Latvia

Is Latvia safe to visit?

Yes. The US rates Latvia Level 1, and it ranks 19th of 163 countries on the 2026 Global Peace IndexGlobal Peace IndexAn annual ranking of 163 countries by how peaceful they are, based on conflict, crime, militarisation and political instability.More in the glossary, ahead of Estonia and Lithuania. We score it 80. The problems a visitor is most likely to meet are small and specific: overpriced drinks and pickpocketing in Riga's Old Town, and roads that kill more people than most of the EU. The war in Ukraine shows up as stray drones and a closed-off Belarus border, mostly far from where tourists go.

Riga's Old Town: where the trouble is

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary lists three places where bag snatching and pickpocketing are a greater risk: the Old Town, the Central Market and the central train and bus stations. It also describes a pattern familiar from other stag-party capitals. Some tourists have been charged very high prices for drinks or found fraudulent transactions on their cards, and there have been cases of drink spiking in Riga and elsewhere.

That is why petty crime (72) is Latvia's weakest score. In practice:

• Pick bars on a recommendation from your hotel or a trusted source, not from someone who approaches you in the street.
• Check prices before ordering, keep your card in sight and be wary of requests to re-enter your PIN.
• Do not leave drinks unattended.
• Drinking in streets and parks is illegal, and the police can fine or arrest you.
• For taxis, use Baltic Taxi, Red Cab or an app. The FCDO says some meters have been adapted to run faster.

Violent crime is less of a worry. Eurostat recorded 2.40 intentional homicides per 100,000Homicide rateThe number of people killed on purpose each year for every 100,000 residents. It is the most comparable crime figure between countries.More in the glossary people in 2024. That is higher than in Western Europe or Poland, but the FCDO reports no pattern of attacks on visitors. Its advice is the ordinary kind: avoid unlit streets and parks at night and be wary of strangers who approach you.

Drones, Belarus and the war next door

Latvia borders both Russia and Belarus, and the war has spilled over in small ways. On 7 May 2026 two drones entered from Russian territory and crashed at an oil storage site in Rēzekne, about 40 km from the border, damaging four empty tanks, Reuters reported. Residents near the border were told to stay indoors and the town's schools closed for the day. The defence minister said the drones were probably Ukrainian, aimed at Russia. A few weeks later another drone exploded in Lake Dridza, about 15 km from the Belarus border. The row over slow anti-drone defences led the prime minister to dismiss her defence minister and her coalition to collapse.

None of this has hurt a visitor, and Riga, Jūrmala and Sigulda are far from the crash sites. Along the Belarus border the rules are stricter. The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary advises against all travel to Belarus, the Silene–Urbani crossing is closed, and you need a permit from the Latvian Border Guard to enter the 2 km zone along the frontier.

Roads: the real risk

Latvia's roads are where the numbers look weakest. WHO estimatesWHO road-death estimateThe World Health Organization's estimate of road traffic deaths per 100,000 people in a country, adjusted for deaths that police statistics miss.More in the glossary 9.8 road deaths per 100,000 people in 2021. ETSC counted 118 in 2025 (provisional), or 63 per million people, against an EU average of 43. Only Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria were worse among EU members. The rate has fallen sharply from 95 per million in 2015, but it is still about twice Finland's.

Main roads are mostly single carriageway, overtaking is common and winter brings snow and black ice. Drive with dipped headlights on at all times, keep well back from trucks, and expect elk and deer at dusk in rural Vidzeme and Latgale.

Cold, ticks and water

The FCDOFCDO travel adviceThe UK government's travel advice for each country, which can advise against all travel or all but essential travel to specific areas.More in the glossary warns that winter temperatures can drop to -25°C or below between October and March, and snow causes delays on trains and buses. Summer brings the opposite trap: long beaches at Jūrmala and Liepāja with cold water and currents. Swim where lifeguards are on duty, and do not swim after drinking.

Ticks are common in forests and meadows from spring to autumn. ECDC recorded 11.7 cases of tick-borne encephalitis per 100,000 people in Latvia in 2021, one of the highest rates in Europe. CDC recommends the vaccine for travellers with a lot of outdoor exposure. Care in Riga is good; outside the capital, hospitals are more basic and English is less common, so carry travel insurance. Call 112 in an emergency.

How we scored it

Violent crime (84), health (84) and natural hazards (85) are solid. Conflict (82) reflects a calm country with drone crashes and a restricted Belarus border, and is close to Poland's. Road safety (72) and petty crime (72) are the weakest factors: Riga's bar scams and one of the higher road death rates in the EU pull Latvia below Estonia.