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Riga at Christmas time, Latvia

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Travel to Latvia

Flying to Latvia

Latvia's national airline is airBaltic (BT) (website: www.airbaltic.com).

Flight times:

From London to Riga is 2 hours 30 minutes. The flight time from Paris is 2 hours 50 minutes.

Departure tax:

None.

Travel by rail

Riga has rail links with Moscow and St Petersburg in the Russian Federation, Tallinn in Estonia and Vilnius in Lithuania. Latvian Railway (Latvijas dzelzceļš) (LDz) (tel: 1181, in Latvia only; www.ldz.lv) can provide detailed information on international routes, though service providers vary.

Driving to Latvia

Entry by car is possible from the Russian Federation, Estonia, Belarus or Lithuania.

The Via Baltica highway runs through the Baltic countries.

Getting to Latvia by boat

Main portsRiga and Ventspils. There are ferry connections from Riga to Stockholm with Tallink (tel: 6709 9700; www.tallink.lv) (journey time - 16 hours). DFDS Tor Line (tel: 6784 0777; www.dfdstorline.com) runs ferries from Riga to Lübeck in Germany (journey time - 32 hours). Ferries also go from Ventspils to Nynäshamn and Rostock with Scandlines (www.scandlines.com). They also used to go to Sāremā with SSC Ferries (tel: 360 7184; www.slkferries.ee), however this service is to 'take a break' in 2009.

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