VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Riga or Santiago de Compostela?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Riga for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’s own page.

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Riga 40, Santiago de Compostela 32: Riga leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, Santiago de Compostela 45: Riga leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, Santiago de Compostela 62: Santiago de Compostela leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, Santiago de Compostela 42: Riga leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Riga 68, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, Santiago de Compostela 35: Riga leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, Santiago de Compostela 40: Riga leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, Santiago de Compostela 42: Riga leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Riga and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Riga
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
54match

Wins on food and drink and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
RigaSantiago de Compostela

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaSantiago de Compostela
Official languageLatvianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m260 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRigaSantiago de Compostela
City population588,911100,965
People per km²-459
Museums within 10 km126
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga or Santiago de Compostela somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.