Once home to fishermen and mariners, this island in the Daugava is today seven-figure property, but also a unique heritage area.Thanks largely to former Latvian PM-turned-developer Māris Gailis
and his architect wife Zaiga Gaile - an amazingly sensitive and visionary couple in the cutthroat world of post Soviet politics - many of Ķīpsala's gracious timber
houses have been joyously restored. Gawk at them on Balasta dambis and admire Old Riga's spires across the water, and visit the Žanis Lipke Museum, a Holocaust hiding place in Jewish Riga.