Estonians call Pärnu the summer capital, and they mean it fairly literally: in July the town's population swells, the government occasionally holds sessions here, and the beach becomes the social centre of the country.
The beach
The Pärnu beach is wide, sandy and very shallow — the water warms up more than anywhere else on the Estonian coast, which is why the town became a resort in the first place. A promenade runs behind it, with the 1930s functionalist beach house at its centre, one of the finest modernist buildings in the country.
Behind the beach lies a park of pines and a district of wooden villas from the resort's heyday, many now restored as guesthouses.
Mud and spas
Pärnu's spa tradition dates from 1838, when the first mud baths opened. The therapeutic mud from the local seabed is still used, and the town has a dense concentration of spa hotels ranging from Soviet-era sanatoria updated to modern standards to contemporary wellness complexes.
This is one of the genuine bargains of Baltic travel: a spa treatment here costs a fraction of what the equivalent would in Western Europe, and the medical grounding is taken seriously rather than treated as decoration.
The town
Pärnu has a small old town with a Baroque Tallinn Gate, the last surviving gate of the seventeenth-century Swedish fortifications, and the red-brick Catherine's Church, considered the finest baroque Orthodox church in Estonia.
In summer the town hosts a documentary film festival and a series of concerts; the Pärnu Music Festival, associated with the conductor Paavo Järvi, draws serious international performers each July.
Off season
An honest note: outside the summer months Pärnu is very quiet. Many restaurants and guesthouses close for the winter, the beach is empty and the wind off the Gulf of Riga is bitter. The spas stay open and are arguably better value then, but do not come expecting a lively town in February.
Nearby
Pärnu is the natural base for Soomaa National Park, forty minutes inland, and for the coastal road towards Kihnu island — a small island in the Gulf of Riga where a distinctive cultural tradition, including the striped woollen skirts still worn daily by older women, is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list.