Cesis

Cesis is one of the cheapest medieval old towns in the Baltics to simply walk: wandering Rose Square and the cobbled lanes costs nothing, and the town is small enough to cover on foot in a morning. Budget the one modest paid anchor for the lantern climb of the 13th-century Livonian castle ruins, a single reasonable ticket that pairs with the grim “Living on a Powder Keg” story behind its walls. The town sits inside Gauja National Park, so free sandstone-cliff and river walks are right on the doorstep, and it makes a clean cheap day trip or overnight roughly 90 minutes by bus or train from Riga, easy to pair with Sigulda down the valley. Come in late spring or early autumn shoulder season for mild Gauja Valley hiking weather and lower room rates than the July peak.