This article explores the social and political history of bathing in the Baltic Sea region. The Latvian example of the port city of Riga and the resort city of Jurmala illustrates how fairly mundane activities such as the spending of leisure time and being outdoors are socially shaped and controlled by the dominant ideology, be it Russian Imperial, Soviet, Latvian nationalism or post-Soviet market capitalism. Originally Jurmala consisted of small fishing villages of Livonians. In the late nineteenth century, the railway connected Jurmala to Riga and other cities in Imperial Russia, while urban inhabitants started to rent houses and build their own villas by the sea. It was during the interwar era of independence that for the first time Latvians became the primary vacationers and developers of Jurmala. Above all, middle-class people from Riga started to spend their summer vacations in the resort. During the Soviet period the industrial production of Riga multiplied whilst Jurmala was developed into a major health resort for the socialist tourist industry of the USSR. The existing sanatoriums, hotels, and villas were nationalized and infrastructure was developed to accommodate the Soviet elite and middle-class and better-off working-class people. This study based on oral environmental history indicates that after independence the development of Jurmala became unequal, reflecting the neo-liberal economic policy pursued by the new Latvian governments.