Parents often ask us where to travel with children in Latvia. And although many choose the coast of Latvia with children, travels to Riga or Tervete Nature Park – however, we want to recommend you to visit Daugavpils and its surroundings.
Agnė, one of the founders of “Travel 4 kids” and her family, recently visited Daugavpils and wants to recommend you where to travel and what to see with children in Latvia? In this article you will find a detailed route, places to visit and recommendations.
What to see with children in Latvia – Daugavpils and Daugavpils surroundings
Day One (Friday afternoon)
We thought for a long time about where to travel with children in Latvia and decided to go in a less popular direction than Riga or Latvian coast. On Friday, after work, we left for Daugavpils. The first stop of the trip – Pests. Stop for a little while to exercise your legs and take a beautiful walk through the Zarasai observation trail.
Daugavpils is not far from Zarasai too.
If the weather is nice, we highly recommend going to Stropa Lake beach. It is a favorite place of the townspeople and guests of the city. Here you will find a beach and an open pool for children and adults in the lake. There are spaces for picnics, a playground, rental of bicycles and various means of transportation. We guarantee that you and your children will really like the place.
We have dinner in a children’s cafe Sanmari. After dinner, we go to the accommodation Silene Resort & Spa.
Silene Resort & Spa – a wonderful place for a family vacation
Those of you who have been following us for a long time – you know that we often like to go to Spa hotels (with swimming pools, play areas for children, restaurants and entertainment) on weekends. We have found many such hotels in Poland (Warszawa SPA & Resort in Augusta,Hotel Robert’s Port in Mikolaikos) and in Jurmala by the sea – we are very happy that we receive a lot of feedback from you, that thanks to us you discovered and liked them too.
Now we have a great recommendation for you near Daugavpils! Spa hotel in a very beautiful place, in the middle of the forest on the shore of the lake. Next time we plan to come here just to rest and spend time in the hotel itself. There is a wonderful spa with a pool, a very large outdoor playground for children. But the most important thing is a wonderful beach for swimming with children, a shallow sandy shore. There are sunbeds and a mini beach bar, as well as water bikes with slides for rent. Both a cafe and a restaurant. We can boldly say that if you liked our previous spa hotel recommendations, you will definitely like it here as well.
We found the best price for this hotel in the reservation system of our partners.
| Booking.com |
Second day (Saturday)
If we were asked where to travel with children in Latvia, we would confidently say Daugavpils. So we started our excursion exactly from Fortresses of Daugavpils. Daugavpils fortress is a unique architectural and cultural historical monument of state significance, the area of which is more than 150 ha. Daugavpils fortress is the last bastion-type fortress in the world. From a bird’s eye view, the fortress resembles the shape of a sun, a star, a turtle or even a bat. Today it is one of the most popular visited objects in Daugavpils. By the way, there is also a modern playground for children and a large outdoor slide.
After the Daugavpils fortress, we went to the center for a while, ate ice cream, took a walk and drove towards the Aglona bread museum. We highly recommend booking the bread making education in advance.
We had lunch at the nearby Somerset pub. The food is buffet-style, so you don’t have to wait long. We found the food delicious and really enjoyed it.
Later we drove to Vecsaliena Manor and Park. A very nice place for a walk.
On the way back, we stopped at the playground of Daugavpils Central City Park. Very fun place.
Then we returned to ours the hotel. We went for a walk, had dinner and a swim in the pool.
Day Three (Sunday)
In the morning we had breakfast, swam, and spent time in the hotel area. By the way, there is also an outdoor pool.
After swimming and a wonderful rest in the Silene Resort & Spa we stopped at the Daugavpils Innovation Center, which, although not big, is really interesting.
While returning home we stopped in Zarasai at the Sauka Gallery. Children will probably find this place less interesting. However, if you are interested in art, it is worth visiting.
Whenever we travel or return home, we often stop at interesting places in Lithuania. This time we visited the Sartai Regional Park Visitor Center.
When traveling around Lithuania, we recommend visiting regional or national park visitor centers. They are interesting, modern, and innovative.
After that we went to Antalieptė Lagoon and the Antalieptė Hydroelectric Power Plant. Did you know that Antalieptė Lagoon is an artificial reservoir of impressive beauty? It also has the largest number of islands in Lithuania.
It is also the deepest body of water in Lithuania. In size it is second only to Kaunas Lagoon. There are 75 islands here, and the deepest point reaches 46 meters.
For lunch we recommend the Antalieptė Monastery. There is no sign showing that it is a café. You need to enter the building and someone will show you the dining hall. Here you can taste delicious bagels prepared on site. There is no menu either. Instead, you will be told what dishes are prepared that day.
When we visited, they served cold beet soup, cepelinai, and calamari in wine sauce. We tasted everything and it was delicious. The place itself is impressive and full of character. Next to the monastery there is a small monkey bridge. We highly recommend visiting it.
Final thoughts
This was our weekend plan and route, which we highly recommend you to try. And most of all, we recommend choosing the Silene Resort & SPA hotel for relaxation and a weekend with the family. We guarantee you will want to come back just like us!
Traveling in Latvia with a baby
We often receive questions about how we travel with a baby who has already started complementary feeding. People ask what we do when Paule needs to eat during the trip. The answer is very simple – we travel with PONN purées. We are very happy that when we started complementary feeding for Paule, we discovered organic PONN purées. They suited Paule perfectly and she really liked them.
When we cannot offer homemade food, organic PONN purées help us a lot. Motiejus grew up eating these purées and snacks. Now Paule enjoys them as well.
