Guides ·Itineraries

The route at a glance

The country is small — 350 km from Tallinn to the southern border, 200 km from the capital to the Saaremaa ferry — so a week can be a genuine loop rather than a series of return trips. The version that works best runs clockwise: two nights Tallinn, one night in or near Lahemaa National Park, one night Tartu, one night at the edge of Soomaa National Park, one night Pärnu, one night on Saaremaa or Muhu, then back to Tallinn. No single driving day exceeds three hours.

A rental car costs €40 to €65 a day in summer and makes the middle of this itinerary far easier, because Lahemaa and Soomaa are both places where the good bits sit at the end of gravel roads. Without a car, substitute: Elron trains to Tartu, Lux Express buses to Pärnu and Kuressaare, and a guided day trip into Soomaa from Pärnu. Book ferry crossings and any July accommodation weeks ahead.

Days 1 to 2: Tallinn

Give the capital two nights and no more, unless you are museum-hungry. Day one is the Old Town: Toompea's Patkuli and Kohtuotsa platforms, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Raekoja plats and the tower gallery at St Olaf's Church, which costs around €5 and rewards the 124 steps. Day two belongs to Kalamaja — Balti Jaama Turg for lunch, Telliskivi Creative City for the shops and Fotografiska, then the Seaplane Harbour at Lennusadam, about €20, for the submarine Lembit and the seaplane hangar itself.

If the weather turns, Kadriorg absorbs half a day: trams 1 and 3 reach the park in 10 minutes, the palace holds the foreign art collection and KUMU, around €15, is the best art museum in the Baltics. Eat in the Rotermann Quarter or on Telliskivi; mains run €16 to €24 in mid-range places. Pick up any hiking or swimming gear you are missing here, because prices outside Tallinn are similar but the choice is thinner.

Day 3: Lahemaa National Park

Leave Tallinn after breakfast and you are at Viru raba within 50 minutes on the E20. Walk the 3.5 km boardwalk loop early, when mist still sits over the bog pools, then continue to Palmse Manor, the restored Baltic-German estate that houses the park visitor centre; entry to the manor complex is about €10 and the grounds are free. Sagadi Manor, 20 minutes further, adds a forest museum and a decent café, and both sell the RMK maps you will want for the trails.

Spend the afternoon on the coast. Käsmu, the captains' village, has a boulder-strewn shoreline and a donation-run maritime museum in the old sea school. Altja, further east, keeps its net sheds, its wooden swing and a tavern where bean soup and pork run €12 to €18. Sleep at Vihula or Sagadi manor, in a Võsu guesthouse from €70, or at one of the free RMK forest campsites if you are carrying a tent.

Day 4: Tartu

It is a 2.5-hour drive from Lahemaa to Tartu via Rakvere, or two hours by Elron train from Tallinn for about €13. Estonia's university town, European Capital of Culture in 2024, is denser with ideas than Tallinn and much cheaper. Climb Toomemägi for the 13th-century cathedral ruins that now hold the University of Tartu Museum, cross the Angel's Bridge, and come down to Raekoja plats for the leaning Tartu Art Museum and the Kissing Students fountain.

In the afternoon choose between the Estonian National Museum at Raadi, a spectacular long building on a former Soviet airfield with a strong permanent exhibition for about €14, and Aparaaditehas on Kastani 42, a Soviet factory turned studio quarter with bars and small shops. Walk back through Supilinn, the timber district where the streets are named Bean, Pea and Potato. Doubles in the centre run €70 to €110; student-town dinners are €12 to €18.

Day 5: Soomaa and the fifth season

Soomaa lies about 130 km west of Tartu and 50 km east of Pärnu, and it is the wildest thing on this loop. Five raised bogs sit between four rivers, and in most springs the rivers overtop their banks and flood the meadows and forest roads in what Estonians call the fifth season, usually somewhere between March and April. The visitor centre at Kõrtsi-Tõramaa has maps, toilets and current trail conditions; the surrounding roads are gravel and slow.

Walk the Riisa bog trail, a boardwalk of roughly 5 km through pools and pine, or the Ingatsi trail with its viewing tower. Better still, get on the water: a guided canoe day on the Raudna or Halliste costs about €50 to €65 per person, and a handful of operators still build and paddle the traditional haabjas dugout. Beavers are near-guaranteed at dusk on the Beaver trail. Sleep in a farm guesthouse near Tõramaa or Jõesuu from €60.

Days 6 to 7: Pärnu and Saaremaa

Pärnu is an hour from Soomaa and is where Estonians go to slow down: two kilometres of shallow white-sand beach, a pine-shaded Rannapark, the functionalist 1939 beach house and a spa culture that goes back to the 1838 mud baths. Book an afternoon at Hedon Spa on Ranna puiestee or one of the bigger resort spas; day passes run €25 to €45 and treatments start around €50. Walk the stone jetty out into the bay at sunset and eat on Rüütli street.

For the final night, drive west to Virtsu and take the TS Laevad ferry to Kuivastu on Muhu — 27 minutes, roughly hourly, around €10 for a car plus about €3 per passenger, and you should book at praamid.ee in July. Cross the causeway to Saaremaa for Kuressaare, where the 14th-century Episcopal Castle is the best-preserved medieval fortress in the Baltics at about €15. Return to Tallinn on day seven in roughly four hours.

Transport, costs and booking notes

Without a car, the same week costs less but loses Lahemaa's coast and Soomaa's back roads. Elron trains link Tallinn with Tartu, Rakvere and Viljandi for €7 to €14; Lux Express and Hansabuss run Tallinn to Pärnu in two hours for €8 to €12 and Tallinn to Kuressaare in about four hours for €13 to €18, ferry included. Tickets are cheapest booked online a few days ahead at tpilet.ee. Rural bus services often run two or three times a day, so read timetables before committing.

Budget €90 to €130 per person per day for a comfortable version of this week: €60 to €90 for accommodation sharing, €35 for food, plus fuel, ferries and entries. Camping and RMK forest sites, which are free and often have firewood, can pull that under €55. Bring waterproof boots whatever the month, insect repellent for June and July in the bogs, and a swimsuit — every spa hotel and half the guesthouses have a sauna.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

Tallinn Swissotel Tallinn

4.7/5 €125/ night

Tallinn Hyatt Place Tallinn

4.9/5 €95/ night

Tallinn Hotel Telegraaf Autograph Collection

4.7/5 €257/ night

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