Liepaja, a wonderful city of about 90,000 residents, is a gemstone, located on Latvia's Baltic coast, Latvia's third largest city (but actually the next most important city after the capital Riga) and the former capital of Latvia during World War I. An important thing for tourists to know is that Liepaja city consists of two main areas of interest - the city center, and Karosta, the northern part of the city, which used to be a secret soviet military town. Both the city center and Karosta have great beaches and you will be surprised, how unspoiled and beautiful the central beach is, and how white and soft the sand is! You should presume that Karosta is another city, because it really has a different history and looks different from the rest of Liepaja, so Karosta is worth a separate visit. In Liepaja there is no place to be called `the old town`, but the center and surroundings is full of old, beautiful wooden buildings, little irregular streets, etc. The center also includes the Seaside Park (Jurmalas parks) area, which has a fantastic white, soft sand beach and the park itself is great, too, with many nice buildings. http://wikitravel.org/en/Liepaja