Central Hostel Riga
Family-run budget hostel with a free coffee bar and a 9.0 couples rating
Central Hostel Riga is the budget-first family-run option on Ernesta Birznieka-Upīša iela, a ten-minute walk from Old Town and four minutes from Vērmanes Garden. Private check-in, a working shared kitchen with free tea, coffee and fruit, and a quiet garden backyard for summer evenings. €16 dorm beds put it at the cheap end of Riga's hostel scene.
Central Hostel is family-run, family-friendly, and priced accordingly. It's on Ernesta Birznieka-Upīša, east of the Central Station, and the walk to Old Town is a flat ten minutes through Vērmanes Garden. The building is a converted Art Nouveau apartment block, three floors, with a backyard that gets used in summer for morning coffee and evening chats.
The shared kitchen is the anchor: a fridge with labeled shelves, a kettle that never stops, and a coffee-tea-fruit bar that's genuinely free all day. A grocery store is literally in the next building, so self-catering works. Dorms are 4, 6 and 8-bed with sturdy bunks, reading lights and sockets at each bed. The family rooms (rare in Riga hostels) sleep four, with two single beds and a bunk, and the €60 price tag makes it the cheapest family stay in the city.
There's no in-house bar and no organized pub crawl — Central Hostel sits deliberately outside the Old Town party scene. The TV lounge with DVDs runs quietly in the evenings, the backyard garden gets the serious travelers trading route notes, and the 24-hour security plus CCTV make late returns from Old Town painless. Paid private parking in the backyard is the practical bonus for road-trippers driving the Warsaw-Tallinn Baltic route.
- 01€16 dorm beds, cheapest in Riga's viable 8+ hostel tier
- 02Free coffee, tea and fruit bar all day, not just at breakfast
- 03One of only two Riga hostels with family rooms for travelers with kids
- 04Backyard garden for summer evenings and morning laptop work
- 05Private parking in the backyard, rare for Old Town-adjacent hostels
- Ten-minute walk to Old Town via Vērmanes Garden
- €16 dorm beds, Riga's budget floor for 8+ rated hostels
- Family rooms for four and paid private parking in the backyard
- Free coffee, tea and fresh fruit all day in the shared kitchen
“Good location, good price. Free coffee and tea bar and fruit — small things that added up over three nights. The owner was hands-on and checked us in personally.”
“Room and the kitchen were clean and comfortable. The owner maintains the facility well. Nothing fancy but everything worked for a budget stay.”
“The best thing was this was the first hostel which is children friendly on our Baltic trip. Staff were absolutely beautiful and helpful, tea and coffee on tap.”
- Rimi grocery (next building)1 min walk
- Vērmanes Garden4 min walk
- Riga Central Station8 min walk
- Old Town / Town Hall Square10 min walk
- Central Market12 min walk
- Alberta iela Art Nouveau14 min walk
