Beaches in Estonia

Nearly four thousand kilometres of Baltic coast and over two thousand islands, most of it low, sandy and forested — a coastline of pine, reed bed and shallow water rather than of cliff. The land is still rising after the last ice age, several millimetres a year, so the coastline is measurably growing and villages that were ports two centuries ago now sit inland. The sea is brackish, shallow and freezes in hard winters, and the swimming season is about eight weeks; but the Gulf of Riga is shallow enough that the water reaches the low twenties in July, which is exceptional at this latitude and is why the resort towns are all on it. Pärnu has been a mud-cure spa town since 1838 and the sanatoria built for that trade still operate, alongside a wide beach, a bandstand and a promenade of wooden villas. Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, the two large islands, hold the quieter beaches, along with juniper heath, medieval churches and a meteorite crater at Kaali. Practically: the islands are reached by ferry from Virtsu and Rohuküla, with bookings advisable in summer and an ice road in some winters; the right of public access applies to the shore throughout; and midsummer is the peak of the year, when the light barely goes and the country empties onto the coast for a few days.