Riga is already the de facto Baltic business capital, leaving Estonia’s Tallinn and Lithuania’s Vilnius in its wake. Increasingly, for tourists, it is becoming the most rewarding city of the three, with visitor attractions spruced up and an ever-burgeoning proliferation of hotels at all levels. Riga, a city older than both Stockholm and St. Petersburg, is the only Baltic capital to have a real big-city buzz. Unfortunately it is increasingly suffering from all of the problems that face any large metropolis, with crime – including robbery and mugging of tourists – on the rise. Any lingering images of Communist deprivations, however, are quickly blasted away by a stroll around this city, with its gleaming renovated buildings, its fashion conscious mobile-phone carrying youth and the new bars and cafйs that seem to be opening everywhere.