According to an old Latvian belief, nine dishes should be served for the festive Christmas meal. The hostess at “Vīnkalni” country house will teach visitors how to cook three Latvian traditional dishes:

‘Biguzis’ – a traditional country dessert with rye bread, whipped cream and fresh berries. Its ingredients are rye bread, cranberries or lingonberries, honey, cinnamon and whipped cream. Mature rye bread is crushed or grated. Cranberries are squeezed in juice, diluted with water, sweetened with honey and poured into bread. When the bread has sucked into the liquid, it is topped with whipped cream.

Fresh cheese – made from cow's milk adding various herbs and spice (cumin, hemp, greens).

Buns and cakes. It is said that in Latvian folk tradition round cakes and buns in the form of a crescent were baked to honour the Sun and the Moon. Today they are often baked for celebrations and festivities. The traditional Latvian buns ‘pīrāgi’ are made from yeast dough, are 5-13cm long in a curved form like a crescent. They are filled with bacon and onions or with cottage cheese or apples.

Those who sell and those who buy are looking forwards to meet on the December 15 Christmas market at Straupe! There will be lots of seasonal treats and goodies for your festive table. To name just a few: fresh carp, a specially prepared quince elixir, vacuum packed beef, lamb, turkey, freshly cooked smoked meat, gingerbread dough, candy, marmalade, tea and honey jars. It will be a great and rich market that will fulfil all your wishes in the run-up to Christmas!

CAITO project organized a destination promotion seminar for representatives of the travel trade professionals and press on 22nd of November at Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Japan (Address: 37-11 Kamiyama-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).

We introduced Japanese media representatives to our new Products Manual 2020 introducing the experiences in Rural area such as farm/manor house stay, sauna/spa, and organic gastronomy. The Sauna brochure is newly published, which includes sauna culture and products in each country. There are many products already introduced in the Japanese market and rural products are recognized as an important category in the European market where rural tourism is seen as a tool for overcoming excessive tourism and to ensure the sustainability of tourism.

More info: >>> Go Rural 2019, November, Tokyo

Fourth meeting took place in November 8-9, 2019 in Norway, Vestfold where HANEN has a member, an active tourism provider and good practice example. This meeting happened as planned. During the meeting partners planned details of dissemination strategy, visited several environmentally friendly tourism enterprises (catering, activities, hotels), which were also partly included in the training manual content as best examples.

Agenda >>>

2019. gada 24. augustā Suitos norisinājās Mājas kafejnīcu diena, kur darbojās 20 kafejnīcas, no kurām 16 Alsungas novadā, 3 Jūrkalnē un viena Basos, kas durvis saviem viesiem vēra vaļā tikai šajā dienā.
Esam aptaujājuši gandrīz visus Mājas kafejnīcu dienas dalībniekus un ieguvuši gan atsauksmes, gan apmeklētāju skaitu katrā “kafejnīcā”. 

Saimnieki atzīst, ka pasākuma apmeklētība bijusi daudz lielāka, kā gaidīts. Bijis ļoti daudz darba, bet kopā ar labu komandu viss izdevies godam. Bijuši arī saimnieki, kam pietrūkušas darba rokas, bet nākotnē, ja šāds pasākums notiktu, tad zinātu uz ko gatavoties un tiktu piesaistīti papildu palīgi. Par spīti lielajai slodzei un nogurumam pēc pasākuma, saimnieki ir ļoti priecīgi un gandarīti un labprāt šādā pasākumā vēlētos piedalīties arī citreiz.

>>> KOPSAVILKUMS (PDF, 1.17 MB)

>>>SUMMARY (PDF, eng)

The Baltic Coastal Hiking Project concludes, and to analyse achievements, share experiences and to officially open the E9 long-distance hiking route along the Baltic Sea coast, the Baltic Coastal Hiking final conference and joint hike from Kabli in Estonia to Ainaži in Latvia took place on 13th and 14th of September.

The final conference took place on September 13th at the Lepanina hotel in Estonia. Project partners from Latvia and Estonia shared their experiences, surprises and challenges, as well as stories and insights, during the creation and development of the 1200 kilometre hiking route. They also talked about plans to develop the route in the future and to attract more and more hikers directly from Europe. Steen Kobberø-Hansen, a representative of the European Ramblers Association, who attended both the conference and the hike, informed about the trends of hiking in Europe.  >>> PHOTO GALLERY

On September 14th, the Baltic Coastal hiking route was opened as a part of the E9 in the Baltics with a joint hike. It was a nice hike and get-together for all friends, fans and creators of the Baltic Coastal hiking route. At 11 AM the 31st day of the route was hiked with some little changes – from Kabli in Estonia (from “Lepanina” hotel) to the Ainaži pier in Latvia, about 15km. The hike ended near the Ainaži pier, where we had an informal get-together. Almost 200 people from Latvia and Estonia joined the hike. >>> PHOTO GALLERY

The programmes allow visitors to experience four unique and different ethnographic regions where authentic traditions are still part of peoples’ everyday life. They are: Setomaa region (Estonia), Kihnu island (Estonia), Suiti cultural space (Latvia) and the Livonian coast (Latvia) presenting UNESCO heritage in the following ways:

UNESCO proclaimed Intangible Cultural Heritage:

• SETO LEELO, Seto polyphonic singing tradition;
• KIHNU cultural space;
• SMOKE SAUNA tradition in Võromaa;
• SUITI cultural space.

On the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Latvia: the LIVONIAN Cultural space. Livonian community has made a commitment to prepare a nomination for UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Booklet (PDF).

Available in languages: English, Estonian, Latvian

Baltic Coastal Hiking is a long distance hiking route part of E9 along the coast of the Baltic Sea. The hiking route starts at the Lithuanian-Latvian border in the village of Nida in Latvia and finishes at the Port of Tallinn in Estonia. The ~1200 km of the Baltic Coastal Hiking Route are split up into 60 separate parts of one day walks (~20-25 km). Each day’s walk has a detailed description. An additional three spreads of the guide are dedicated to the islands of Estonia where travellers can continue their hike or, quite the contrary, relax by enjoying the cultural, historic, gastronomic or wellness offers on the islands. The guidebooks are issued in 5 different languages (english, latvian, german, estonian and russian). In limited amounts english, latvianan and german versions are available in printed format at our office in Riga, Kalnciema street 40.

>>> Free guidebook download (PDF, ~64MB)

Homepage: coastalhiking.eu

Facebook: facebook.com/jurtaka

Instagram: instagram.com/jurtaka

Setomā (Setomaa) ceļvedis sniegs nelielu ieskatu setu zemes dabā un kultūrā, kā arī pastāstīs par Setomā tūrisma maršrutiem. Tā kā vēsturiskā Setomā sadalīta starp divām valstīm – Igauniju un Krieviju, tad nedaudz tiks apskatītas arī Krievijas teritorijā esošās nozīmīgās vietas: Pečoriem un Izborskai. Grāmata apskata arī svarīgākos ikgadējos notikumus, kā arī informē par ēdināšanas un nakšņošanas vietām. Ceļveža beigās atrodami daži praktiski padomi un neliela setu - latviešu vārdnīca.

Ceļvedis pieejams latviešu, angļu, krievu un igauņu valodās elektroniskā formātā šeit, kā arī  iespējams saņemt "Lauku ceļotāja" birojā Kalnciema ielā 40, Rīgā

Sadarbībā ar biedrību "Etniskās kultūras centrs "Suiti"" esam  izdevuši jaunu ceļvedi, kas domāts tūristiem, lai  iepazītu dzīvās un krāšņās Suitu tradīcijas. Ceļvedī ir īsi aprakstīti galvenie ar Suitu novadu saistītie vēsturiskie notikumi, interesanti fakti un 23 tūrisma objekti, kur var iepazīt suitu mantojumu, minēti svarīgākie ikgadējie notikumi, kā arī pievienota mazā suitu vārdnīca.

Ceļvedis pieejams latviešu, angļu, krievu un igauņu valodās elektroniskā formātā šeit, kā arī  iespējams saņemt "Lauku ceļotāja" birojā Kalnciema ielā 40, Rīgā