exhibition about how farming has developed during the course of the centuries from antiquity to modern technologies.

The Krišjāņi farm farms grain and is a dairy operation with more than 200 cows that provide milk for yogurt, cheese and ice cream.

In Biržai, visit the local castle.

The Lavandu farm offers tours and sells lavender plants, fresh and dried lavender bouquets and other products. (Dvaro Street 10, Mockūnai, Vabalninkas, Biržai District, Panevežys Region)

Accommodations in the Anykščiai District:

    • Barono vila guesthouse (order meals in advance)

    • Pušu takas guesthouse (order meals in advance)

Popular destinations in  Anykščiai. Visit the treetop trail Medžiu Laju takas and the Labyrinth Park (during the summer), and take a ride on the Siaurukas narrow-gauge railroad.

Ramūnas is an expert in grasses and offers educational programmes for children and adults about various grasses that grow in the Anykščiai District.  He offers tastings of acorn coffee and old mixtures of grasses and teas.  The programmes are organised by R. Daugelavičius at Vilniaus Street 22, Anykščiai.

Educational programmes are also offered at the Barono vila farm, which features deer and Gotland sheep.  It bakes bread in a traditional oven, serves the rice dish known as plov and offers art therapy lessons.

    • Barono vila guesthouse 

    • Sodyba geras guesthouse

    • Trap liepu guesthouse (order meals in advance)

A hemp farm offers tastings of 100% natural and organic hemp products that are prepared there.

Visit archaeological locations and the local museum.  Kernave Culture Reserve offers thematic tours.

Then you will drive to Vilnius and visit its most important destinations before spending the night in the city.

Tour the most important destinations in Vilnius, as well as the Trakai lake castle, which is the only castle of its type in Eastern Europe that is built on a small lake island.  Presumably work on the castle began in the late 14th century.  After a battle in 1410, when the Polish and Lithuanian military under King Jagailis defeated a force from the German Order, the castle lost its strategic military importance.  Today, the Trakai lake castle is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Lithuania.  It features a museum with information about the history of the region.  You will spend the night in Vilnius.

Departure.  You can merge this tour with another one that ends in Rīga.