Day trip to Latvia, part one: Ski resorts

Day trip to Riga for two ski hills and couple of caves. Full day but very nice hills and caves!. First up, Riekstukalns ski resort 45 mins southeast of the city... then Ozolkalns ski resort 90 mins northeast. Both were superb! Riekstukalns felt like Les 3 Vallees of Latvia with its multiple bases and skiing long stretches to the other side of the large ski resort. Ozolkalns shone with its chair lift and river views.

More information about Riekstukalns from their home page here. They only run on a vertical of 36 meters (about 100 feet) but wow they have 13 different slopes, distributed along a large area. This really felt like a large area. And it looked so nice among the beautiful trees and the forest.

And more information about Ozolkalns from their home page here. Their vertical is 80 meters (about 240 feet), but there was less slopes. Interestingly there would have been a second ski resort right next to Ozolkalns, the Žagarkalns. I didn't know about it while visiting... anyway, interesting. Their home page is here.

And if you were wondering, Kalns in Latvian means Mountain... so you know :-)

Photos from Riekstukalns:

Second base:

Food offerings. In Finland we just have meat pies or something horrible...

Me:

Map:

Slope above the first base:

Lifts are open .. very late!

Sign on the road:

More slopes:

Yes... healthy?

Photos from Ozolkalns next. First the base cafeteria building. I love it:

Me:

Lift:

There were a lot of cabins for vacationers, and a sauna. A sauna next to the slope!

The sign on the road. WTF camel park???

Views from the top of the hill over to the river:

The next part of this trip report is about caves (link, alt. link). The final part is about the airport (link, alt. link).

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Or read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko.

Day trip to Latvia, part three: Rīgas lidosta

Riga's airport, RIX, is located south of the city, in the community of Mārupe. The airport is also a hub for Air Baltic. I have been here before, but just transiting on Air Baltic. Now I flew here on Finnair, and back on the same day, on the day trip to ski (link, alt. link) and cave in Latvia (link, alt. link)... found a lounge that serves families as well as business travelers. Nice!

The airport is compactly sized and nice. I tested their lounge, the Primeclass Business Lounge (link). There was no warm food, but otherwise it was quite good, several types of sandwiches and ingredients to make more. And I loved the extra space, they had a meeting room, private suites, and a children's play room! Wow! Finally, someone understands what is needed from a lounge :-)

Official home page here, and wikipedia here.

Photos from the lounge:

Photos from the airport:

Photos from the flight and the Helsinki airport:

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

First, Oldest, and Grandest: Yrjönkadun uimahalli

Finally, I was able to visit the Yrjönkatu swimming hall in Helsinki. It is right in the city center, a block away from the Stockmann department store. I've been wanting to for many years... did not recently due to the renovations that have been going for several years. But now it was opened just a week or two ago, and despite expectations it wasn't totally slammed full of people. In the pool I was at times even alone on my lanes. What a place! It is like a palace, a glimpse into a lost world. The tiles, the style, the air .. very, very well done.

But it is also a bit quirky. You can swim naked -- and in the past you had to swim naked, until that changed in 2001. On my visit this year half of the people were naked. And there's a second floor with relaxation rooms included for visitors, with beds, towels, bathrobes, etc. provided by the hall. And there's more saunas, including an infrared sauna, a steam sauna and a wood-fueled sauna. The latter was now out of use, and last week the hall had to be evacuated due to smoke smell. Hopefully they fix it, a wood burning sauna would be so nice.

Entrance is just 6€ for the first floor, which includes lockers for shoes, another locker at the changing rooms, two saunas (mild and medium hot), and the big 25-meter pool. For 2€ more you can book your own seated changing cabin. The second floor entrance is 20€The full price list is here.

The building is actually six stories high, there's couple of privately bookable saunas and a jacuzzi, prices range from 400 to 600€ if you are interested. And then there's small teaching pool and gyms in the upper floors. 

The hall was taken into use 1928, so it is now 98 years old. And still going strong! The renovation was done very tastefully, using the original materials and tiles. Read more about the hall's history here.

BBC has listed this swimming hall in its short list of world's most beautiful swimming halls.

There's plenty of other stories about this legendary swimming hall:

• Wikipedia
• BBC

Photos:

Second floor:

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. Pool photo is by Helsingin Kaupunki, from their website, all rights held by them. The 2nd floor picture is by MyHelsinki.Fi, also from their website, all rights again held by them.

Lohja Spa

Visited Lohja Spa as an after-work detour. Just an hour from home, and in the middle of pretty much nowhere (amazingly, it is in Karjalohja, not Lohja) it was quite a find indeed. It is a small hotel and a spa, but with not too many quests, I had almost all of the 25 meter pool to myself, they had five wonderful saunas and six pools.

I particularly liked their hot 90 degree "star sky" sauna, pictured above. But also the salt sauna was nice, they offered small cups of salt to rub it on your skin. Felt good.

There was also a 70 degree birch sauna, a steam sauna, and then in the men/women dressing rooms a normal Finnish sauna.

The pools were the big pool that had a climbing wall as well, then a therapy pool, a cold plunge pool, a shallow hot pool, and two jacuzzis.

Entrance:

Their story is to "bathe like in a fairy tale":

Pool area:

Salt:

Road to middle of nowhere in a snow storm:

This place reminded me quite a lot of Siuntio Spa (today Siuntio's public swimming hall), but with better saunas. See my separate article about that here (alt. link). But Lohja Spa is more expensive, 25€, though they had a come-once-and-pay-half-price-next-time deal.

Lohja Spa will be worth visiting again! Their website is here.

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. Pool and sauna photos taken when the facility was closed and with permission.

Stanley Park swim in Vancouver

I did an after-meetings walk at the Third Beach in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Very nice area. Dipped into the sea as well.

More information about the Third Beach here. The coordinates are N 49.30418 W 123.15691. 

Do check out also the whole shoreline at Stanley Park, including for instance Elek Imredy's bronze sculpture "Girl in a Wetsuit" on the other side of the peninsula from the Third Beach (link). And check the beautiful Siwash Rock north of the Third Beach as well (link). I also loved the Beaver Lake (swamp) and the forests were absolutely spectacular!

I've previously swam also nearby at English Bay (article, alt. link).

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko.

Skiing Volcán de Tequila, Mexico

Mexico. I was in Guadalajara for a meeting... but meetings end, and then what? Where's the skiing? Well, I guess there isn't any. But the best I could do was to find a local mountain, bring some ice, and attempt to ski the ice on top of the mountain on my mini-skis.

Except that it failed. The road was blocked to the top, and there was a massive canyon between where I was and the actual top was. But never mind, let's just ski where we are then.

Not my best skiing experiences. Could possibly be the worst, though. But even the worst skiing is still pretty good. I can't complain, a beautiful mountain, beautiful scenery, warm, new place, skis on my feet, the familiar bring-your-own-ice/snow routine... not bad. Or not too shitty, as we say in Finland.

And the mountain? Volcán de Tequila, near the town of Tequila. 2,920 meters of strength, probably with a worm inside. I wasn't quite at the top of course, but a respectable mountain nevertheless.

I think I was around these coordinates: N 20.805279 W 103.847307.

Video:

Photos:

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2016 by Jari Arkko.