Going to Latvia

cyclone

cyclone

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I'm off to Latvia for a Stag party tonight.
We come home late night Sunday (will be just about Monday when we actually get home).

Initially I wanted to take my D80 and 18-200VR and a spare battery for the trip. I want to get some nice shots of the paintballing on Saturday, maybe a group photo in the hotel when we're off out dressed as school boys tomorrow night.

The problem is I've just read some real horror stories about Latvia, we Riga in particular which is of course where we're going. It seems the nightlife, strip joints in particular are controlled by Russian Mafia!

Although I don't plan to take the D80 on any bar crawls or into nightclubs I'm wondering if it's too risky to take it at all. I can't be certain that the hotels are safe and/or secure.

I can live with the risk of paintballing, IMO you have to get close to the action if you want action photo's, but the thought of being mugged for my camera puts me off a lot.

Has anybody been? Are the stories exaggerated? Would you ever go back? Any ideas?
 
I'd take a compact mate! Unless you we're planning to sneak off and do some togging by yourself of the city, you are basically taking some shots of your mates in a social environment, so why bother with the big camera?? Don't get me wrong, Riga has some lovely togging opportunities, but do you reckon your mates will be anymore impressed of your nicely composed SLR action shots, than the ones your mate took on his iPhone, that are all blurred, but 'Robbo's pulling a funny face on'

I definitely wouldn't take it anywhere near the seedy side of Riga if you do take it. One of my mates got stung for £200 on a stag do there, so I'm sure the bouncers would love a big digital camera to let you out of the local peep show!! ;) :D
 
That's the thing, there will be a bit of free 'wander around time' and if nowt goes wrong I'll be gutted I left the cam at home. And the paintballing is a good photo opp for me.
Not bothered about the going out side of it, or sneaking it into a strip joint or anything like that, or taking facebook photo's for all of them, like you say they can do that for themselves.

If you think it'll be fine in the day and tuck it away at night, then that's pretty much what I want to do.
 
cyclone said:
That's the thing, there will be a bit of free 'wander around time' and if nowt goes wrong I'll be gutted I left the cam at home. And the paintballing is a good photo opp for me.
Not bothered about the going out side of it, or sneaking it into a strip joint or anything like that, or taking facebook photo's for all of them, like you say they can do that for themselves.

If you think it'll be fine in the day and tuck it away at night, then that's pretty much what I want to do.
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You'll be fine on a wander by yourself daytime - even at night it felt reasonably safe when I went with the missus. I'd check out the hotel online, and if it looks sound, I'd mebbe get the reception to hold onto your camera when you're not lugging it about??
 
Went to Riga a couple of years ago- Had no problems at all-Mind you didn't go to any stag night venues- during the day wandered all over without incident. Rob
 
cyclone said:
The problem is I've just read some real horror stories about Latvia, we Riga in particular which is of course where we're going. It seems the nightlife, strip joints in particular are controlled by Russian Mafia!

Although I don't plan to take the D80 on any bar crawls or into nightclubs I'm wondering if it's too risky to take it at all. I can't be certain that the hotels are safe and/or secure.

Has anybody been? Are the stories exaggerated? Would you ever go back? Any ideas?
Click to expand...

A little late but due to the forum upgrade, signing in has been a little difficult today (no complaints though :thumbs:)

Myself and my lovely lady visited Riga in March, it was great! I took my back up camera due to all the warnings, a D200, 18-200VR and a 50mm 1.4.
All the gear was kept in a very inconspicuous shoulder bag. I also took my laptop which I left in our hotel room at Monte Kristo and that was fine too. Monte Kristo has a very good reputation for being safe and reliable.

See our stuff here.

There will be stories reflecting that not a single problem was encountered, Riga is safe. I'm sure there have been tourists that haven't encountered any problems but it doesn't mean that they do not exist.
Your right about the mafia, there are plenty of bars and strip clubs to avoid, not that we were interested in strip clubs but my girlfriend read up thoroughly before going, there are quite a few places to avoid and things to look out for.

The general rule is to avoid any bars which have bouncers on the door, the horror stories that you would have heard will go along the lines of being treated very well by the staff (complimentary bottles of champagne arriving at your table, 'free' drinks etc) and then being walloped with an extortionate four figure bill, then being violently threatened if you don't pay up, in some cases tourists have been escorted to cash points and forced to make a withdrawal. I think maybe ask how much drinks are before assuming that all is well.

It's also said that calling the police can be quite useless as they have been known to be in cahoots, so, your better off avoiding all these places wherever possible IMO. There are many fabulous bars that don't employ brick houses on the door so its not as if it limits your choice anyway. It will however if boobs and bums are of high priority, I'd be very careful if that's a menu item that everyone in your party is expecting to see.

Here's a list of bars given to diplomats that should be avoided: (Some of these bars may have been shut down or renamed)

Foxy Lounge
Roxy Klub
Lord’s Pub
Puzzle
Mary
DD Bars
Saxon
Doll House
Bar Fly
Zephry Bar
Mademoiselle Cigar Club
Nobu Sushi
Scandal
La Rocca

Also, it appears that every travel forum or review we came across mentioned that locals despise tourists on stage nights I'm afraid and frankly I don't blame them, this is no sweeping generalization to you and your buddies but I'd keep things very polite and try to encourage your party to keep it civil if you wish to keep reception benefical.

For further reading have a browse through the warnings and dangers at Virtual Tourist

So there you go, despite being cautious, we really enjoyed our time and will be going back. Most likely in off season again though, during the summer it can be a little much. :D

I can recommend Rozengrals, an excellent medieval style restaurant that's 700 years old, the food and the beer were unforgettable!
 
Cheers for the help guys.
I'm back, and I still own a D80, yay!

It's true the locals hate the Stag party's, and although I can see why, they didn't mind taking money off us while we were there, seems they want it both ways.

I did tell the group on the way down some of the scams, the hostel even had them printed on the inside of our bedrooms but 2 of the guys managed to get frog marched to a cashpoint after about 2 minutes in a bar, oh well I tried.

Didn't get any paintballing shots (in the field) but had a great weekend and got plenty of photo's mainly involving beer for the boys to have copies of :D Left Thursday, got home early hours today and I had a total of 4 hours sleep in Latvia, yep it was messy :lol:
 
Cheers for the help guys.
I'm back, and I still own a D80, yay!

It's true the locals hate the Stag party's, and although I can see why, they didn't mind taking money off us while we were there, seems they want it both ways.

I did tell the group on the way down some of the scams, the hostel even had them printed on the inside of our bedrooms but 2 of the guys managed to get frog marched to a cashpoint after about 2 minutes in a bar, oh well I tried.

Didn't get any paintballing shots (in the field) but had a great weekend and got plenty of photo's mainly involving beer for the boys to have copies of :D Left Thursday, got home early hours today and I had a total of 4 hours sleep in Latvia, yep it was messy :lol:
 
I went to Riga on a stag do last October. We ended up in Dolls, which is one of the places on the list you're advised not to go in, other sites said it was fine. I think it's all about being street wise and applying common sense.

Don't look for trouble and you should be fine - as you found out :) I wouldn't have taken my DSLR, wouldn't have thought a stag do is the place for it but glad it worked out for you.
 
No but we were there for 3 days so I knew I'd have some call to use it. Glad I didn't take it out on the nights, that's when it got really hectic. I got some nice reportage type shots on the last day which the lads seem to like.
Don't think I'll be rushing back to Riga though.

 
ha ha excellent thread
love Riga

i've not really figured out why people still have stag parties there.. the beer isnt cheap, some of the strip joints are dodgy, ryanair/airbaltic isnt cheap with all the extra charges, and thanks to the Lat being tagged to the Euro the accommodation isnt cheap either.
Better of stagging in London

I had my stag in London, and got married in Latvia.. (OK, so i had another stag night in Riga too, but we did everything as the romans do and didnt act like c**ts)

Heard stories about brits being annoyed at being arrested after urinating on the statue of freedom. They probably wouldnt do it if they had been to the museum of soviet occupation beforehand. No wonder the locals hate us. Mind you, the locals hate the locals, but thats another story.
 
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