How do I get from the airport to Riga?

RIX sits about 10 kilometers southwest of Vecrīga, and the airport is small enough that you'll walk from your gate to the baggage belt in under 10 minutes. Bus 22 is the direct public link to the center. It stops right outside the terminal exit, runs every 10 to 20 minutes between 5:30am and 11:30pm, and costs €2 ($2.30) if you pay the driver in cash. With an e-ticket from the yellow Rīgas satiksme machines inside the terminal, the fare drops to about €1.15. The ride takes roughly 30 minutes and ends near 13. janvāra iela, a 5-minute walk from the Freedom Monument, the 42-meter column built in 1935 that serves as Riga's most useful orientation landmark. You'll pass flat birch and pine scrubland for most of the route before the heavy stone Art Nouveau facades along Brīvības iela fill the bus windows.

Bolt is the ride-hailing app that works in Riga. Uber has limited coverage here. Download Bolt before you land. A ride from RIX to a hotel in Vecrīga or the Centrs neighborhood costs €10 to €15 ($12 to $17) and takes about 15 minutes outside rush hour. During weekday mornings between 7:30 and 9:00, that stretches to 25 minutes. Bolt is the right call if you land after 11:30pm, you're hauling more than one checked bag, or you're heading to the left-bank neighborhoods like Āgenskalns or Torņakalns across the Daugava. The airport's official taxi stand quotes fixed rates that run €5 to €8 above Bolt for the same route. Don't negotiate with drivers at the arrivals exit. The Bolt fare is locked in the app, and the driver can't change it.

The terminal is one floor for arrivals, compact and low-ceilinged, with the faint scent of pine from the wooden panels near baggage claim. Swedbank and SEB ATMs sit between the exit doors and the bus stop. Latvia uses the euro, so arrivals from other eurozone countries skip the exchange step entirely. The Narvesen kiosk in arrivals sells Rīgas satiksme e-tickets and prepaid SIM cards from LMT or Tele2 if you didn't sort an eSIM before the flight. A local SIM with 10GB runs about €10. That said, even in peak July, the passport queue for non-EU arrivals at RIX rarely tops 15 minutes. The airport handled about 8 million passengers in 2024, roughly a tenth of Heathrow's volume.

Skip the private transfer desks and the marked-up 'VIP taxi' counters inside the RIX arrivals hall. They quote €30 to €40 for the same 10-kilometer ride that Bus 22 covers for €2. The minibus packages sold on booking platforms follow the same route as Bus 22 at 5 times the price. For the return trip to RIX, the Bus 22 stop is on Abrenes iela near Riga Central Station, not where you were dropped off on arrival. Look for the sign marked 'Lidosta,' which is Latvian for airport. The last bus back to RIX leaves Abrenes iela around 11:20pm. If your flight departs before 7:00am, pre-book a Bolt the night before for €10 to €12 at that hour.