Latvia for Digital Nomads

• Fast, cheap internet. Fibre is standard in Riga apartments and mobile data is among the cheapest in the EU.
• EU life at lower prices. A comfortable month costs about €1,700 to €2,300 in Riga, less than most Western European capitals.
• A real nomad visa. The remote work visa gives a year in Latvia, renewable once.
• Nature on the doorstep. Baltic beaches, pine forests, lakes and national parks are a train ride from Riga.
• Location. On EU time (UTC+2), with direct flights from Riga to most European capitals and easy buses to Tallinn and Vilnius.

Latvia suits well-paid remote workers who want a calm, efficient European city with good infrastructure and low rents, people who like long summer evenings, forests and sea, and anyone who wants Schengen life without Western European prices. It works well for developers, designers and people on European hours.

It suits you less if you earn below the visa threshold and need more than 90 days, if you want a big nomad scene, or if dark winters get you down: in December the sun sets before 4pm. US business hours mean late evenings (9am in New York is 4pm in Riga).

• Riga: the capital and the obvious base, with coworking spaces, cafes, hospitals and most of the country’s expats. Long-stayers like the Centre (the Art Nouveau quarter), Āgenskalns across the river and the wooden houses of Grīziņkalns.
• Jūrmala: a seaside resort town 30 minutes from Riga by train, with a long sandy beach, wooden villas and pine forest.
• Liepāja: a port city on the Baltic coast, with a music scene, wide beaches and lower rents.
• Cēsis: a small medieval town in the Gauja valley, for quiet and nature.
• Sigulda: a forest town an hour from Riga, known for castles, hiking and winter sports.
• Daugavpils: Latvia’s second city, in the southeast, cheap and largely Russian-speaking.

Our where to base yourself in Latvia page compares them in more detail.

• Remote work visa: a one-year long-stay (D) visa for people employed by, or running a company registered in, an OECD country, earning 2.5 times the Latvian average gross wage (about €4,540 a month in 2026). It can be extended once for another year.
• Schengen visa-free stay: citizens of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries can stay 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen Area.
• EU and EEA citizens: no visa needed. Register your stay if you stay more than three months.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) has recorded non-EU travellers’ entries and exits at Schengen borders since April 2026, and ETIAS travel authorisation has no confirmed start date yet. Our visas, taxes and money page explains the remote work visa step by step.

A comfortable month for one person costs about €1,700 to €2,300 in Riga and €1,300 to €1,800 in Liepāja, Cēsis or Daugavpils. A lean budget is about €1,100 to €1,400. A modern one-bedroom apartment in central Riga rents for about €500 to €850 a month, a lunch-of-the-day menu costs €7 to €10, and a good coffee €3 to €4. These are ballpark figures.

Costs that catch people out: winter heating, which is often billed separately and can double your utilities from November to March, short-let prices in Jūrmala in summer, and a deposit of one or two months’ rent.

Latvia is on Eastern European Time (UTC+2) in winter and UTC+3 from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October, one hour ahead of Berlin and Paris. Your working day overlaps fully with the rest of Europe. US hours mean evenings: 9am in New York is 4pm in Riga.

Latvia has some of the fastest and cheapest internet in Europe. Fibre at 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps is standard in Riga apartments and common in towns, and free Wi-Fi is everywhere. For mobile, LMT, Tele2 and Bite all have good 4G and 5G coverage in cities, and a prepaid SIM with large data costs a few euros a month. EU roaming rules mean an EU SIM works across the bloc at no extra cost.

Riga has trams, trolleybuses and buses, and Bolt (the dominant ride-hailing app in the Baltics) is cheap for taxis and scooters. Electric trains run from Riga to Jūrmala, Sigulda and Cēsis, and buses link the rest of the country. Riga Airport is the hub of airBaltic, with direct flights across Europe, and long-distance buses run to Tallinn and Vilnius in four to five hours. Cycling is popular in summer.

Riga has the country’s main hospitals, including Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital and Riga East Clinical University Hospital, plus private clinics where many doctors speak English. Remote work visa holders are not covered by the state health system and need private insurance for the visa; EU citizens can use their EHIC. See our guide to nomad health insurance. The emergency number is 112 (113 for an ambulance, 110 for police).

Latvia is generally safe. The main risks are pickpocketing in the Old Town, overcharging in some Old Town bars, which have targeted tourists with inflated bills, and icy pavements in winter.

• Registration: EU citizens staying more than three months must register with the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs.
• No local work on a remote work visa: you can’t work for a Latvian employer.
• Alcohol: drinking in public places is banned, and shops stop selling alcohol at 10pm.
• Drugs: possession of even small amounts is a criminal offence.
• Reflectors: pedestrians must wear a reflector on unlit roads after dark.