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 total length of the route is 1200 km, of which 580 km are in Latvia, and 620 km in Estonia; the route can be taken in both directions and Tallinn can also be a starting point. The route is divided into days and difficulty levels, which allows you to choose the most suitable distance for yourself. Join Baltic Coastal Hiking whenever you want, take a break whenever you like and return when you feel it is the right time for hiking! More information www.coastalhiking.eu.

>>> VIDEO.

Creative workshops offered by the “Sauleskalns” crafts house allow children and adults to discover in himself talents as a craftsman and artist. Professional teachers help to create wonderful stuff that pleases yourself and others.

“Puzurs” is a traditional Latvian room decoration for Christmas. It is made from straw, and its’ light, airy form and precise geometry is fascinating. This decoration really brings festive feeling.
The crafts house also offers workshops in gingerbread baking and making traditional Christmas to help everyone get prepared for Christmas celebrations.

“Mazsālijas” is a guest house on an organic farm. The farm breeds fallow deer and trout, grows vegetables and fruit, makes wine. The hostess offers a 4 hour food workshop for small groups of visitors to cook a meal together in a friendly atmosphere. During the food workshop visitors will learn how to cook a meal on a firewood stove from the home produce – vegetables, trout, and fallow deer meet. The food workshop includes cooking a three-course meal: a starter (fallow deer tartar, salted trout), the main course: trout fried on butter with steamed vegetables, fallow deer meet with rosemary and potato gratin, a dessert: cream cheese with strawberry sorbet.

On December 21, Valmiermuiža will gather local producers from all around Latvia, offering homemade bread, cheese, smoked goods, lamprey, honey, herbal teas, spices, homemade wine, beer, juice, candied fruit, hard candy, gingerbread cookies and lots more.

Everything offered at the fair is natural and, hence, healthy, made by locally grown plants or gathered in the clean forests and meadows of Latvia. Local craftsmen will offer woollen socks, mittens, crochets, hammered work, wooden toys and jewellery to give them as presents to friends and relatives. Items made by local craftsmen would make our ancestors proud, as they have been made according to the best traditions.

Along the fair all visitors will have an opportunity to enjoy a varied culture programme, including activities to get better acquainted with the traditions of the annual customs, learn songs and games, master some of the traditional crafts and much more. 

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