Gauja National Park Loop from Sigulda

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Sigulda

   Sigulda lies in the valley of the Gauja river, about fifty kilometres from Riga, and it behaves like a small Switzerland dropped into the Baltic plain. The land here is deeply cut by the river and its sandstone cliffs, covered in pine and birch forest, and the whole area forms the Gauja National Park, the largest in Latvia. Three castles face one another across the valley, and a cable car crosses it, giving the visitor views of the forest, the river and the autumn colours, which in October are among the best in the Baltic region.

   Read the complete Sigulda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sigulda is where the day begins. Next is Ligatne.

2. 2. Ligatne

   Līgatne is a small town on the Gauja river in the heart of Latvia's biggest national park, and it has an unusual double character. On one side is its past as a company town, built around a paper mill that has been making paper here since the early nineteenth century and which gave the town its rows of tidy workers' houses and its handsome old buildings. On the other is its present as a gateway to nature, with forest trails and a nature park where wild animals live in large enclosures and can be seen from walkways. Bears, wolves, lynx and elk, all native to Latvia's forests, can be watched in surroundings that look more like the wild than a zoo.

   Read the complete Līgatne write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ligatne comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cesis.

3. 3. Cesis

   Cesis has the look of a place that has been fought over, and it has. The old castle, a ruin of grey stone on a low hill above the town, was begun in the early thirteenth century by the Livonian Order, the German crusading knights who conquered this part of the Baltic, and for three centuries it was one of their strongest seats, with towers, walls and the residence of the order's master. It was destroyed in the Great Northern War in the early eighteenth century, and the ruins stand beside a later manor house that now holds a museum. In summer, you can climb the round tower with a candle lantern, a pleasantly gloomy experience.

   Read the complete Cēsis write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Cesis. Next is Valmiera.

4. 4. Valmiera

   Valmiera is the biggest town in northern Latvia, a river city of nearly twenty-seven thousand people on the Gauja, and it feels like a place with its own life rather than a waystation. Its history goes back to the thirteenth century, when the Livonian Order, the German crusading knights who controlled much of the Baltic, built a castle here, and the ruins still stand on a hill above the river. The Church of St Simon, a tall Gothic building with a brick tower, is one of the oldest in Latvia, and its bells ring across the town. The town was heavily damaged in the Second World War, and much of the centre has a plain look, but it has been rebuilt with parks, riverside paths and a lively market.

   Read the complete Valmiera write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Valmiera, late in the day. Next is Sigulda.

5. 5. Sigulda

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sigulda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Sigulda. That is the ride.