Rundāle Palace, Bauska Castle & Local Brewery

The full day is approximately 10 hours, departing Riga in the morning and returning by early evening. You'll spend around 2–3 hours at Rundāle Palace and gardens, plus time at Bauska Castle, a local restaurant, and the brewery.

Rundāle Palace is about 70 km south of Riga, roughly 75 minutes by car. You can drive, take a bus via Bauska (around €4 each way with a connection), take a taxi (€80–100 each way), or join a guided excursion like this one, which handles all transport and includes stops at Bauska Castle and a brewery.

Late May to mid-June for the rose garden in full bloom (2,300 roses, 600 varieties). September for golden light and fewer visitors. Weekday mornings are quietest. Even in peak summer, you won't experience anything close to the crowds at Versailles or Schönbrunn.

Absolutely. Rundāle is a fully restored, 138-room baroque palace designed by the architect of St Petersburg's Winter Palace, set in 10 hectares of French formal gardens, and you can visit on a Tuesday morning and have the Gold Hall almost entirely to yourself. That's an experience Versailles stopped offering about a hundred years ago.

Yes, children are very welcome. The castle towers at Bauska and the brewery visit are particularly popular with kids. Let Daiga know the ages when you book and she'll plan accordingly. The child price is €70.

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the excursion for a full refund. Cancellations within 24 hours are non-refundable.

Our default guide languages are English and Latvian. We can also offer the tour in Russian, German, or French on request, just let us know which language you’d prefer when you book and we’ll do our best to arrange the right guide. There’s no extra charge for non-English languages, but on-request languages are subject to guide availability and we’ll confirm by message before your tour.

Booking platforms like GetYourGuide and Viator charge commission, typically 20–30%. When you book directly with Daiga, there's no middleman, so you pay less for exactly the same tour with the same guide. €85 direct vs €128 on platforms.

Technically yes, in practice it’s a very long day and I don’t run it as a combined tour. Rundāle is about 85 km south of Riga, and the Hill of Crosses is another 100 km further south across the Lithuanian border, near Šiauliai. Combining both means roughly 12 hours door-to-door including the drives, and both sites deserve more than a quick stop. I recommend doing them on separate days: Rundāle from Riga on one day, and the Hill of Crosses from Vilnius or Kaunas if you’re continuing into Lithuania. If you really want both in one day, I can arrange it as a private hire, but I’ll tell you honestly it’s a tight schedule.

Yes, though it takes some patience. Take a bus from Riga International Bus Station to Bauska (roughly 1.5 hours, €5–7, several departures daily). From Bauska, a local bus goes to Pilsrundāle (the village next to the palace) but runs only a few times a day, so check the return schedule before you go. Total journey is about 2.5 hours each way. The palace entrance fee is €12–15 depending on which rooms you visit. You’ll miss Bauska Castle and the brewery that we include on the guided tour, but for independent travellers on a tight budget it’s a workable day.

A different palace entirely, and arguably my favourite version. The rose gardens are dormant and the formal parterres are covered in snow, so the big summer postcard is off the table. What you get instead is the interior at its most atmospheric: low winter light coming through the state-room windows, far fewer visitors (especially January to March), and the chance to spend longer in each room without being hurried by crowds. The palace is fully heated. The brewery lunch at the end of the tour is if anything better in winter — dark beer, warm farm food, and a fire in the corner. I run this excursion year-round and December–February is often my personal favourite season for it.

Partly. The ground-floor state rooms at Rundāle Palace are accessible and wheelchair-friendly, and that’s where most of the visual highlights are, including the White Hall. The formal gardens are on flat gravel paths which work for most mobility aids in dry weather. The second-floor rooms require stairs and there’s no lift. Bauska Castle involves cobblestones, uneven stone steps, and a tower climb, so it’s the hardest stop on our itinerary for reduced mobility — we can skip it and extend the palace visit instead if you’d prefer. Please tell me when you book if anyone in your party has specific needs, and I’ll plan the day around them.

Smart-casual is fine, there’s no dress code. The palace interiors are climate-controlled and cool even in summer, so a light layer is useful. Comfortable walking shoes are more important than smart ones, you’ll be on your feet for several hours across palace floors, gravel garden paths, and Bauska Castle’s uneven cobbles. In summer bring a hat and water for the open garden walk; in shoulder seasons a warm jacket for the castle ramparts (it’s exposed and windy).

Yes, photography for personal use is allowed throughout the palace interiors, no flash and no tripods. The Gold Hall, the White Hall, and the Duke’s private apartments all photograph beautifully even on a phone. The French gardens and the rose garden are unrestricted, no permit needed. Drones are not permitted on the palace grounds. If you want professional gear or a wedding shoot, that needs separate arrangement with the palace administration.

The French rose garden, more than 2,300 varieties, has its main flush from mid-June through July, with a strong second wave in late August and early September. Late June is the peak: the formal beds are at full saturation and the historical-variety section is at its most fragrant. May and early June give you the gardens with the geometry visible but few flowers; October gives you the last roses against the autumn light. The garden is included in your palace ticket and we always allow time for a slow walk through it.

Lunch is a sit-down meal at a local restaurant in the Rundāle area, simple Latvian country cooking, soup, a meat or fish main, dessert, included in your €85 price. We can accommodate vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and most allergies if you tell us when you book or at least 48 hours before departure. The brewery visit later in the day includes a tasting flight; soft drinks and water are available if you’d rather skip the beer.

It’s a small Latvian family brewery near Bauska, the kind of place whose beer never gets exported and is brewed in batches small enough that the brewer remembers each one. You’ll get a short tour of the brewing operation and a tasting flight of three or four of their current beers, usually a light lager, a darker ale, sometimes a seasonal. There’s also kvass and soft drinks for non-drinkers, and snacks (smoked cheese, dark rye bread) on the table. We chose this brewery because it’s a real working family business, not a tourist setup.

The standard excursion is all three because they make a coherent day, palace in the morning when it’s quiet, lunch, castle and brewery in the afternoon. Doing the palace alone is technically possible but the day becomes a five-hour round trip from Riga for two hours of palace, which doesn’t feel like good value. If you’re short on time, a better option is the standard excursion done at a slightly faster pace. If you have specific reasons for wanting palace-only, message us and we’ll see if a private-hire arrangement works.

Honest answer: it depends on the child and the day. Children who like castles and dressing up tend to love Bauska, you can climb the towers, the views are spectacular, and there’s a real sense of being inside a medieval fortress. Rundāle is harder for younger kids, the palace rooms are about admiring rather than touching, and the rose garden walk asks for patience. We pace the day with breaks, and the brewery visit at the end has space for kids to run around. Ages 7+ usually do well; under that, expect some wriggling. Child price (ages 3–14) available.

Tipping is not expected in Latvia and our guides are paid properly. If you’ve had a brilliant day and want to tip, €5–10 per guest in cash is generous and appreciated. If you’d rather not tip, please don’t feel awkward, an honest review afterwards is worth far more to us.