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HONEST TOURS LATVIA
Being honest is what counts
Choose from our list of guided walking and driving tours or get in touch and we'll create a special custom tour just for you. Remember - even all of our standard tours are adjustable.
Why Honest Tours?
At Honest Tours we feel that tourism has become from what used to be travelling and exploring to a huge industry with all what comes with it - making money on turnover rather than virtue. And there's no space for honesty in a bussiness model like that. We here try hard to make our living on class service, providing only private tours with extra care to each one of our customers. If you want to read more on our mission, click the button below.
History is what makes us
Riga was founded by German crusaders in 1201 and from that point on periods of rule by differen foreign powers followed, including the golden age of Swedes (pictured: swedish gate in Riga Old Town). All of those powers left something for us to be admired not only in Riga, but also other centuries old settlements all around Latvia.
Nature
Latvia is one of the least population-dense countries in Europe hence there's more private space for each of us, besides forests cover more than half of the territory, so it's really easy to become one with nature!
See it all
Even though there's more than 800 years of history of Riga and territories around it, the most action-packed period is the last century with it's world wars, first independence of Latvian Republic and ensuing 50 years of occupation and then the crazy switch from broken communism to broken capitalism in the 90s. Let us show you all of that!
Beautiful Riga
Start with the Capital, see it's history and culture and then move on to explore other towns and regions of Latvia
Reviews
Other people have enjoyed it, you might as well
So… you know… Just get in touch!
Specials & Packages
This is the part where I pretend that it's cheaper, but only if you BOOK RIGHT NOW. Just mention the discount code when you message me. The code is DISCOUNT.
ABOUT US
Since the agency is called Honest Tours, I'm going to be completely honest with you - There is no us! It's just me, just one guy doing the planning, the guiding, the everything. Pretending to be more people adds a kind of credibility to the name though, so I don't use my own identity, but a persona - an agency called Honest Tours.
Harijs Egliens
CEO, CTO, Agent, Guide
So - ABOUT ME
I'm Harijs. Right after secondary school I didn't think for a second before enrolling in a university to get a degree in computer sciences. That's what my father did, I'm good at it, so what else should I do, right? Took me around 7 years to recognize that IT is not what I want to do, so I enrolled in a evenings-and-weekends college to do what I always felt is my thing. Got another degree - organizing of cultural tourism. Meanwhile I got married and we started planning our wedding trip. A month after graduating from college, we departed and spent more than a year on the trip of our lifetimes visiting 31 countries (+2 unrecognized territories). All through the trip a picked up not only memories of adventures, but also a lot of useful tips and tricks for what was yet to become my career. Upon returning from the honeymoon (or honey year, if you will), I e-mailed the largest and nicest agency of cultural tourism in Latvia, and they gave me a job, just like that. For a few years I returned to alot of the places I enjoyed in my wedding trip, but this time in capacity of a tour leader. Now that we have a little one running around the house, I want to be as close as possible for as much time as possible, that's why I picked up local-guiding right here in Latvia. But if you need me to take you on a trip to let's say Iran, I'm ready to do it as well 🙂
The Mission
Being avid traveller myself I often notice that destinations tend to over-market themselves. The greatest this and biggest that (check the widest waterfall in europe and you'll know what I'm talking about), the worst history, the biggest catastrophe - it's always black and white, but in reality most of the things are grey. Destinations SHOULD put emphasis on what's their unique trait, but if it's the widest waterfall of height less than 6 feet, maybe you shouldn't bother. Maybe you should find what's not only unique, but also special. Those gray areas are mostly found by travelling independently, by meeting locals and spending time with them, but if your trip is only 3 days long that's not really possible. The other angle of honesty - tourism service providers and agencies tend to outsource their operators (guides, drivers etc) and during high seasons the filters of choosing the people are relaxed, mainly because of high demand and lack of competition in quality workers. Therefore you can almost never be sure what quality of product you're going to get and often the wages and profit margins come into play, so often the cheaper labour comes into play. To guarantee low prices operators have to find other ways of ensuring their income and that's where the honesty of service suffers. Is the little "just for locals" crafts shop really used by the locals or is it a overpriced souvenir stall that gives 20% fee of all sales to the guide or driver who brought you there? This is what I aim to do - show the beauty of grey, while keeping it completely honest. No overhyped sights, no risky middle-men, just you, your guide and the adventure can start.
Contacts
E-Mail: honest@honesttours.eu Phone: +371 26742036