The saloon is in the centre of Vecumnieki and features antique household objects as part of its interior design. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all prepared on an open fire, making use of an ancient spirit and the cookbooks of grannies. Desserts, too, are all made from natural ingredients.

Latvian cuisine: Pork with sauerkraut.

Special foods: Handmade pierogi with home-cured meat.

You can go fishing in five fish ponds and then dry the fish. The owner prepares hot-smoked trout, dried carps, and fish soup cooked on a campfire. You can also buy chicken eggs.

This is an easy 3-day route, suitable for any traveller ready to take some steps outside the capital and get into the woods. You will start the tour by taking a train from Rīga to Ķemeri. The walk will start in the Ķemeri resort park leading to the legendary sulphur spring and continue to the “Forest House” – the visitor’s centre of the Ķemeri National Park. The park is established for the protection of mainly wetlands – the shallow coast of the Gulf of Riga, the overgrown seaside lakes, the vast marshlands, mires (forests) and flood plans. Besides, there is the wooden plank Melnalkšņu swamp forest trail. Next, the Forest Trail takes one to the Lake Sloka, a shallow coastal lake with rich aquatic plants, sulphur springs and important migratory bird rest areas. On the banks of it, there is a 7 m high floating bird-watching tower. Further, the Forest Trail runs to the Gulf of Riga in the small fishermen village of Bigauņciems, where it joins with the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route (E9 European long distance path). From there on, the trail runs along the coast direction Jūrmala – the most popular resort town in Latvia with the widest sandy beaches. The tour ends in Ragakāpa Nature Park, which is established to preserve the dunes covered in old pine forests and natural diversity of the seaside. The Jūrmala Open-Air Museum is a place to get to know a traditional local fishermen’s farmstead.

This farm is in a lovely location on the western side of the Talsi hillocks, offering a look at Talsi and its area.  This is an open farm with grows and processes apples (dried apples, apple chips, apple juice).  Visitors are offered an informative tour, with a chance to taste and purchase the products.  The farm is in a protected natural area -- the Talsi Hillocks Nature Park.  There is an area for tenting during the summer.  The owners will teach you to produce a crown from fruit tree branches. The gardens of the farm stretch across the hillocks, and there are several types of local apple trees that are nurtured by the lady of the house.  An informative stand alongside the farm features information about the most important values of the nature park.

 A memorial room to Pauls Stradiņš is found at Raiņa Street 14 in Viesīte. A memorial plaque on the green wooden house tells us that the distinguished Latvian surgeon, academician and professor Pauls Stradiņš (1896-1958) lived there from 1902 until 1914. The exhibits relate to Stradiņš and his family. Right now the room is closed to visitors, and it is planned that during the tourism season of 2013, its contents will be displayed at the former Viesīte school at Peldu Street 2.

Participants in this tour will learn about Latvia’s most modern crop farms that are typical in Zemgale.  During the first day, participants will meet with specialists from the Latvian Agriculture Ministry and agricultural NGOs.  They will also tour Rīga, which is part of the UNESCO List of World Heritage, and the Rīga Central Market, which is one of the largest closed markets of its type in Europe.  Participants will visit a health food store and have dinner to enjoy traditional Latvian foods and beers.  The next day we will go to Jelgava, where the 18th-century castle of the Duchy of Courland and Zemgale will host a meeting with faculty members from the Latvian Agricultural University, which is housed in the palace.  We will visit a biologic bakery, as well as a farm that engages in crop farming, livestock breeding and manufacturing of biogas.  An artificial wetland is used to purify runoff water.  Dinner will be served at a modern leisure complex.  On the third day, we will visit one of the largest multi-sectoral farms in Zemgale.  It specialises in plant farming, livestock breeding, horse breeding, biogas manufacturing and beer brewing.  During the afternoon, we will visit the largest and technologically most modern grain farm in the region, after which we will tour the most outstanding castle in the Baltic States – the Rundāle Castle.  Built as a summer residence for Duke Ernst Johann Bieron, the castle was designed by the distinguished Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.  Dinner will be served at a venue that has an historical windmill and an exhibition related to grain farming.  On the morning of the fourth day, we will visit a farm that grows grains for seed, and then a biological farm that produces wheat, barley, peas, beans, rapeseed, herbs and herbal teas.  Lunch will be served at a farm that will offer dishes made of home-grown grains and rough-milled flour.  Then we will return to Rīga.

This section of the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route is a comparatively short hike across a beautiful sandy beach, the coastal side of which is bounded by brightly colored pine forests with spectacular dunes and dams of dunes. To get from the beach to Carnikava, the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route will take you through a forest via a promenade. Then it takes a stroll around the Old Gauja River via a levee and reaches the pedestrian bridge over the Gauja River. Both as you start and end the hike, it is nice to sit in one of the pubs and summer cafés located on Vecāķi beach and in Carnikava.

Ja Rušona ezeru iepazīstiet ar laivu, tad var apmeklēt Lielo salu (ezera rietumdaļā),kur (augstākajā vietā) ir jāuzmeklē ap 1,2 m augstais akmens. Konstatēts, ka tā apkārtnē un uz virsmas kurināta uguns. Atrastas arī senlietas. Nostāsti vēsta, ka akmens virsmā bijušas iekaltas zīmes (nav saskatāmas) un pie tā upurēti jēri. Tikai nedodieties ezerā, ja ir vai gaidāms stiprs vējš! Rušona ezera salas ir dabas liegums.