Tallinn or Riga?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on good for families and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Riga if you want countryside within day-trip reach, with 10% of the surrounding land protected, and more bars and clubs near the centre, along with slightly warmer summers.
Choose Tallinn if you are travelling with children, or want the sea at the edge of the centre rather than 12km out; it also has the wider range of kitchens.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Tallinn leads by 14 points.14
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 40 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 18 | 57 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 12 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 12 km |
Places to eat. Tallinn leads by 3 points.3
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 59 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 481 | 470 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 39 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Tallinn leads by 1 points.1
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 61 |
| Museums within 10 km | 71 | 69 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 57 | 47 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 80 | 68 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Riga leads by 5 points.5
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 51 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 462 | 584 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 370 | 456 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 80 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 43 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. Riga leads by 13 points.13
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 44 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 53 | 73 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 68 hectares |
Good for families. Tallinn leads by 16 points.16
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 51 | 35 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 20 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 68 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Tallinn and Riga are level on 62.
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 135 | 137 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Riga leads by 6 points.6
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 76 |
| Price level global | 62.4 | 53.7 |
| Daily budget | €143 | €132 |
Year-round weather. Riga leads by 4 points.4
| Tallinn | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 52 |
| Monthly daytime high | -1.2 °C to 22.3 °C | -0.1 °C to 23.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 83 mm | 33 mm to 87 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 3 |
Where they differ
Riga is the better base for day trips: 10% of the land around it is protected against 2% around Tallinn. It also has more places to drink and more nightclubs, most near the centre.
Tallinn suits families better, with about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre and more park space, though both have 1 theme park within reach. Its sea is at the centre, 0km away, against 12km in Riga; Riga has 57 beaches nearby to Tallinn's 18, but reaching them means a trip out.
Where they are alike
The two are level on how much sits within walking distance: both hold about the same number of notable places close to the centre, so each works as a short break covered on foot.
Their museum offerings are similar in number, and each has 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach. Restaurant numbers near the centre are comparable too, though Tallinn's kitchens span a wider range. Winters are cold in both, with highs near 0°C in February.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Tallinn. It has about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre, more park space, and the sea at the edge of town; both have 1 theme park within reach.
Museum-minded walkers can take either. Both pack a similar number of notable places into a walkable centre, hold comparable museum collections, and have 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach; Tallinn's kitchens are the more varied.
For late nights and country days, Riga. It has more places to drink and more nightclubs, mostly near the centre, and 10% of the land around it is protected, against 2% around Tallinn.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €132 and €143, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels for the two countries, not measurements of Riga or Tallinn. A capital can sit well away from its country's average, by more than the gap between the two figures, so neither city can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence.
No sunshine figure exists for Riga, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured; its monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. The beach counts describe access, not swimming: neither city sees the sea reach 21°C in any month, and Riga's sit 12km from the centre.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tallinn: 1991-2020 normals, Tallin / Harku (10.9 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).
Riga runs warmer, with highs of 21-24°C in high summer and the sea reaching 19°C by August, its warmest point. The trade is rain: July is Riga's wettest month at 87mm, and the showers carry into late summer.
Tallinn is the drier choice in late spring, at 38mm in May against Riga's 52mm, so it trades a little warmth for drier days. Its summer peak is 22°C with sea at 17°C. Both turn wet in October, above 80mm, and midwinter suits neither.
Getting there
| Flying from | Tallinn | Riga |
|---|---|---|
| HelsinkiHEL | 45 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 1 h 5 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 1 h 10 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 1 h 15 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 50 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 2 h 40 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 25 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 2 h 10 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| OuluOUL | 1 h 15 m no fares HEL · 99 km | 1 h 45 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 1 h 35 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 1 h 40 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| WarsawWAW, WMI | 1 h 40 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 1 h 20 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 40 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 3 h 20 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| VilniusVNO | 1 h 20 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 1 h 0 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 4 h 50 m no fares TLL · 6 km | 4 h 35 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Tallinn | Riga |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Estonian | Latvian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 28 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL)6 km from centre64 non-stop destinations | Riga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre101 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | – |
By the numbers
| Measure | Tallinn | Riga |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 457,572 | 588,911 |
| People per km² | 2,871 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 12 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 63 | 55 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tallinn or Riga somewhere new.