Estonia travel guide

Estonia travel guide

If you're entering Estonia expecting queues around the block and Ladas belching smoke then forget it. Estonia is a modern European country with a healthy outlook both in its cities and preserved wilderness areas, such as Lahemaa, Soomaa and Matsalu National Parks. Estonia's capital city, Tallinn, isn't infested with invading revellers (that was so last decade), and the UNESCO listed Old Town retains its medieval charm despite the deluge of cultural sightseers.

Estonia prefers to be Nordic to Baltic, into saunas, self-sufficiency and sing-a-longs by the seaside.

The seaside town of Pärnu, on the southwest coast, and Lake Peipus, straddling the border with Russia, are popular summer spots with the western islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa abound with authentic Estonian ambience emanating from thatched roofs, wooden windmills and slumbering fishing villages. If you're looking for a walk on the wild side then bogs or birdwatching will do the trick, although getting flayed in a smoke filled sauna often refreshes parts of the Baltics that other activities simply cannot reach.

Find out more in our Estonia travel guide.

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Estonia is...

the smallest country in the Baltics but knocking on the Nordic door like it wants to get out.

Estonia isn’t…

going to be overshadowed by Soviets, stag dos or Swedish saunas.

Things to do in Estonia...

Whether you’re trip trapping over wooden boardwalks or squelching across peat in purpose built ‘boots’, bog walking is the best way to unearth the mires, marshes and mosquitoes of mainland Estonia. Many of the nation’s indigenous plants, mosses and lichen can only be found within this sort of habitat with wild berries glowing like fairy lights to tempt bog walkers from well tramped spongy trails and onto territory that’s a bit more ‘sinky’. Cycling tours. Wind your way around the relatively flat tarmac of Estonia and you’ll be met with a blend of forest, coast and lakeside trails that incorporate many of the country’s historic old town centres and traditional rural villages. The Otepää region is Estonia’s most undulating with lots of lakes, rivers and narrow rural roads offering some delightful cycle routes over hills that in winter are associated with cross-country skiing. Remember your binoculars. From the rat-a-tat-tat echo in forests to the swooping cloak of ascending wings on the coast, Estonia is one of Europe’s top bird watching regions and an ideal staging area for migratory species using the East Atlantic Flyway. The west coast, especially, is home to a variety of reed beds, coastal meadows and floodplains with Matsalu National Park and the Luitemaa, Nigula and Nedrema nature reserves, prime twitching territory for those in the know.

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Things not to do in Estonia…

Search for the Soviets . Although Estonia was once under Soviet rule it’s not really a part of history that local people feel they need to brood over. Several former factories have been turned into trendy offices or hipster hang outs and although it’s easy to visit the graffiti daubed sites from the 1980s Olympics or the dank walls of Patarei prison there’s so much more to Estonia than this ill-famed era implies. Tear it up in Tallinn. If you’re worried about bawdy Brits in Estonia’s capital city you might be happy to hear that in recent years things have calmed down. Cheap drinks, nightlife and, ahem, cheap drinks, once made Tallinn a magnet for stag parties; however, an active police presence and a ban from several bars and hotels have, in the main, managed to stem the tide of beer bikes and pub crawls. Miss out on a sauna. There's no need to make the two hour ferry crossing over the Gulf of Finland to enjoy a sauna; exfoliating in Estonia, particularly in the southern county of Võrumaa, has been a cultural obsession for well over 800 years. Purifying your flesh and spirit in ancient wooden saunas is an all-year round experience and definitely worth working up a sweat for, with or without a light beating with a birch twig.