This tour takes you to beautiful gardens in Latvia and Lithuania. Poems are dedicated to trees in the garden surrounding the memorial house of Edvarts Virza, a Latvian poet and writer who wrote a legendary novel about the lives of Latvian farmers. Strūbergu decorative garden offers a garden excursion and consultations in gardening. At Brukna manor you will see a vegetable garden that is arranged as a Renaissance park, a rose garden and a vineyard. The beautiful 18th century Mazmežotne castle is renovated by a grain farmer’s family. The Rundāle castle is known as Latvia’s true jewel of Baroque and Rococo architecture featuring also a rose garden with over 2200 varieties of roses. At Blankenfelde manor you will see a collection of bells and will enjoy natural juices, syrups and pickles produced in-house. Visiting Mint House you will taste mint tea, biscuits, honey with peppermint and peppermint syrups. Next stop is at the vegetable and herb farm “Droši vesels” producing herbal ointments. In Lithuania you will visit Žagarė, known for its cherry orchard-park and the special species of cherry – the ‘Žagarvyšnė’, on the National List of Plant Varieties.  Stop by Žagarė Manor Park, containing more than 100 species of trees and shrubs.  Back in Latvia you can have a picnic at Vilki arboretum showing about 1000 different plants - both typical of the landscape of Latvia and quite unique. At Zaļenieki tree nursery, you can walk in the garden with over 2000 trees and shrubs. Further you will enjoy the beauty of peonia in the collection garden by Andris Berkins. Amatnieki homestead offers tours of their tulip garden.  Klūgu landscape garden is famous for begonias. Institute of horticulture in Dobele owns a collection of over 200 types and forms of lilac plants. ''The beautiful and practical idea garden'' is proud of its collection of conifers, and the hosts offer tastings of herbal spice powders, dried berries and fruit. “Rūķīšu tea” is one of the largest farms for medicinal plants in Latvia (purple coneflowers, marigolds, chamomile, etc). And finally, visit Liepas tree nursery specialised in cultivation of fruit-trees, berry bushes and roses.

The farm has vast meadows along the banks of the Aiviekste River, with some 400 head of blackhead sheep – the largest herd of its type in Latvia. You can tour the far and purchase pedigree sheep, meat, wool, pelts and vegetables.

The island of 7.5 km2 in Lake Peipsi is largely inhabited by Russian-speaking Old Believers who have broadly retained their old traditions through time. Traditional trades are fishing and growing vegetables, mainly onion.
The entire island is a landscape protection area with a high number of protected bird and amphibian species and several rare plants.

Tagadējais dievnams (iepriekšējie celti 1652. un 1776. g.) būvēts laikā no 1839. - 1842. g. Vidzemē pazīstamā lībiešu būvmeistara Mārča Sāruma (1799. –1859.) vadībā. Par prototipu tam izmantoja Pievolgas vācu koloniju baznīcu veidolu. Dievnama altārī atrodas Pītera Paula Rubensa gleznas “Kristus pie krusta” kopija (oriģināls – Minhenē), ko 1887. g. baznīcai uzdāvināja Nēķena muižas īpašniece. Baznīcas remonta laikā (1928. g.) atklāja piemiņas plāksnes 1. pasaules karā un Latvijas Brīvības cīņās kritušajiem. Blakus baznīcas atrodas viduslaiku kapsēta. Celtnes autors un būvdarbu virsuzraugs - H. fon Hagemeistars esot teicis, ka šis dievnams esot „vienīgā baznīca visā Vidzemē un varbūt arī pasaulē, kas uzcelta bez apreibināšanās”.

This tour has a very summery feel since it never wanders too far from the sea. Latvian sea resort Jurmala attracts with characteristic wooden cottages from the 19th century, Dzintari concert hall and a lively beach. Cape Kolka is located in Slitere National Park which also includes the traditional villages of the smallest ethnic group in the world, the Livs. Enjoy empty beaches and locally smoked fish. Ventspils is an immaculately maintained town with a medieval castle and well equipped beach. Pavilosta is Latvia's unofficial windsurfing capital, while Palanga in Lithuania has an excellent amber museum. Lithuania's pearl is the Curonian Spit and its lagoon which attracts with its vast sand dunes and Nida, a charming village with a Thomas Mann Museum. Back in Latvia, Liepaja is an exciting city with a historic quarter, beach, lively restaurants and clubs and a distinctive millitary heritage in the form of former naval forts and a military zone. Kuldiga is loved by artists due to its picturesque little cobbled streets with wooden houses and the Europe's widdest waterfall on the Venta river.

The nature park near the town of Ogre is a popular place for leisure, hiking and, in the winter, cross-country skiing. Most of the park is covered with coniferous trees that are on a long and comparatively narrow line of hillocks with steep sides – another element of nature left behind in Latvia by the Ice Age. Many different plants can be found here. The Jaunogres castle hill is one of the most distinct hillocks in the area.

The museum was established in 1973 and has been in the Kalna Ziedi homestead since 1989.  The permanent exhibition is in a building that was erected in 1989 on the foundations of the former home, while the warehouse (1990) was built on the foundations of a cattle shed.  The exhibition hall (2000) was built where a granary once stood.  The only part of the former farm that remains in place is the cellar, but the placement of the buildings is typical for the layout of a farm in Vidzeme.  The collection of the museum speaks to the history of the administrative district, beginning with information about the Stone Age.  The open-air exhibition features beehives with marks of belonging, as well as rare round crosses that are monuments to Medieval cemeteries.  100 metres to the Northeast from the museum is the Kalna Ziedi castle hill, while 200 metres to the south are the remains of a sacrificial oak stump that was destroyed in 1994.  The location is on the edge of the reservoir of the Pļaviņas hydroelectric power plant and offers a broad view of the plant’s dam and the town of Pļaviņas.

You can produce your own beer stein, candelabra or teacup with your name on it, and it will be fired in the same kiln which the master craftsman uses. He will wait for you to return to the location to pick up what you have designed. You can purchase clay dishware, work with clay, help to open the kiln, take a tour, and listen to stories about pottery traditions in Latgale.

Organising workshops for Udmurts and other Finno-Ugric national cuisines, learning the culture of other people through food.