Vilnius 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, 2 points apart
Wins on good for families and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nightlife 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 the coast matters: dozens of beaches within reach, the sea at its warmest in August at 19°C, and somewhat more bars and clubs near the centre.
Choose Vilnius if you are travelling with children or come mainly for heritage: roughly three times as many tourist attractions near the centre, more park space, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Riga leads by 40 points.40
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 40 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 16 | 57 |
| Coast distance | 260 km | 12 km |
| Water distance | — | 12 km |
Places to eat. Vilnius leads by 1 points.1
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 59 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 537 | 470 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Vilnius leads by 10 points.10
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 61 |
| Museums within 10 km | 74 | 69 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 54 | 47 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 73 | 68 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Riga leads by 5 points.5
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 51 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 464 | 584 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 388 | 456 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 39 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. Riga leads by 3 points.3
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 44 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 73 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 68 hectares |
Good for families. Vilnius leads by 16 points.16
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 51 | 35 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 27 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 68 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Vilnius leads by 3 points.3
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 62 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 161 | 137 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Vilnius and Riga are level on 76.
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 76 |
| Price level global | 53.1 | 53.7 |
| Daily budget | €125 | €132 |
Year-round weather. Vilnius leads by 1 points.1
| Vilnius | Riga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 52 |
| Monthly daytime high | -1.5 °C to 24 °C | -0.1 °C to 23.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 41 mm to 90 mm | 33 mm to 87 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Riga is the one with a coast: 57 beaches nearby against Vilnius's 16, though the sea only reaches 19°C at its August peak. It also has somewhat more places to drink and more nightclubs, most of them near the centre, and 1 theme park within reach where Vilnius has none.
Vilnius is the stronger family base, with about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre and more park space. The two hold a similar number of museums, but Vilnius has 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Riga's 1.
Where they are alike
On cost the two sit level: the national estimates are €132 for Latvia and €125 for Lithuania, close enough that neither country stands out on the price of restaurants and hotels.
Elsewhere they track each other closely. Both have a similar number of restaurants near the centre, both compress their notable places into a walkable centre, and 10% of the land around each is protected. Daytime highs follow much the same curve through the year.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Vilnius, for roughly three times as many attractions near the centre and more park space. Riga answers with 1 theme park within reach and beaches, if a summer trip is the plan.
Heritage-first: Vilnius. The museum count is similar in both, but it has 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Riga's 1, and slightly more notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Late nights and swimming: Riga, with somewhat more bars and clubs, most near the centre, and 57 beaches nearby, best in August when the sea reaches 19°C.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €132 and €125, are national estimates for Latvia and Lithuania, not measurements of Riga or Vilnius. Capitals and heavily visited cities can sit well away from their own country average, by more than the gap between the two figures, so treat them as a country-level backdrop rather than a reason to pick one city.
No sunshine figure exists for Riga, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and its monthly ratings rest on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. And Riga's beach count comes with a short season: the sea never reaches 21°C, and the warmest months are also the wettest.
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. Vilnius: 1991-2020 normals, Vilnius (13 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).
Riga's window is July and August, with highs of 24°C then 22°C and the sea at its warmest, 19°C, in August; September still holds 17°C. Spring is its driest stretch, 33-35mm in March and April, though those months are cold.
Vilnius pulls ahead from April to June, running slightly warmer, 19°C in May and 22°C in June. July is the wettest month in both, 90mm in Vilnius against Riga's 87mm, and Vilnius stays drier in October, 58mm against 82mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Vilnius | Riga |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 45 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 40 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 0 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 3 h 20 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 10 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 10 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| HelsinkiHEL | 1 h 25 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 1 h 5 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 1 h 55 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 1 h 40 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| WarsawWAW, WMI | 1 h 10 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 1 h 20 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 1 h 30 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 1 h 15 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 45 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 2 h 30 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 35 m no fares RIX · 9 km |
| Sharm el SheikhSSH | 4 h 15 m no fares VNO · 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 | Vilnius | Riga |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Lithuanian | Latvian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF220 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 | 98 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Vilnius International Airport (VNO)6 km from centre83 non-stop destinations | Riga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre101 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | – |
By the numbers
| Measure | Vilnius | Riga |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 581,475 | 588,911 |
| People per km² | 1,450 | – |
| Museums within 10 km | 30 | 12 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 54 | 55 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Vilnius or Riga somewhere new.