Estonia has more than two thousand islands, and the two large ones — Saaremaa and Hiiumaa — feel distinctly separate from the mainland. Under Soviet rule they were a restricted border zone requiring a permit to visit, which slowed development and preserved both the landscape and a certain island character.
Kuressaare castle
Kuressaare, Saaremaa's main town, is built around the best-preserved medieval castle in the Baltic states — a square bishop's fortress from the fourteenth century, complete with moat, bastions and an interior you can explore properly, from the defensive galleries to the chapel. The town around it is a spa resort, with the sanatorium tradition dating back to the nineteenth century.
Windmills, cliffs and a crater
The Angla windmill hill preserves five wooden windmills in a row, the largest such group in Estonia and a genuine emblem of the island.
The Panga cliff is the highest limestone bank on the island, dropping over twenty metres to the sea — modest by mountain standards, dramatic by Estonian ones, and a sacred site where offerings were made into the nineteenth century.
The Kaali crater is the strangest thing on Saaremaa: a circular lake in a wooded depression, formed by a meteorite that struck roughly 3,500 years ago, when the area was already inhabited. The impact would have been visible across the whole Baltic and appears to have left traces in Nordic mythology.
Hiiumaa
Quieter and more forested, Hiiumaa has fewer sights and a stronger sense of remoteness. Its landmark is the Kõpu lighthouse, in use since 1531 and one of the oldest continuously operating lighthouses in the world — a massive stone block rather than a tower, visible far out to sea. The Ristna and Tahkuna lighthouses complete the set.
Hiiumaa is also known for its own brand of humour: locals tell jokes about themselves in a way that takes visitors a while to calibrate.
Getting there
Both islands are reached by ferry — to Saaremaa from Virtsu to Muhu island, then across a causeway; to Hiiumaa from Rohuküla. Crossings take about half an hour to an hour and a half. In summer, book vehicle places in advance, especially at weekends. There are also small flights from Tallinn.
Winter brings a genuinely Estonian phenomenon: when the sea freezes hard enough, official ice roads open across to the islands, the longest in Europe. They have strict rules — no seatbelts, minimum and maximum speeds, no stopping — and they open only when the ice is measured as safe.