“Estonians are used to ruins,” said Priit Vesilind in National Geographic Traveler. Over the past 800 years, they’ve endured invasions by Teutonic knights, Danish and Swedish legions, Russian czars, German Nazis, and the Red Army. Only recently has this former Soviet republic on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea “rejoined the European mainstream” as a nation in
its own right. Making up for centuries of lost time, Estonians are busy bringing the country into the 21st century—converting old farms into guesthouses, armories into pubs, and “Soviet-era factories into art galleries.” The country is about the size of Switzerland, and a drive of only a few hours will take you to either Russia or Latvia—or to the sea.
My tour began in Tallinn, the capital, located just across the Gulf of Finland
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from Helsinki. English is a popular second language here, the crime rate is minimal, and “the streets seem filled with tall, stunning young women.” The Danes founded Tallinn’s Old Town in 1219, and it’s now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Old Town still looks “startlingly medieval,” partly because the Soviets did not have resources to spend on development. Sitting under the massive, original oak beams of the baroque-gothic Schlössle Hotel, formerly the residence of nobles, it’s easy to imagine a lost world of boar-baiting, minstrels, and the “occasional flogging.” The countryside to the south is similarly underdeveloped, filled with fields of billowy Queen Anne’s lace and white birch.
At land’s end, a ferry transported us to Muhu Island in the Baltic Sea, which is home to Pädaste Manor, “Estonia’s most luxurious small resort hotel and spa.” Nearby Saaremaa, the largest of Estonia’s islands, is notable for its numerous wooden windmills and nature preserves. After an overnight stay in a converted, thatched-roof old barn that’s now a tourist hotel, we returned to Parnu, on the mainland. Estonians have long prized the therapeutic mud baths at this popular beach resort. “Skeletons of defunct Soviet-era collective farms” in the area are now overgrown with weeds. But the Scandic Ranna Hotel, built in 1937, is “pure white Bauhaus, all light wood and glass.” On our last day, we explored the Lahemaa National Park on the rugged north coast.
Contact: Visitestonia.com
