The sauna tradition is thought to originate somewhere in northern Europe around 2,000 BC and has remained an important part of cultural life to this day in many countries including Estonia, Latvia, and Finland. The locals indeed like to debate who now has the best saunas, but the truth is that their building techniques and traditions have evolved mostly in parallel for the past few thousand years, which is why saunas are a way of life and in many ways, the history of sauna is really a history of us. In addition to the sauna traditions the countryside provides a varied ambience of heritage – numerous national parks, contrasting coastlines, historic sites, varied landscapes, rich wildlife, charming small towns full of history and peaceful milieu.

Visiting all three countries in one trip is very easy – relatively short travelling distances between and within the countries due to their small size, no border formalities since all are in EU, the same time zone, the same currency and similar climate.

Sauna brochure (EN)

Sauna brochure (JP)

“Mazsālijas” is a guest house on an organic farm. The farm breeds fallow deer and trout, grows vegetables and fruit, makes wine. The hostess offers a 4 hour food workshop for small groups of visitors to cook a meal together in a friendly atmosphere. During the food workshop visitors will learn how to cook a meal on a firewood stove from the home produce – vegetables, trout, and fallow deer meet. The food workshop includes cooking a three-course meal: a starter (fallow deer tartar, salted trout), the main course: trout fried on butter with steamed vegetables, fallow deer meet with rosemary and potato gratin, a dessert: cream cheese with strawberry sorbet.

Creative workshops offered by the “Sauleskalns” crafts house allow children and adults to discover in himself talents as a craftsman and artist. Professional teachers help to create wonderful stuff that pleases yourself and others.

“Puzurs” is a traditional Latvian room decoration for Christmas. It is made from straw, and its’ light, airy form and precise geometry is fascinating. This decoration really brings festive feeling.
The crafts house also offers workshops in gingerbread baking and making traditional Christmas to help everyone get prepared for Christmas celebrations.

On December 21, Valmiermuiža will gather local producers from all around Latvia, offering homemade bread, cheese, smoked goods, lamprey, honey, herbal teas, spices, homemade wine, beer, juice, candied fruit, hard candy, gingerbread cookies and lots more.

Everything offered at the fair is natural and, hence, healthy, made by locally grown plants or gathered in the clean forests and meadows of Latvia. Local craftsmen will offer woollen socks, mittens, crochets, hammered work, wooden toys and jewellery to give them as presents to friends and relatives. Items made by local craftsmen would make our ancestors proud, as they have been made according to the best traditions.

Along the fair all visitors will have an opportunity to enjoy a varied culture programme, including activities to get better acquainted with the traditions of the annual customs, learn songs and games, master some of the traditional crafts and much more. 

According to an old Latvian belief, nine dishes should be served for the festive Christmas meal. The hostess at “Vīnkalni” country house will teach visitors how to cook three Latvian traditional dishes:

‘Biguzis’ – a traditional country dessert with rye bread, whipped cream and fresh berries. Its ingredients are rye bread, cranberries or lingonberries, honey, cinnamon and whipped cream. Mature rye bread is crushed or grated. Cranberries are squeezed in juice, diluted with water, sweetened with honey and poured into bread. When the bread has sucked into the liquid, it is topped with whipped cream.

Fresh cheese – made from cow's milk adding various herbs and spice (cumin, hemp, greens).

Buns and cakes. It is said that in Latvian folk tradition round cakes and buns in the form of a crescent were baked to honour the Sun and the Moon. Today they are often baked for celebrations and festivities. The traditional Latvian buns ‘pīrāgi’ are made from yeast dough, are 5-13cm long in a curved form like a crescent. They are filled with bacon and onions or with cottage cheese or apples.

Those who sell and those who buy are looking forwards to meet on the December 15 Christmas market at Straupe! There will be lots of seasonal treats and goodies for your festive table. To name just a few: fresh carp, a specially prepared quince elixir, vacuum packed beef, lamb, turkey, freshly cooked smoked meat, gingerbread dough, candy, marmalade, tea and honey jars. It will be a great and rich market that will fulfil all your wishes in the run-up to Christmas!

Ar prieku paziņojam, ka ir izdots "Go Rural 2020"! 
"Go Rural 2020" lauku tūrisma produktu rokasgrāmata paredzēta tūrisma operatoriem, nozares profesionāļiem un ceļotājiem. Tā izdota angļu valodā un japāņu valodā. Rokasgrāmatā iekļauta praktiska informācija, lai saplānotu ceļojumu Latvijā, Igaunijā un Somijas dienvidu daļā – dienas ekskursiju programmas laukos, apmeklējumi ražojošās lauku saimniecībās un amatnieku darbnīcās, saimniecībās, kas iepazīstina ar latvisko dzīvesveidu, lauku viesnīcas un SPA, kā arī vairāku dienu tūru programmas.
Elektroniskā versija: https://www.celotajs.lv/lv/p/view/GoRural2020

Produkti rokasgrāmatā iekļauti atsaucoties uz mūsu pašu, tūroperatoru un mūsu sadarbības partneru Japānā pieredzi, kā arī japāņu ceļotāju aptaujām. Kā iepriekš, rokasgrāmatā ir arī informācija par transporta iespējām, kā arī Latvijas, Igaunijas un Somijas tūrisma operatoru kontakti.

Šis ir jau trešais "Go Rural" (Baudi laukus) izdevums - katru gadu atjaunots un uzlabots, balstoties iepriekšējo izdevumu pieredzē. Jau nākamnedēļ prezentēsim to Osakā - tūrisma izstādē "JATA Tourism Expo 2019, Osaka Japan".

This great jubilee is celebrated with a great variety of events all over the country. Full calendar of events is published at www.lv100.lv . 
Seven Routes of Latvia’s Statehood have been developed within the programme for celebration of the centenary of Latvia as a state. They offer destinations and farms to visit, with wealthy stories of memories and beautiful landscapes all around. The routes lead to all regions of the country, and each route is devoted to a particular theme of Latvia’s formation as a state. All route descriptions and itineraries are found here https://www.celotajs.lv/en/c/brand/lv100?lang=en .
 

The “central artery” of Gauja National Park is the River Gauja with many tributaries. Many of these are rapid and swift, with clean, unpolluted water enriched with water coming from many springs, and therefore they are suitable for spawning of salmon-like fish — the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brown trout (Salmo trutta), and stream trout (Salmo trutta fario). After a longer trip, the salmon-like fish travel in autumn to their birth places, and thus this is the time best suitable not only to watch the fish, but also enjoy what is happening on the riverside. The best time to go is late October, beginning of November. The local guides on staff of the Nature Conservation Agency take visitors to the best salmon watching spots.
http://www.entergauja.com/en/enter-gauja/routes/spawning-of-salmon-like-fish-in-gauja-national-park

Mushrooming season starts in our forests after the unusually warm and dry summer. The Kārļamuiža country hotel, located in Gauja National Park offers one day mushrooming tours in natural forest environment. The forest terrain in the selected mushrooming spots is easy to walk, covered with moss, fallen leaves and small plants. There is a great variety of mushrooms in the forest, but the most popular edible mushrooms are the various Boletus, Russulas, and Chanterelles. The hotel provides a fungi guide to help safely make difference between edible and non-edible species, and to orientate in the forest. The hotel restaurant chef offers dishes from wild mushrooms. 

On September 2, the popular Straupe farmer’s market invites everyone to celebrate the rich harvest. This summer has been generous, so the market offers a wealth of countryside goodies from gardens and fields. The market sells a variety of foods, animals and poultry, plants and seedlings, and handicrafts.
Straupe’s farmers’ market is a member of the Slow Food International Earth Markets alliance. The produce that is sold on the market conforms with the Slow Food philosophy – it is locally grown, seasonal and of good quality. It has been grown and produced in a responsible way. 
 

A series of presentation events will be held in several largest cities of Japan (Osaka, Nagoya, Tokyo) in July, where the professionals of the Baltic tourism sector will introduce the representatives of Japanese tourism sector (~150  professionals) with the Baltic states as a common tourism destination and jointly developed offer of rural tourism with traditional tourism destinations, as well as the possibility of group and individual travel. This event is organised by tourism organisations of 3 Baltic States and we are participating in it with our offer of rural tourism opportunities. The objective of the event is to invite the representatives of Japanese tour operators and media to participate in the introductory visit and to encourage them to include the Baltic States on their travel programmes. Meeting permits better understanding of the wishes and needs of the Japanese tourism market, and to prepare answers to questions. The visitors of the Road Show events shall receive both aforementioned marketing publications, as well as small gifts made by our craftsmen and home food producers. 

The marketing expenses have been covered and events have been prepared by uniting in a single project the effort of rural tourism associations of Latvia and Estonia and the regional tourism bureau of the Southern Finland, as well as several universities, as well as in co-operation with  Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and Estonian and Finnish Tourist Board. 
 

We have prepared  a manual of rural tourism products Go rural 2018. This is the second edition, updated and supplemented, based on the experience of the activities and results of last year’s marketing events. As tourism businesses and tour operators have observed, Japanese tourists like not only traditional tourist destinations of Latvia, but also the offers associated with environment and plant world, for instance, nature trails, picking mushrooms, learning about local medicinal herbs, etc.
The manual is intended for tour operators, professionals of the sector and travellers. It has been published and printed in Japanese, as well as its electronic version is available in English. The manual includes practical information that helps while planning your trip - programmes of single day excursions in the countryside, visits to producing farmhouses and craftsmen’s workshops, homesteads, which introduce to the traditional rural lifestyle, visits to rural hotels and SPA facilities, as well as multiple-day-long tourism programmes. In response to the interest of tour operators and Japanese travellers, the offers of wedding trips are also included in the manual.  The manual contains information on public transport, as well as the contact information of Latvian, Estonian and Finnish tour operators. 
Electronic version: http://www.celotajs.lv/en/p/view/GoRural_2018

The publication introduces the reader with typical Finnish, Estonian and Latvian meals that are both traditional and contemporary and can be found on the menus of cafeterias and restaurants. The cuisine of our countries has lots in common in terms of food recipes, as well as the ways of product use. Fresh, seasonal local products are highly valued, however, each country has their own meals and traditions of cooking and serving them. The GoRural Food and Drinks brochure is meant to encourage Japanese visitors to learn about our traditional meals and food habits. Each description of a dish included in the brochure contains the list of ingredients used in its preparation, the way of cooking and a photo. The descriptions have been grouped in chapters: Cheese, Greens and Salads, Soups, Fish Dishes, Meat Dishes, Mushrooms, Bread, Sweet Dishes, Pancakes, Drinks.
The brochure has been compiled in English as well, but it has been printed in Japanese.

Electronic version: http://www.celotajs.lv/en/p/view/GoRural_FoodAndDrinks
 

This is the biggest events for all those interested in traditional arts and crafts. The best masters participate in the market demonstrating and selling traditional and modern designs. The market takes place in the Open air ethnographic museum in Riga, in June 2-3.
Information: http://brivdabasmuzejs.lv/en/all-events/the-ethnographic-open-air-museum-of-latvia/the-48th-latvian-folk-applied-arts-fair/ 
 

In May 25-27, Dobele town invites visitors to Lilac festival. It takes place in one of the largest lilac gardens in Europe, with over 200 types and sorts of lilac. The festival programme includes open air stage performances of the best Latvian opera singers.
More info: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Dobele-Tourist-Information-Center-1597274413896942/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1597285553895828

Traveller’s day invites visitors to enjoy everything tourists can experience in protected nature areas – guided nature tours with animal watching and getting familiar with protected nature values, visiting local producers and craftsmen, local markets, music and dance performances. Free guided walking, cycling and boating tours are organised to present heritage and contemporary attractions. Nature experts from national parks’ staff become nature guides and take visitors to restricted sites that are not commonly open for visiting.

• Slītere national park invites to Traveller’s days in June 9-10.
• Ķemeru national park invites travellers on May 5.

In May 4-5, rural farms open their doors to visitors all over the country. They proudly present their produce and offer special excursion programmes to introduce production and farm life. Animal husbandry farms attract people who enjoy seeing baby lambs, calves, rabbits and horses as they are born in spring. Gardening farms are prepared to demonstrate plants and seedlings. Visitors are happy to meet biological farmers to see how eco vegetables and fruit are grown. Craftsmen offer master classes of traditional crafts – bread and cheese making, pottery, weaving, etc. Some farms make a special treat offering a soup made on a bonfire. There are special programmes and discounts on every participating farm. This is a true countryside festival where urban meets rural, and this year it coincides with the National Independence Day of Latvia on May 4.

More information: www.celotajs.lv/atvertasdienas

Every spring there is a Flying Fish Festival in Kuldīga, a UNESCO national heritage town in West of Latvia. There is a waterfall on the river Venta, known as the Venta Rapid. It is ca 100m wide and ca 1.6 high. When fish come up the river in their spawning trip, and they jump over the waterfall flying in the air, the locals say – spring has arrived. 300 years ago the local fishermen invented a cute fishing method. They used to stand on the waterfalls and catch the flying fish in baskets. On April 28 this year, the Flying Fish Festival starts the tourism season.   The city garden will host a fish market and fish tasting event, and an entertainment programme with master classes of traditional crafts and music performances.

On 28th of April there will a festival "Flying Fish Festival in Kuldīga".

We have come up with some carefully detailed programs in the countryside that might catch the interest of individual travellers and groups alike. They can be experienced as stopover visits with lunch in the countryside if you are on a longer touring route, or as 1-2 day outings for people staying in Riga. The program descriptions include maps, distances, timing, facilities, contacts and other practical details that help to plan your trip. Get inspired to explore the countryside!

The Valmiermuiža beer brewery is a great keeper of local traditions and a local community centre just 110km from Riga. On the top of producing excellent beer, they organise seasonal celebrations and farmers markets.  Valmiermuiža’s winter solstice market is a popular celebration that attracts visitors from near and far, tempting them with fragrances, flavours and visual delights. This year it is held on December 16. As usual in Valmiermuiža, the market will be attended by craftsmen and home producers offering visitors pots of honey, authentic rural rye bread, homemade wines, dried berries and other delicacies. In addition, visitors can also choose from a selection of beautiful and useful Christmas gifts including warm gloves, woollen socks, attractive jewellery, woven baskets, wooden spoons, leather gloves and wallets. During the market, special workshops will be open where everybody will be able to learn the ancient practices of solstice celebrations and to make traditional decorations from natural materials.
The market closes in the evening to continue the celebration together with “Dandari”, a popular folklore group to involve everybody in singing, dancing and traditional seasonal games as Latvians celebrated in pre-Christian times.
 

Gingerbreads – the famous Christmas cookies are a real Christmas treat. Many people make them at home, and many bakeries offer ready-made dough. Traditional ingredients are honey, malt, butter, eggs, flour, and a rich bouquet of various spices including ginger, cinnamon, clove, and more. The “Lāči” bakery is famous for its great variety of traditional rye bread, but in Christmas season they offer gingerbread workshops. Small groups of 10-15 people are welcome to enjoy a 1 hour session with a  professional baker making gingerbreads in wonderful shapes – it is even possible to make your gingerbread Christmas tree or a little gingerbread cabin. Traditionally gingerbreads are glazed in sugar coating to make them nice and beautiful. Natural colours are used to make the glazing colourful, like beet-root, fruit and berry juices. Such masterpieces are often used as decorations on Christmas tree. 

The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia in Riga offer the traditional Yule log Eve on December 17. Christian and pre-Christian traditions live along well in modern Latvia. Many Latvians celebrate Winter Solstice following old Latvian traditions. The idea of this celebration is the victory of light over the darkness as days are getting longer and nights are getting shorter. As in old times, to ward off the darkness, cold, last year's hard luck, bad work and thoughts, people roll the Yule Log from one farm to another and eventually burn it. The Yule Log burning symbolizes the beginning of a new solar year and the Sun itself, which is very important for farmers. And of course, it is time for ‘happiness casting’, fortune-telling, merrymaking and games. 

Winter season reveals fascinating bog landscapes when shimmering snow crystals cover trees, majestic silence rules and abundance of fresh, snow-smelling air makes one happily dizzy.
Two young Latvian nature scientists came up with the idea to offer bog tours some years ago. Since then, their bog tours have become extremely popular in all seasons as family fun, team building experience or nature lovers’ escape. The tours are available for small groups, and the participants are given special snow shoes to make walking easier on the snow. The route length in the Great Ķemeru bog is 6km, and the guided tour takes ca 3-4 hours. The guide tells about plant and animal life, about nature processes in the bog and landscape. Even when temperatures are below 0°C, people feel warm as walking takes some physical effort. The Great Ķemeru bog offers and excellent and safe opportunity to spend a day in wild nature just 45km from Riga.

Welcome to Finland, Estonia and Latvia – three neighbouring countries in the North of Europe and Scandinavia, on the shores of the Baltic Sea. This brochure will help independent travellers plan a holiday trip in the South of Finland, Estonia and Latvia beyond traditional touristic routes and to discover the real countryside. 

Finns, Estonians and Latvians share similarities in mentality and way of life, but each country is still proud of its unique identity. All three countries are safe and easy to travel around – there is a good road and transport network, and there are many guest houses and country hotels, even in remote country areas, to welcome guests.

In this brochure, you will find the key information that is necessary to plan a trip – a map of the Baltic Sea countries with airports and sea ports marked, names and contacts of airlines, ferry and bus companies and car hire, and suggestions for holiday themes in the countryside. Besides, we have provided a number of web links to useful sources of more detailed information. 

Let this brochure inspire you for a holiday trip!

We have come up with five new touring routes that offer colourful holiday experiences across three Baltic Sea states – Latvia, Estonia, and the South Coast region of Finland. The itineraries combine city and rural experiences offering the best highlights in each country and UNESCO heritage in all its diversity - from Art Nouveau architecture in capital cities to traditional smoke sauna in Estonian countryside. The countryside attractions are specialised in hospitality service and offer insight in small self-sustained farms, local food, arts and crafts, and nature while staying at comfortable guest houses, rural estates with gourmet restaurants or charming country homesteads that make you feel happy in simplicity and sincerity of real country life and home-made meals.

The tours can be organised on your own contacting the sites directly, or contacting Baltic Country Holidays for arrangement of services or modifications of the itineraries. Read further for itinerary descriptions and maps:

Dobele is a town in the cultural region Zemgale, in the central part of the country on the banks of the river Bērze. The town has long standing apple cultivation traditions. The Latvian national insitute of horticulture has its orchard there with some 600 sorts of apple trees. The orchard is named after Pēteris Upītits, a prominent Latvian horticulturist and breeder. For this reason Dobele is known as the Latvian capital of apples.
The 4th Apple festival will be held in Dobele on October 7, 2017. It promises a variety of events and activities like apple tasting, a competition to find the biggest, the most beautiful and the heaviest apple, pressing apple juice and making apple jam with produce tasting, the umurkumurs – a traditional pole-climbing contest, awarding ceremony of the Apple Order, singing and dancing performances, craft and farmers’ market, and much more fun for adults and children alike. The Dobele Crafts House will host the exhibition of apples from Pēteris Upītis orchard. The orchard will be open for excursions.
 

This manual is aimed to help you discover rural destinations in South of Finland, Estonia and Latvia beyond traditional touristic routes. The tours and sites in this manual are based around small-scale accommodation, open farms, local producers, living traditions and sincere people. The people here have a close relationship with itsnature and annual cycle. Each season has its own specific activities like mushrooming, berry picking, collecting herbs, ice-fishing and different agricultural jobs as well as traditional and seasonal celebrations. The countries are a haven for the tourist who loves nature, respects traditions and would like to experience the countries and their cultures more deeply.

The summer solstice in June 21-23 is one of the major Latvian summer festivities. Even convinced city people feel tempted to head out for the countryside and be a part of the overwhelming festive mood. Celebrations have to be prepared well in advance with special sort of cheese made, beer brewed, the festive place prepared, the house and yard decorated.  There are ancient rituals and beliefs that have to be carried out for fertility of people and earth, to repel evil spirits. How to celebrate – this is up to you. Some will prefer sitting by the fire, eating delicious Jāņu  cheese, drinking beer and singing songs with the traditional refrain Līgo, others would join the mystery and magic of ancient Midsummer rituals. To understand what this is all about read more about the Midsummer or Summer Solstice traditions and beliefs. Festive food is a significant part of the celebration with the specialty of the day – the Jāņu cheese. Get to know about its origins and meaning here, and feel tempted to enjoy Midsummer in the countryside!

The summer solstice events 2017 (LV).

The spring comes with warm sunlight, lots of outdoor activities and changes in seasonal menus. The countryside turns green with young tree leaves and grasses of all shades. People are eager to start the bicycling season as the countryside offers a variety of scenic cycling routes in forests, along the seashore and on quiet country roads. Adventurous people catch the moment while the water is high in rivers to indulge in kayaking.

Living close to nature, we know how to use its bounty for making invigorating meals that help to wake up after long winter. Latvians make tasty soups and salads using wild sorrel, young nettle and ground-elder. There are spring mushrooms in the forests like false morel.

Sauna has an important role in Latvian culture. It restores the body in physical and spiritual terms. A sauna ritual is an adventure on various levels – healing and purifying the body, concentrating the emotions, learning about yourself, and even experiencing a positive change in one’s consciousness. Sauna rituals are offered by certified and experienced experts, and the rituals make use of gifts from the environment – branch and plant switches, scrubs and body masks from natural and local raw materials. Herbal teas are also offered. In spring time, invigorating sauna ritual can be supplemented by drinking fresh birch saps to restart one’s body and mind.

Along with Christian Easter, Latvian still enjoy the pre-christian traditions of spring solstice. It is celebrated in March – April during the spring equinox. Celebrations can be best held in the countryside as there are many activities that once had a ritual meaning but today can be enjoyed for fun. One of popular traditions is to install big swings and go swinging high like the sun in the sky. For celebrations, Latvians always dye eggs, mostly in onion peels to get deep brown colour with many shades. The egg symbolises the sun and fertility. 
Spring solstice traditions, with swinging, eggs and lots of singing can be witnessed in open farms where people organise celebrations for themselves and guests.

In the countryside, bread baking traditions are still strong. There is a great variety of breads. Latvians cherish the old and special ways to make bread. Centuries old recipes and know-how are in favour. The dough is scalded in a trough, kneaded by hand and then lovingly shaped into loaves that are baked in a real wood stove on maple leaves. Many traditional farmsteads open their doors to tourists and invite them to witness the whole process and get involved preparing own loaf to take home. Nothing is tastier than a warm slice of bread with milk and honey served on a nice terrace among blooming apple ad cherry trees on a fresh and sunny spring day.

Drinking birch saps is an old Latvian tradition. Birch sap is like an “energy drink” that helps to invigorate one’s body after long and dark winter period. It is commonly known for its detoxifying, diuretic, cleansing and purifying properties. In spring, usually in April, when the sun warms up the atmosphere, birch saps start to circulate in trees.

Drinking maple and birch saps is old Latvian tradition. Though maple is introduced species, Latvians have discovered that its saps taste as good as birch, and it starts earlier. Usually saps start running with the first warm days when temperatures stay above zero and stop with the first green leaves. This year maple sap has started to run as early as mid February. At Ragāres farm they collect maple saps and bottle it for own use and for visitors willing to enjoy this seasonal treat.  Saps are collected by drilling a hole in the trunk some 30-40cm from the ground and using a tube to lead the sap into a container. Maple and birch saps are renowned for their detoxicating and curative properties. People drink it fresh and also fermented.

Authentic ethnographic experiences are guaranteed to tourists in guest houses and open farms that are awarded with the “Latvian Heritage” sign. 19 rural tourism businesses joined the “LH” sign holder community on January 11 this year, on a regular “LH” award ceremony with participation of the Latvian Minister of Culture. Today over 70 keepers of Latvian national traditions in the countryside are prepared to show things, tell stories, offer Latvian foods, teach crafts and skills, and celebrate Latvian traditional festivities with their guests.

Latvijas Lauku tūrisma asociācija "Lauku ceļotājs" kopā ar Igaunijas Lauku tūrisma asociāciju un Somijas reģionālo tūrisma asociāciju "Visit South Coast Finland" ir izstrādājušas reklāmas materiālu Japānas mērķauditorijai par tūrisma un atpūtas iespējām laukos un pie dabas Baltijas valstīs un Somijas dienviddaļā.