Europe

Insurance

 

We recommend that you obtain comprehensive travel and medical insurance before travelling. You should check any exclusions, and that your policy covers you for all the activities you want to undertake. You are required to have health insurance on entering Latvia. Those who require visas for Latvia need to show policies upon arrival in Latvia. For more general information see travel insurance.

If things do go wrong when you are oversees then this is how we can help.

Registration

Register with our LOCATE service to tell us when and where you are travelling abroad or where you live abroad so our consular and crisis staff can provide better assistance to you in an emergency.

Issuing replacement passports

The British Embassy is unable to issue any form of travel document other than emergency passports. This passport allows holders to return to the United Kingdom (via a third country if necessary) but cannot be used for onward travel to other countries. For more details see the UK in Latvia website. UK passport applications from British Nationals resident in Latvia are handled by the British Passport Processing Centre in Düsseldorf, Germany. For more details see the UK in Germany website.

 

Travelling to Latvia in winter

 

You should bring warm clothing if you intend to travel to Latvia in the winter (October to March). There is likely to be snow on the ground and temperatures may drop to or below -25 degrees Celsius or below.

 

Customs Regulations

 

Travellers entering the UK from European Union countries do not normally pay any UK tax or duty on excise goods they have bought tax and duty paid in EU countries for own use, but there are special rules for cigarettes and some other tobacco products from some EU countries.

 

The UK is maintaining limits on the amount of cigarettes and some tobacco products that travellers are able to bring in to the UK for own use from nine European Union Member States (including Latvia), without paying UK duty.

 

The limits are:

 

Estonia - 200 cigarettes or 250g of smoking tobacco.

 

Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - 200 cigarettes.

 

Anyone who is carrying more than the limits should pay UK duty on those goods by entering the Customs red channel or by using the red point telephone. If travellers enter the Customs blue channel with more than the limits, then all of their tobacco may be seized.

 

Money

 

Since 15 June 2007 new legislation on the controls of cash entering or leaving the EU apply in all Member States. Any person entering or leaving the EU will have to declare the cash that they are carrying if this amounts to 10,000 euros or more; this includes cheques, travellers' cheques, money orders, etc. This will not apply to anyone travelling via the EU to a non-EU country, as long as the original journey started outside of the EU nor to those travelling within the EU.

All major credit cards are accepted and there are plenty of ATM machines for withdrawing local currency using Cirrus and credit cards.