I just can’t heap enough praise on this tour or on Harijs - I’ve done a lot of walking tours in a lot of cities and this is one of the very best, as is Harijs. Witty, informative, entertaining and at times also moving, he was even better than his reviews. He customised our itinerary as we all wanted to add some tastings at Central Market and he made it incredibly simple to do that - he was very quick and easy to communicate with during and after the booking process - and throughout the tour itself responded so willingly to our questions and digressions, clearly adding more information and expanding on things as he - and we- saw where our interests lay. He was very funny and utterly engaging. Some of what he told us was also deeply moving and we ended up with a real understanding of the history of Latvia and particularly what the inter- and post-war decades have meant to its people, and even how it felt to live through some of them. He brought Riga, its life, its culture, its history vividly and often hilariously to life, and he made the rest of our time in the city immeasurably richer. His mother and some of his friends are completely right - he absolutely is the best private guide of Riga. Book him today - you know you want to, and you definitely should.

Exceptional day with Harijs - thoroughly recommended. As a family of four (56, 54, 21 and 19) we were looking forward to our New Year break in Riga and without a doubt, engaging the services of Harijs helped make our trip the very best it could have been. Harijs imparted a huge amount of knowledge to us, not only about the obvious history of beautiful old Riga, but also modern-day Latvia, its challenges and journey since WW2, its culture, people, transport, where they live and their gardens, even food and drinks at "Lido". We came home with an insight into a small but incredible and proud country which was all down to Harijs. His focus on communication and tailoring the tour to suit our needs worked well, "above and beyond" is a phrase that comes to mind. Thank you Harijs, wishing you and your family well.

Our guide, Harrisy, was amazing. He checked in with us prior to the tour to be sure we knew what to tell the cab driver. Very thoughtful. Interesting stories. Wonderful food. Very generous samples. We thoroughly enjoyed this tour and would recommend it very highly, particularly with this guide (whose name I am sure I misspelled.

Harijs loves his country and wonderfully shares that love and his historical & cultural knowledge with visitors. He led two private tours for our 12-person family group, one of which was to Sigulda, Turaida castle, and other areas nearby, the other walking in Riga downtown and the market. He customized these at our request, to choose elements of his "standard" tours that fit our group's interests. Harijs is personable, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, often funny, and paints a detailed portrait of Latvia's history and culture, from the medieval to the modern period. He puts locations and events in context and highlights special locations and unique aspects of what we're touring. He was happy to engage and dive into details on any topic of interest to us, and also managed to keep a bunch of tween and teen kids engaged. On the whole I wholeheartedly recommend getting to know Riga and Latvia with him.

Harijs was such a lovely tour guide! Not only did he show us some traditional Latvian food at the market but the knowledge behind everything was amazing, nice to know why some food is popular and how it came about. I would definitely recommend this tour, and definitely recommend to try everything! My favourite is still the pie!

The highlight of our trip by far. Harijs was so lovely and informative for the whole tour. Not only explaining the food we were eating and seeing but also telling us about Riga and Latvia as a whole. The market is very interesting to see and the food was all lovely and different. We done this on our last day at Riga but I would recommend doing this day 1 as the information we got from this tour was better than the walking tour we had done around the city of Riga for understanding the culture and the people.

Our group of 12 spent two days with Harijs, touring Sigulda and Riga's Old Town, and had a wonderful experience. He designed the two days of touring based on our initial input, and continued to be flexible throughout the two days, as we made requests to adjust the schedule and work in one or two changes. We saw a broad range of Riga's highlights, and learned a ton about Latvian history. And we also got a great sense for modern Latvian culture, attitudes, and what life has felt like for the local population during the last couple years. Oh, and we got a taste of Latvia while visiting the market! Harijs was funny, engaging, and the many hours we spent with him seemed to pass very quickly, as his storytelling made the experience a lot of fun. He conducted the tour in flawless English, and was also comfortable switching to Russian for those in our group who speak it. And his love for Latvia came through constantly, even when undercut by his self-deprecating humor about the "lowly" achievements of his little country (e.g. in the olympics, as he introduced us to one of only ~10 bobsled tracks operating anywhere in the world). He clearly loves his country, and nowhere was that more evident than in the closing stages of our Riga Tour when he recounted the history of the Barricades, Latvians' heroic confrontation with Soviet forces sent to clamp down on Latvia's declared independence. Tour logistics were handled smoothly (coordinating a bus for us, managing the timing, breaks, etc.) throughout, and the whole experience worked well for kids and adults in our group. We would absolutely recommend Harijs to anyone looking for a great guide and a great tour, and we'd happily use Honest Tours again in the future!

I was in a group of eight friends, Anete greeted us and apologised for the change of plan in guide. Anete needn't have apologised, as she did an amazing job of showing us around Old Town and explaining the history of the sights, attractions and rich architecture. Everyone in the group was delighted with the experience and impressed with how well Anete kept us informed, engaged and interested, using personal stories from her life and even surprised us with a lovely singing voice to add colour to tour. Thank you to Anete from everyone in our group, Chris.

My extended family (3 generations) spent two fantastic days in the company of (without any doubt) the best private guide in Riga. And to say that Harijs is the best is really to say nothing. He is very knowledgable, very passionate about Latvia and its history, very attentive, has a very nice sense of humor, and has an absolutely great personality. It is possible to list another half a dozen "very" with other Harij's' qualities but it still. will not be enough to describe how good he is. From the very beginning before we even arrived in Latvia when I was arranging the tours Harijs was very helpful with suggestions on how to fit as much as possible into the two days of sightseeings. He combined the historic tour of Riga with the Taste of Riga tour and hired a minibus for the second day to show our group of 12 people Sigulda, the Turaida castle, and a lot of other places in the Latvian Switzerland as the Sigulda area is sometimes called. Although some in our group used to live in Riga and thought that we knew the city well, a lot of facts that we learned from Harijs were new for us. Harijs's English was perfect. And last but not least he was very flexible and accommodating to our requests during the tours although this extended the length of the tours and the time that he spent with us. To those reading this review I can give only one advice: if you want to have the best private guide in Riga go with Harijs. You will not regret!

Hariys was absolutely the best! He is very knowledgeable about his city and very passionate about his country. It was very pleasant to learn about the Art Noveau buildings - something I knew very little about. He managed to get me inside one of the buildings to look at the amazing staircase. He gave a lot of good information about Latvia and the current political climate. He even walked me back to the ship, which was a blessing, as for some reason, I seem to have got lost at a lot of the ports on this trip. I really enjoyed my walk with Hariys and highly recommend it for anybody who wants to learn about Riga and Latvia.

Harijs’ passion for his country and his depth of knowledge gave us an eye opening few hours and memories which will last a long time. We visited Riga primarily to see the Art Nouveau buildings, but ended up learning so much more. Very highly recommended.

We spent amazing 3.5 hours with Eva. She is very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and has a very warm personality which creates a special atmosphere. Both, my husband and I, enjoyed our tour very much and fell in love with Riga.

Harijs has good communication skills and was very good at personalizing his tour and tailoring stops and discussions to our interests. We had lots of questions and he took the time to answer thoroughly without watching the clock. He ended up spending quite a bit more time with us than promised in his tour description to ensure that we got all of our questions answered, but still didn't miss out on seeing anything.

Harijs, the guide, met me at my hotel on time an immediately started the tour. He was able to share his great knowledge of Latvia and Riga's history but he was also able to share personal experiences and stories that made the tour even more personal. In four hours we covered a lot of the landmarks and attractions in Riga both inside and outside the old town. I would highly recommend using Harijs to help you get the most from your visit to Riga.

Fantastic tour led by a knowledgeable and passionate tour guide. Five hours didn't seem very long when Harijs took us around Riga. We saw the Art Nouveau quarter and the Old Town. We didn't go into any Museums, but Harijs was able to advise us on what to see during the rest of our visit over the weekend. What really made this tour for us was Harijs knowledge and passion for Riga and Latvia. It helped make the history more relevant and gave us a closer perspective on current Latvian society and culture. Harijs was great company and happy to help us make the most of our time in Riga.