Saaremaa Travel Guide

The best-preserved medieval castle in the Baltic states — a 14th-century limestone fortress that has never been demolished or substantially rebuilt. The castle sits on a moated platform at the edge of Kuressaare Bay and houses the Saaremaa Museum. The surrounding Kuressaare resort town, with its wooden villas and promenade, is one of the most attractive in Estonia.

One of the largest meteorite impact craters in Europe — a 110-metre-wide bowl filled with a dark lake, ringed by ancient stone walls believed to be a Bronze Age ritual enclosure. The crater is estimated to be 3,500–4,000 years old, making it one of the youngest in the world. Smaller satellite craters are scattered in the surrounding forest. The site has a haunted, primordial atmosphere unlike anything else in the Baltics.

The highest sea cliffs in Estonia — 21-metre limestone walls dropping straight into the Baltic, stretching for several kilometres along the north coast. The cliff-top path gives unobstructed views over the open sea toward the Finnish islands. In spring, the meadow above the cliffs is thick with orchids; in storm season the waves hitting the base of the cliffs send spray 15 metres into the air.

Five traditional trestle windmills on a low hill, silhouetted against the Estonian sky — the most photographed scene on Saaremaa and one of the most iconic in Estonia. Four are original 19th-century working mills; the fifth is a later addition. The surrounding farmland with its juniper meadows and stone walls is the archetypal Saaremaa landscape.

Estonia's oldest nature reserve — a protected archipelago of small islands, alvar grasslands, juniper thickets, and seal haul-out beaches on the westernmost edge of Saaremaa. Grey seals are visible from the shore in autumn. The park's rocky coast and sea meadows are extraordinary for orchids in June. The Vilsandi lighthouse dates from 1809 and is one of the oldest in the Baltic.

A narrow peninsula extending 35 km into the Baltic — one of the most exposed and dramatic landscapes in Estonia. The road runs between open sea on both sides, passing WWII bunkers, wartime gun batteries, and memorial sites from the bitter 1941 and 1944 battles that were among the last in Estonia. The peninsula ends at Sääre lighthouse with views in four directions across the open Baltic.