6 reasons to visit Estonia

I will be the first to admit that Estonia was somewhere that really wasn’t on my radar. I had never even considered visiting until my brother who is a triathlete mentioned he had a race there. I started doing some research and pretty quickly decided that it was a country that I wanted to explore. I booked my flights and met him in Tallinn where we picked up a car and drove about three hours to a city called Tartu.

I spent four days in Tartu, it is a university town with a lot of history, beautiful buildings, street art and excellent food. After my brothers race we headed back to Tallinn to explore for a few days before I headed back to London and him to Spain.

If Estonia is a country you never thought about visiting or don’t know much about then hopefully my list of reasons to visit will help to convince you that this is a country that should be on your list.

It is not touristy

I think a lot of people just don’t think to visit the baltic countries. They are a little bit further away and the longer flight makes people reconsider. This actually isn’t a bad thing since it means none of the best tourist attractions are overly busy and the cities have retained their authenticity. 

The food is incredible

I am a little bit of a fussy eater and I do not eat a lot of types of meat and so I was a little worried about visiting a country that was so Far East. I did not have any issues at all. I was so impressed with the food scene. It was very diverse and we found a lot of food that was very much like what Melbourne and London have to offer. Avo on toast, trendy brunch spots and incredible Italian restaurants.

If you want to see more of what I ate while on my trip and to find specific restaurant recommendations I used an app called boutiq places while I was travelling. It is filled with all my recommendations. You can follow me by searching for Amy van Stekelenburg on the app.

The countryside is scenic

I could not believe how beautiful the drive between Tallinn and Tartu was. There were fields of wild lavender, poppies and canola. As well as beautiful forests with ancient trees that go on for miles, muffling all sounds from the outside world creating a serene experience.

There is so much history

Estonia is a combination of nordic, baltic and Russian and this is reflected in the culture and the history of the country. There are folklore traditions and there is a rich cultural diversity.

The cities are beautiful

As mentioned above Estonia is a beautiful blend of many different cultures and this lends itself to the architecture of the cities. Walking around the cities you can see the nordic influences and they are often beautifully combined with Russian architecture. This makes for incredibly beautiful streets and buildings that are a wonder to explore.

It is good value

Compared to may other countries Estonia is excellent value for money. The cost of food and drink and accomodation is very affordable. Coffees are 1-2 euros and you can easily get dinner for around 10. This leaves you with extra money to do tours or maybe you’ll splurge on a restaurant one night.