First time in Riga? This is the tour you start with. The Old Town looks beautiful on the surface but hides 800 years of history most visitors walk straight past. In 90 minutes you'll actually understand the city you're standing in.

Your local guide will take you back to 1201, when a German bishop chose the banks of the Daugava River to found what would become one of the most fought-over cities in Northern Europe. You'll hear about the Hanseatic merchants who turned Riga into a trading powerhouse, the empires that came after them, and the layers they each left behind in the stone, the streets and the skyline.

The tour moves through the heart of the Old Town on foot. You'll stand in front of the Dome Cathedral, the largest medieval church in the Baltic states, and learn why it took three centuries to build. You'll pass the Gothic Guild Houses, where the merchant elite once controlled the city's wealth, and the House of the Blackheads, built for unmarried foreign merchants and destroyed in the war, then rebuilt stone by stone. You'll see Riga Castle, still the official residence of the President of Latvia today, and walk through the Swedish Gate, the only city gate still standing from the 17th century. St. Peter's Church, the Powder Tower, and the cat statues with their own political story round out the route.

The stories are what make it. Not just what the buildings look like, but why they were built, who lived in them, and what happened there.

The group is kept small, with a maximum of 20 people. From 10 participants onwards, your guide uses a microphone and everyone gets an audio receiver, so you catch every word without having to crowd around.