Погода: Юрмала, май

Regulars pick May for what is out rather than for the temperature: dandelions, apple and cherry blossom, and most of the wild flora, with the end of the month named as one of the best weeks of the Latvian year. The parks carry it - Bastejkalns, Esplanade, Vermanes, Kronvalda - and even the 1st of May holiday in good weather draws mostly locals rather than crowds. Take their word warm with care: our row gives 18.3C days but 5.3C nights that feel like 2C, so the blossom comes with a coat. Dry is fairer, at 49.9mm across 8.5 days with 12.5 hours of sun inside 16.5 of daylight. The record: humidity 67 percent, a 19.7 kph wind and AQI 48.

Jūrmala's forum is upfront that January here is a real gamble from one year to the next - some winters bring grey, mild, rainy stretches, others bury the coast under more than a meter of snow, and posters put it at roughly even odds which you'll get. What's consistent is that a fair number of cafes and restaurants stay open through winter despite the seasonal quiet, and a walk on the beach with snow and ice on the sand is its own kind of pretty. The train connection from Riga makes it an easy half-day trip even if the weather turns, so you're not committed to a full day outdoors.

Forum posters describe July water temperatures as notably warmer than earlier in summer - over 20C, enough for genuinely comfortable swimming along the shallow, wide stretch of sand. July is clearly peak season here, with posters noting that a Riga heatwave can send 'half of Latvia' to the beach on the same day, so real crowds are the trade-off for the best swimming conditions of the year. The 24km beach itself is repeatedly praised for feeling wide and open despite the crowds, with beachside restaurants and private beach clubs offering food, drinks and people-watching along the sand. A direct 30-minute train from Riga (a few euros round trip) makes it an easy day trip from the capital.