This is a shallow lagoon-type lake which, along with the area around it, is a wetland of international importance. The presence of 271 species of birds has been found in the area, including 43 birds which are listed in the Latvian Red Book and 15 that are listed in the European Red Book. The nature park includes the Nida swamp and the part of the sea which is alongside the park - newly estabilshed sea protected area "Nida - Pērkone". Between Lake Pape and the Baltic Sea we find Latvia’s oldest bird ringing station, where rings are attached not only to birds, but also to bats. Lake Pape is the first territory in Latvia where livestock adapted to life in the wild have been released for the proper management of the lake’s flood-land meadows. First there were wild horses (“Konik” horses), then aurochs and the European bison. Visitors can use bird and nature observation towers, nature trails, etc. The Ķoņi village is a unique example of a seaside fishing village. Pape is popular among bird-watchers, and the park’s visitors centre is found in the “Nature House” of the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

One of the highest dunes in Latvia, located between Bernāti and Jūrmalciems villages. It is 37m high and offers a magnificent view of the sea and natural pine forests. The highest dunes in Latvia stand to the South of Jūrmalciems village: the Pūsēnu hill, the Ķupu hill, the Mietragkalns or Tiesas hill, the Pāļu hill, the Garais hill, the Ātrais hill, the Lāvas hill. The Pūsēnu dune is the highest of these dunes which are all called hills by the local people. The Pūsēnu hill developed between 1785 to 1835 when shifting sand became extremely dangerous. Several homesteads were buried in sand, among them „Pūsēni”, where a forester’s family lived. The family is said to have moved to Bārta. The dune was named after the buried homestead.

Jēkabs Janševskis, a Latvian writer, wrote in his book „Nīca”: “In olden times, large pine trees were growing in the dunes on the coast of Nīca and they stood steady and firm. But i Swedish times (around 1650), the Swedes built a large kiln for charcoal and tar. Pine wood and stumps provided an excellent material for this. Once a big fire rose, and the charcoal kiln burned down as well as the whole pine forest. The remaining stumps and bare trunks in the vast burnout could not hold the storm-driven sand; it flew further and further burying not only the burned-out forest, but also the nearest fields. In wintertime, when the vast, low marshy grasslands were covered with ice, jets of sand drifted further over its surface, and soon most of the grasslands and large meadows turned into sandy heath-land and dunes.”

To reconstruct Liepāja, severely damaged during WWII, a silicate brick factory was built in the town. The main raw material was white sand and it was taken from the Bernātu forest. In the 1960-ies they started to dig off the Green Dune and the White Dune, later also the Pūsēnu hill. The excavators used to work day and night, in three shifts. The work stopped at around 1980, as there was no more sand suitable for production of brick.

A trail is set up to facilitate walking in the Pūsēnu Dune in the Bernātu Nature Park.

The Wine Hill of Sabile has been known since the age of the Duchy of Courland as the northernmost place where grapes were grown to produce more or less sour wine for the duchy. A wine festival has been held each year during the latter half of July in Sabile since 1999. The hill offers an excellent view of the small town that is on the banks of the ancient Abava River Valley.