Saaremaa

Estonia's biggest island: a moated medieval castle, juniper heath, a meteorite crater, windmills and a row of proper spa hotels.

Saaremaa is 2,700 square kilometres of limestone, juniper and pine reached by a 27-minute ferry, and it behaves like a small country. It has its own beer, its own dialect jokes, its own building style — dry-stone walls, thatch, wooden windmills — and a genuine medieval monument in Kuressaare Episcopal Castle, the best-preserved castle in the Baltics, sitting inside its water-filled moat at the end of Lossi street. That castle alone justifies the crossing. It has never been rebuilt in a fake way: you walk cold stone stairs, cross a drawbridge, and climb a defence tower with arrow slits looking out at the bay.

Kuressaare, the island town of about 13,000 people, is where you will actually sleep. The centre is a compact grid of low painted houses around a baroque town hall on Tallinna street, with Lossi running down to the castle park, and five or six spa hotels within ten minutes of each other — Georg Ots, Grand Rose, Arensburg, Meri, Johan. Rooms run €90-160 a night in July, €60-90 in the shoulder, usually with pool and sauna access included. The spa scene here is less clinical than Pärnu's and slightly more design-conscious.

The rest of the island is a driving and cycling landscape: single-track asphalt between stone walls, thin soil, orchids in the alvar meadows in June, and villages that consist of four farms and a bus shelter. Kaali meteorite crater, about 18 km northeast of Kuressaare, is a genuinely eerie round pond in a rim of rock. Panga cliff on the north coast drops about 21 metres straight into the sea. Angla has five windmills in a row. The Sõrve peninsula runs 30 km southwest to a lighthouse and a landscape still scarred by 1944.

At 9pm in July, Kuressaare's castle park is full of people walking off dinner, the terraces on Lossi and Tallinna are busy, and there is live music somewhere. At 9pm in February you will have the moat to yourself and the wind will be memorable. Skip Saaremaa if you have two days and no car — the ferry alone eats half a day. Come if you want island cycling, medieval stone, birdlife, and a spa at the end of it.

Where to sleep

Base yourself in Kuressaare unless you have a firm reason not to. Lossi, Tallinna, Pargi and Kauba put you within five minutes of the castle, the market and the restaurants; spa hotels here run €90-160 in July and €60-90 from October to April, and the small guesthouses on the side streets around Torni and Garnisoni are €55-85. Mändjala and Järve, 10-12 km west, offer pine-forest camping and cabins right behind a sandy beach — lovely in August, dead in May. Muhu island, before the causeway, has the island's luxury address at Padaste Manor from about €250 and a couple of beautiful farm stays at Koguva. Avoid booking somewhere remote on Sõrve or near Kihelkonna for a short trip: the roads are slow, there is nowhere to eat after 8pm, and you will spend the holiday driving back to Kuressaare for dinner.

The essentials

Kuressaare castle park circuit (3 km)

Start on the town hall square on Tallinna street, walk down Lossi past the wooden shopfronts and the Weeping Willow park, cross the moat bridge to the castle, then circle the full ring of earth bastions on the outside — the best view of the keep is from the northwest corner. Continue to the yacht harbour and Kuursaal pavilion, then return along the seafront promenade and Pargi street. Flat, paved, floodlit in winter.

Getting there & around

From the mainland you take the ferry from Virtsu to Kuivastu on Muhu, 27 minutes, running roughly hourly from early morning to late evening; foot passengers pay around €3 and cars around €10-12, and in July you must reserve a car slot online days ahead or queue. From Kuivastu, the 3.5 km Väinatamm causeway crosses to Saaremaa and Kuressaare is another 70 km, about an hour. Direct coaches from Tallinn to Kuressaare take about 4 hours with the ferry included, for €12-18. There are also small aircraft from Tallinn to Kuressaare airport, around 40 minutes. On the island, buses between villages are infrequent — hire a car or a bike.