Sigulda

Exit Turaida's east gate and follow the marked forest trail downhill for 25 minutes — the path winds past Dainu Hill and drops into the sandstone gorge through pine and birch. Gutmanis is the largest cave in the Baltics, but the real draw is the wall — names and dates carved into the soft red sandstone since the 1660s, the oldest legible graffiti in Latvia. The cool air smells of damp stone and moss; the stream that hollowed the cave still trickles out at your feet.

Tip: Bring your phone torch — the oldest inscriptions on the back-left wall are nearly invisible in shadow. Ignore the legend painted on the signboard about 'sacred spring water curing all ills' — locals don't drink it, and the spring runs through unfenced farmland upstream.

Continue up the forest path 1.2 km from the cave to the Krimulda station — a steady climb, but you'll glimpse the white columns of Krimulda Manor through the trees on your left. The Soviet-era yellow cabin shudders to life and crosses the 1,075-meter span over the Gauja in seven minutes, hanging 43 meters above the river. This is the only passenger cable car in the Baltics, and the only one in Europe where you can pay extra to bungee jump out the door.

Tip: Board the 12:30 or 13:00 cabin and sit on the right (downstream) side — you get all three castles in a single frame: Turaida behind you, the Medieval ruins ahead, the New Castle pink roof beyond. Skip the bungee jump unless you reserved online days ahead; the walk-up queue alone eats two hours.

From the cable car's Sigulda landing, walk 8 minutes south along Poruka iela into the old town center — past the wooden art-nouveau villas and the Lutheran church spire. Mr. Biskvīts is a small bakery-café locals duck into between errands, with a window counter facing the linden trees on Raiņa iela. Order the smoked salmon open sandwich on dark Latvian rye (€5.50) and a wedge of biezpienmaize, the warm sweet-cheese tart (€3) — quick, honest, no tourist menu.

Tip: Pay cash at the counter — the card terminal slows the line. Skip the Italian-style focaccia they push to passing visitors; the rye open sandwiches and the cheesecake are what regulars come for.

Walk 6 minutes east from the café along Pils iela — the road narrows into a linden avenue ending at the castle park gates. The Medieval Castle comes first: thirteenth-century Livonian Order walls open to the sky, with a wooden viewing platform cantilevered over the same Gauja gorge you crossed at noon. Behind it sits the salmon-pink neo-Gothic New Castle, a 19th-century manor rebuilt as a folly and now serving as the town hall — the lawn out front is where Sigulda families come for evening picnics.

Tip: The Medieval ruins' viewing platform faces directly across to Turaida — between 16:00 and 17:00 the afternoon sun lights the red tower across the valley for the best three-castles-in-one-frame shot of the day. Don't buy a ticket to the New Castle interior; it's a municipal office now and the gardens out front are the actual draw.

Walk 20 minutes south along Raiņa iela — past the train station you'll spot a cluster of black-tarred log farmhouses set back from the road behind a wooden fence. Aparjods is a traditional Latvian inn built in 19th-century timber-cabin style; it's where Riga families drive out on Sundays for the real thing. Order the slow-roasted pork knuckle (€14) with stewed sauerkraut and a bowl of warm rye-bread soup with whipped cream and lingonberries (€5) — the menu hasn't changed in twenty years because it doesn't need to.

Tip: Phone ahead for a table in the main timber hall — the glass conservatory addition has none of the atmosphere. Final pitfall warning: ignore the carved 'Sigulda walking sticks' sold at every vendor stall around Turaida and the castles — they're mass-produced in a Riga workshop, not whittled here as the legend at the stalls claims, and the same stick costs a third less at the Riga Central Market.