RIGA KGB Museum & Ghetto Holocaust Museum in a day?

[Powersurge!]

I'm looking to do the following in Riga Latvia:

 

KGB Museum WITH tour

Central Market

Ghetto Holocaust Museum

Old Town

 

Ship is docked from 11am to 6pm in mid-May.

 

Is it possible to do all this in that time frame?  if walked? or would tram/bus be needed?

[csr10236]

On 1/12/2020 at 7:29 PM, Powersurge! said:

I'm looking to do the following in Riga Latvia:

 

KGB Museum WITH tour

Central Market

Ghetto Holocaust Museum

Old Town

 

Ship is docked from 11am to 6pm in mid-May.

 

Is it possible to do all this in that time frame?  if walked? or would tram/bus be needed?

We're thinking the same! anyone have info on this?

[trosebery]

Riga is very walkable (and public transit wouldn't save you too much time), but it'd still be a tight schedule as you've got about 2 hours total walking time and only 6 hours in port (figuring an 11:30 debark time and a 5:30 all-aboard time), leaving you with 4 hours to see 4 sights.

 

From a debark time of 11:30, it's about a half hour walk to the Ghetto Holocaust Museum and Central Market. (You can probably save 10 minutes by public transit -- there's a tram from very near the port to the central market that would take you about 20 minutes -- although you'd have to decide if the time savings was worth the extra hassle of finding the stop, buying the ticket, etc.) Figure you'll be there by noon.

 

The Museum and Market will probably take you about 2 hours, if you include lunch? Figure that you'll leave there by 2 pm. It's about a 1/2 hour walk to the KGB Museum (again, you may be able to save 10-15 minutes by public transit). Figure that you'll be there around 2:30 to see the exhibition.

 

There's then an English guided tour of the cell block at 3 pm. Figure you'll be finished and starting your walk back no later than 4 pm, giving you a little more than an 1 hour to stroll back through the ship via the Old Town (e.g. House of the Blackheads). It's about a 45 minute walk, allow at least 15 minutes for short detours/photos, aim to be back at the ship by 5 pm for an all-aboard time of 5:30.

 

Would that be adequate time for you to see everything you wanted?

 

If you do choose to use public transit, this is Riga's webiste (though Google is pretty good with the schedules):

https://www.rigassatiksme.lv/en/

Single-use tickets are EUR 2.00.

[Andrisk123]

If you have a data plan that doesn´t charge too much for cell phone data usage in the EU, you can download an app called Bolt which is basically a Baltic version of Uber. Taxis in the Riga Port are notorious hustlers and will gladly charge you something like 15-20 EUR or more for a 5 minute ride to the center, a taxi through Bolt will cost something like 3 EUR for the same distance and they use Google Maps so you are able to input the name of the place you want to go to instead of the street address.

 

If you stop on a weekday I would however walk back to port instead (or take the tram) since the roads to/from the port can be quite congested in the late afternoons, especially if there is a traffic accident somewhere. The last time we went on a cruiseferry to Stockholm we got out of the taxi and walked the last kilometer or so, since time was tight and traffic at a standstill due to an accident. Weekends are a different story and I don´t think I have ever experienced any congestion in Riga on a weekend, so if it is a Saturday or a Sunday the taxi ride to port will take 5 minutes.

 

If I was in your shoes I would probably start with the KGB museum, since that is the part of your excursion that you might get stuck in & want to spend a bit more time in. From there, I'd take a Bolt to the Holocaust Museum. When finished, see how much time you have left and decide what to do. 

 

The Holocaust Museum is quite close to the Central Market, so you could walk there and also eat lunch there (there is a quite nice food court for example) and then just make your way back to the port through Old Town. 

[Powersurge!]

Thank you for the replies!  Like trosebery says, 4hours for 4 stops  is a tight schedule!  I'm looking at walking Riga as I also want to see the "art nouveau" district.  I think I will look at skipping the KGB museum so that I can enjoy the old town more and not be rushed!   

 

If I change my mind, or see we are doing good time, i will take up Andrisk123 recommendation of doing KGB first.

 

[trosebery]

1 hour ago, Powersurge! said:

Thank you for the replies!  Like trosebery says, 4hours for 4 stops  is a tight schedule!  I'm looking at walking Riga as I also want to see the "art nouveau" district.  I think I will look at skipping the KGB museum so that I can enjoy the old town more and not be rushed!   

 

If I change my mind, or see we are doing good time, i will take up Andrisk123 recommendation of doing KGB first.

 

 

The district with the highest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings is about a 20 minute walk north of the medieval Old Town, around Albert Street if you're checking a map. If you want to see both, make sure you give yourself enough time to do so. (There is also an Art Nouveau Museum if you're interested in interiors.)

 

Note that if you want to do the tour at the KGB museum, they recommend booking tickets in advance.

[CPT Trips]

I'd like to issue a trigger warning for the KGB Museum. It is not a “spy” museum. The Soviet occupation was an ugly time and the exposition of enhanced interrogation techniques is not for everyone.