Custom tour packagesEstonia

Estonia’s food is a combination of its neighbors, from the berries and rye bread of Scandinavia, to the barbecue, soups, and mushrooms common in Russia. Many dishes will also be familiar to anyone who has been to Germany. Pork and potatoes form the basis for many meals, as do a wide variety of dairy products, such as curd and thick sour cream. We recommend trying Kohuke, a sweet snack akin to Hungary's Turo Rudi, made of curd covered in chocolate, often with a fruit or berry filling. The country’s largest chocolatier, Kalev, also creates a wide variety of unusual but tasty candies. Kalev’s creations range from white chocolate with blueberries, to Kirju Koer, which combines chocolate, dried fruit, and pieces of cookies, somewhat like a fruitcake. Estonian cuisine can also be primal, with blood sausage a common sight, and game such as wild boar, elk, deer, and bear can be found in grocery stores and nicer restaurants. For a quick snack, try a Pirukas, a puffed pastry filled with combinations of meat, vegetables, and rice, or an open-faced sprat sandwich. Tallinn is home to a modern Estonian movement, creating new takes on traditional recipes, with local ingredients, akin to some of Europe’s most renowned restaurants.

Local alcohol prices attract entire boatloads of Finns, who can be seen heading straight for the liquor stores in the port, then carting crates back to the next ferry home. Vodka is common, but we recommend Saku and A. Le Coq beers. Estonia also produces fruit wines, generally made from apples or berries. One of Tallinn's trademarks is Vana Tallinn, an herbal rum-based liqueur that's also available in a creamy form akin to Bailey's. Estonians are fond of milk, while Kali (a fermented bread drink similar to Kvass) is a popular summertime refreshment, as is birch sap and Kissel, a form of sweetened, thickened berry juice. Tap water is high quality everywhere.

Tallinn was the world’s first city to provide free public transport for all residents, and now all but a few parts of the country offer free public transport for locals. Unfortunately, visitors still have to pay. Estonian cities and towns are compact enough that tourists generally have little reason to take public transport. Estonia has modern train lines that run to the capital, although since they follow a hub-and-spoke model and none intersect outside of the capital, traveling by bus generally makes sense. Intercity buses are modern, with attendants, refreshments, high-speed wifi, and more movies than on your flight to Europe. Although there is a daily train between Riga and Tallinn, it is slow, expensive, and uncomfortable on the Latvian side, and requires waiting and changing trains at the border.

The mainland is connected to Saaremaa year-round by ferries, for which tickets should be purchased well in advance, especially around Midsummer. In winter, several islands, including Saaremaa, are also connected to each other and the mainland by Europe's longest ice roads. These ice roads are unique, because they run parallel to the ferries, drivers are not allowed to wear seatbelts, and vehicles must drive either below 25 km/h, or 40-70km/h, as in between, they may create a resonance wave and break the ice!