My 17 year old teenager and I (Dad) took two 'private' walking tours with EAT Riga, the Old Town... read more
My 17 year old teenager and I (Dad) took two 'private' walking tours with EAT Riga, the Old Town... read more
I was traveling solo in Riga and I booked a private tour of 'alternative Riga'. I had Arturs as my... read more
We went on a public Art Nouveau walking tour in mid September with this company. Our tour guide met us on time at the agreed place. She was friendly and knowledgeable. She was also good at answering our questions.The guide told us some interesting stories about the buildings that we saw. She also showed us inside some of the buildings which was very nice. The tour itinerary was spontaneous and picturesque.
However, we feel that the tour could use some kind of introduction at the start and also the overall conclusion at the end. It was bit difficult to get into the tour as we didn't know what to expect. It would be beneficial to explain a general overview of the architectural style of art nouveau at the beginning, so that it would explain what we were going to see. When explaining the building it would also be nice to mention more about the inspirations of the architects rather than just pointing at the features of the building. I believe that usually when people go on very specific tours like an art nouveau walk for example they generally have a strong interest in architecture and they want to get quite an indepth overview.
Otherwise, we did enjoy ourselves, and we would recommend the tour.
We spent a couple of hours with our excellent guide Marcus. He took us around central market and shared his knowledge around Riga and the history of the town and the market. We learnd abouth the local food and culture and at the end of the tour we sat down for a tasting of some local delicacies. A great experience that I can really recomend to everyone.
On my return trip to Riga I wanted to visit Rumbulla,Selaspils and Bikernieki memorials. I could have done this on my own on the bus but decided a guide would be able to tell me more about the places. E.A.T arranged this trip especially for me (James). Arturs was my guide,he picked me up at my hotel and drove to the three sites as well as being my guide. He was very informative about all three locations as well as other information on the subject. He was a very polite young man and spoke beautiful English. He also informed me of other places that might interest me on the same subject. All in all it was a great morning out,very emotional but well worth the visit. A great big thank you to James and Arturs and the rest of the team. I can not wait to return to see where you take me.
When I found out that our cruise ship docked at the freight terminal half an hour from Old Town Riga, I discussed our option of getting into town with Arturs. Even though EAT Riga Walking Tour normally does walking tours but Arturs was so kind to help our group arranged a bus to pick us up at the pier so we could turn our walking tour into a full day tour of Riga instead. When he found out very late that the bus company didn't request access to the freight terminal in time so the bus could not come to pick us up at the pier and we were not allowed to walk out to the entrance of the freight terminal to meet the bus. Our only option left was to take the ship shuttle into old town, walk to the EAT office to start the private walking tour from there. By then we only had enough time to do the old town walking tour. We appreciated Arturs's goodwill gesture of a discount on our private tour because of the problem with the bus.
Arturs was very informative and professional. He showed us places that only the locals would know. His English was excellent. At the end of the tour he pointed us to the direction of the Art Nouveau district so we went on our own to see some of the buildings as we didn't have time left to have a tour there. Most in our group liked old town better than the Art Nouveau district.
My husband and I spent the last week in Riga getting in touch with the homeland of some of his ancestors. I started communicating with EAT Riga tours because of their excellent reviews about a year ago. The owner/manager, Arturs Adamson, was dream to work with as he was always responsive and said that he could accommodate anything we wanted to do during the many tours (almost daily) that we took with them. After I hurt my hip right before the trip and had trouble walking long distances and climbing stairs, all of the guides (Arturs, Marcus, Agnes and Lauris) customized everything so that I would not miss a thing! Arturs also referred us to one of the guides, Lauris Olups, for additonal help with our family research. A couple of long tours were designed so that we could actually visit four of the towns where the ancestors were born and Arturs and Lauris arranged meetings with local experts to help us get better insight into the period of time when my husband's ancestors lived there. It was like a dream come true to walk through the streets where they walked, to visit a house we thought might belong ot one of them, and to visit the old cemetery where their descendents were most likely buried. The best way to start with tours in Riga is to take their very comprehensive Food tour which includes a canal ride around the Old Town (this is an optional add-on), and walking through the Old Town to the Central Market where we had a beer tasting and other food sampling. Lunch consisted of fun food sampling at a local deli right near the Central Market. Then the tour continued at 7pm at one of the new, creative trendy farm to table restaurants in town Delicous! All ofl the guides were extremely professional, spoke excellent English, and were always ready to customize the tour by the minute to meet our desires. We also took the Sigulda Tour, the Soviet -Nazi Tour, the Jurmala Tour and the Kuldiga Tour. If you are going to visit beautiful, historic Riga and want a great personal experience, use EAT Riga Tours!
We booked places on the public tour before our holiday started and found we were the only people so it was like a private tour. Our guide was great fun, knowledgeable and entertaining. It was the perfect way to get to know both the history of Riga and find our bearings in the maze of medieval streets. Thoroughly recommended.