Tallinn

There are few places in Europe where the aura of the 14th and 15th centuries survives intact the way it does in Tallinn’s Old Town, a jumble of medieval walls and turrets, needling spires and winding, cobbled streets. Nevertheless, Estonia’s capital is so modern it’s been dubbed ‘a suburb of Helsinki’.

The area of Toompea is home to a bevy of fascinating sights including the 19th-century Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral; Toomkirik, the Lutheran cathedral founded in 1233; the Estonian Art Museum; and the kookily named Kiek-in-de-Kök, a tall, stout tower built around 1475.

Hiiumaa

This quiet, sparsely populated island just west of the mainland has some beautiful stretches of coast. The main town, Kardla, is a sleepy place full of gardens and trees, but its main interest for travellers is as the jumping off spot for the Tahkuna Peninsula, just north-west of town.

Hiiumaa’s second largest settlement is Kaina, whose main appeal is its idyllic location in the south of the island near the shore of Kaina Bay, a major bird reserve. The town’s low-key atmosphere is its biggest charm, though the ruins of a fine 15th-century stone church are worth a peek.

Lahemaa National Park

Estonia’s largest national park is an interesting mix of coastal bluffs, dense forest, 18th-century manor houses, and numerous lakes, rivers and waterfalls, located in northern Estonia. You’d think you were in a Jane Austen novel but for the bears and lynxes.

Waterfalls cascade down some of the cliffs along the northern edge of the North Estonian limestone plateau, the Glint. The Koljaku-Oandu Reserve is an area of wet sea forest in the north-eastern part of the park, while the Laukasoo Reserve, in the park’s centre, is home to the 7000-year-old bog.

Saaremaa

Estonia’s biggest island has always had an independent streak and was usually the last part of the country to fall to invaders. Just a few kilometres south of Hiiumaa, Saaremaa is a thinly populated place of unspoiled rural landscapes. Farmsteads nestle among forests that cover half the island.

Kuressaare, Saaremaa’s capital, is the site of a 13th century castle founded as the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek’s island base. Viidumae, west of Kuressaare, is a botanical reserve, where the favourable climate and conditions make it home to rare plant species such as the blunt-flowered rush.