Slitere National Park

Slitere protects the Blue Hills of Kurzeme, a wooded ancient sea cliff that once marked the shoreline of a far larger Baltic. It is one of the least-visited corners of Latvia, a place of old forest, the last Liv fishing villages and a long empty coast.

The landscape

• Slitere lighthouse - an 1849 tower on the old sea cliff, with a view over unbroken forest to the real sea beyond.
• The Blue Hills - the wooded former shoreline, a nature trail loops through the old-growth forest below it.
• Kolka coast road - empty beaches and the ghostly Liv villages strung along the shore.
• Old forest - broadleaf woodland rare in the Baltics, rich in fungi and birds.

When to go

Summer for the coast and long days; autumn for fungi and quiet. This is a place that rewards slow travel and does not work as a quick stop.

What to expect

It is genuinely remote - there is little infrastructure, few signs in English, and you need a car. That emptiness is the whole point; if you want facilities and cafes, this is the wrong corner of the country. Roads in the park include long gravel sections.

Nearby

Cape Kolka, where the gulf meets the open Baltic, is the natural pairing at the peninsula's very tip; Dundaga village has the nearest services.

Key facts