Jardin d'Essais Algiers

Here's pictures of the lovely Jardin d'Essais, which is easily added as a favorite place. This is a grand park for strolling along the tree lined paths. We ate at a restaurant with outdoor seating on this somewhat warm winter day. It's a great place to enjoy a beautiful day in Algiers!

Ragakāpa Nature Park

Jūrmala Latvia isn't just about the beaches. There's also the Ragakāpa Nature Park and Jūrmala Open Air Museum with a recreation of an old fishing village. They're great for easy hiking around and seeing different things on the long Easter weekend or any other time. Yes, these places are very near to the beach and you can walk the beach as a part of it. However, when it isn't summer yet and it's still kind of cold, then it's nice to walk around and see some other things besides the beach. Latvia is wonderful for places to hike and this area near Riga is a good one.

Tērvetes Dabas Parks

Tērvetes dabas parks is a nature park but there's some really cool stuff in it which fully justifies the drive there and small price of admission. It's almost like some sort of natural theme park.

There are zip lines and climbing areas which seem to be popular across Latvia. There's also a tall observation tower which is another thing they like to build here in various places. The park has large paths which are easy for all ages and strollers. There's smaller more natural paths winding between the main roads to get a little closer to nature and see less people. Those can be challenging for strollers but some people were doing that too with their families.

The really unique thing about this park are all of the carvings and little buildings on the trails and in the various Gnome or Dwarf villages. We didn't even get to the other side of the park for the Fairytale Forest so we'll have to go back someday.

https://www.mammadaba.lv/tervetes-dabas-parks

Latvia National Botanic Garden

The National Botanic Garden (Nacionālais Botāniskais dārzs) in Latvia is 30 minutes away by car or train. It's always nice to stroll around beautiful gardens and a nice park while summer is still hanging around for a bit.

Bastejkalna Park Riga

Bastejkalna (Bastion Hill) Park is probably my favorite part of Riga. There's lots to love around here but the park along the canal is a wonderful place for a walk. It has the National Opera on one end, the Freedom Monument, an awesome water feature, and lots of other stuff to see as you stroll along winding paths under the trees. There's many more nice parks around the city but we're really fortunate to have this particular park so close to home.

Victory Memorial and More Riga Parks

Riga is great for green spaces and parks. We have the most amazing park by Vecrīga (Old Riga or Old Town) along the canal circling Riga where the city walls used to be. There's lots of other city parks dotting around the map to check out so this is about a few of those near the Victory Memorial.

El Ávila Quebrada Quintero

I wrote about Hiking El Ávila National Park before but it's something people do again and again here. It's a great place to be in nature that's really close. The path I wrote about before is very popular for exercise but there's a right turn towards a waterfall area called Quebrada Quintero that's also really popular. Here's some pictures of that direction.

Parque Los Chorros

Parque Los Chorros is a park on the edge of Caracas near the bottom of the Ávila. It's narrow and follows a creek with walkways, bridges, and stairs under big shady trees and tall bamboo. It's a family park with kids playing in the water and a couple of playgrounds. The main feature is a beautiful waterfall. The stairs to the side of it lead up to another pond and a smaller waterfall. It's a fun little park to explore.

It has attended parking available under the elevated Avenida Boyacá. The price was 50 Bs a year ago but it's now 80 Bs. I won't tell you how crazy cheap that is at the current parallel rate because the math is fractions of a penny. There's a little restaurant selling lunch but we didn't eat this last time. It was decent food when we last visited. Overall it's a nice place in the city to relax in nature and is one of of our favorite parks along with Parque del Este (Parque Generalísimo Francisco De Miranda).

Hiking El Ávila

El Ávila National Park is the distinctive mountain view in the background of most Caracas pictures. Usually we're looking at it from the city or from the hills where we live on the other side of the city from the mountains. It looks nice from down here so why not get a closer look?

The park has many trails and you could hike all the way to the top given enough time and energy. We don't have that kind of energy so we hiked up the very popular Sabas Nievas trail. It's sad to see on the map how little we actually climbed when it felt like so much more! I saw on a map there that we went from about 1,000M to 1,300M.

It was a lot of work but definitely worth it for the views. I guess the exercise is good too. This is a nicer way to exercise and lots of locals use it as a workout. If it isn't enough to climb all that way then there's an outdoor gym where we turned around. Crazy people!

The entrance we used to the park is a tunnel under a road that runs alongside El Ávila. There were vendors selling drinks and snacks to the large crowds that run up and down the trail.

Parque del Este

Parque del Este is a huge city park here in Caracas. It's about 200 acres with plenty of walking and jogging paths. It's a pleasant getaway inside the city since it's full of vegetation, ponds, a ship replica, and other interesting things to see. There's even some zoo animals on display along with the occasional sloth just hanging out in the wild up in the trees. It seems to be pretty safe. The park is full of families just wanting to relax, exercise, or play some sports. Here's some pictures from this weekend and probably many more to come. Click on them for a bigger view.

Paseo de los Próceres

Paseo de los Próceres (Promenade or Walk of the Heroes) is a monument to the heroes of Venezuelan independence. It's a wonderful place with fountains and walkways to enjoy a beautiful day in Caracas. There's a shopping center with parking near one end and the other end turns into a long military parade ground. It seems safe with all of the military around. It may not be safe at night on the streets of Caracas but there's some great park areas to enjoy in the right areas at the right times of day. Click on the pictures for larger versions.