The craftspeople use natural materials to produce rattles, wind chimes and musical instruments. They teach children how to make pipes out of reeds. Aleksandrs has a collection of some 100 different instruments which he knows how to play. You can commission or purchase products from the craftspeople.

This territory was established to protect various kinds of rare butterflies A popular tourist destination in the Nīcgaļi forests is the great rock of Nīcgale, which is the largest rock in Latvia – a geological and geo-morphological monument of nature. The rock has a circumference of 31.1 metres, and it is 3.5 metres high, 10.5 metres long and 10.4 metres wide for a total size of 170 m3.

There are both sandy beaches with a good infrastructure and a rock beach in Roja.  The rocky beach leads to a huge rock that is 2 m high and 12.5 m in diameter.  The coastline is lovely with its scattered stones and its unhurried rhythm of time.  At the place where the Silupīte River flows into the sea there are remnants of ancient wooden boats and iron nails.  In 1939, Roja became the starting point for a closed zone, because the Soviet army and navy were sited there until 1993.  The dunes at Krasta Street feature Soviet heritage, including a large cement wall from which border guards used to monitor the sea and catch those who violated the border.  Behind the dunes was a base for border guards with everything they needed.  Roja housed a Border Guard post and an air defence radio locator. (Source: Roja TIC)

The craftsman typically produces objects that are of use on an everyday basis. They have laconic forms and reticent decorations. You can take a tour of the workshop and kiln, watch demonstrations, and work with the clay yourself. You can purchase finished products, look at the beekeeping operation, and taste and purchase honey.

Schoolchildren up to the 6th grade are offered tours during which they can learn about animals, feed them and pet them.  Older students will learn about the evolution and biology of horses, as well as about work with horses.  Easy hikes are offered to tourists.

Baltijā lielākās HES celtniecību uzsāka 1961. g., bet pabeidza 1966. g. Tajā uzstādīto 10 hidroagregātu projektētā jauda bija 825 MW. Pļaviņu HES tiek uzskatīta par unikālu, jo pirmoreiz HES būvniecības praksē tā konstrukcija tika balstīta uz mālsmilts un smilšmālu gruntīm ar maksimālo spiedienaugstumu - 40 m! Pļaviņu HES ēka ir apvienota ar ūdens pārgāzi, zem kuras atrodas Latvijas garākais tunelis - Enerģētiķu iela. 20. gs. deviņdesmitajos gados Pļaviņu HES rekonstruēja un tagad tās jauda ir sasniegusi 870 MW. Apmeklētāji var iepazīt mašīnzāli, skatu laukumus un HES maketu.

The café is along the Rīga-Ventspils highway (A10). A summer terrace is available during the season.

Latvian cuisine: Beef tongue salad, chilled soup, stock with dumplings, “little farmer,” pork ribs, potato pancakes and crepes, whipped fool.

Special foods: Kharcho a la “Pie Jānis”.

One of the highest dunes in Latvia, located between Bernāti and Jūrmalciems villages. It is 37m high and offers a magnificent view of the sea and natural pine forests. The highest dunes in Latvia stand to the South of Jūrmalciems village: the Pūsēnu hill, the Ķupu hill, the Mietragkalns or Tiesas hill, the Pāļu hill, the Garais hill, the Ātrais hill, the Lāvas hill. The Pūsēnu dune is the highest of these dunes which are all called hills by the local people. The Pūsēnu hill developed between 1785 to 1835 when shifting sand became extremely dangerous. Several homesteads were buried in sand, among them „Pūsēni”, where a forester’s family lived. The family is said to have moved to Bārta. The dune was named after the buried homestead.

Jēkabs Janševskis, a Latvian writer, wrote in his book „Nīca”: “In olden times, large pine trees were growing in the dunes on the coast of Nīca and they stood steady and firm. But i Swedish times (around 1650), the Swedes built a large kiln for charcoal and tar. Pine wood and stumps provided an excellent material for this. Once a big fire rose, and the charcoal kiln burned down as well as the whole pine forest. The remaining stumps and bare trunks in the vast burnout could not hold the storm-driven sand; it flew further and further burying not only the burned-out forest, but also the nearest fields. In wintertime, when the vast, low marshy grasslands were covered with ice, jets of sand drifted further over its surface, and soon most of the grasslands and large meadows turned into sandy heath-land and dunes.”

To reconstruct Liepāja, severely damaged during WWII, a silicate brick factory was built in the town. The main raw material was white sand and it was taken from the Bernātu forest. In the 1960-ies they started to dig off the Green Dune and the White Dune, later also the Pūsēnu hill. The excavators used to work day and night, in three shifts. The work stopped at around 1980, as there was no more sand suitable for production of brick.

A trail is set up to facilitate walking in the Pūsēnu Dune in the Bernātu Nature Park.

A wooden church was built here in 1766, and the new brick church was built on the foundations of the old church and consecrated in 1868.  The tall steeple of the church helped ship captains orient themselves during the daytime.  An altar painting by Gunta Liepiņa-Grīva, "Christ and Peter on the Sea," was consecrated in 1993 to replace the former painting, which was lost.  The blue-white-green Livonian flag was consecrated at the Mazirbe manse (now a recollection centre) on November 18, 1923.  Near the manse are several rocks which stand witness to the Black Plague in 1710 and 1711.  The text in Latin said that Livonians on the coastline were conquered by Swedish King Karl IX and the bubonic plague.  The texts on the rocks have eroded away, but records of them were made.  The Mazirbe cemetery has a monument to Old Taisel, a monument to the parents of captain A. Bertholds, and the legendary grave of a werewolf.