Estonia

... is a european pearl for big trailie/GS riding, away from overcrowded-touristed places.


A good question quote from Horizons Unlimited:

Anyone I speak to who have gone through the Baltics say that there's nothing but trees apart from the major towns - I don't believe them!!

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And a response:

Of course don't believe this kind of BS as it is typical to people who just drive through countries via main transit routes.

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The same applies to many people who've asked me about Estona just to drive it quickly through. So the first recommendation for those who're planning coming here would be: don't come to Estonia just to ride it through in one or two days. It'll be another pointless "I've been there" ride you can do everywhere in Western Europe to get the same emotion from your ride.

Thus I'll create this thread for those who plan a more detailed travel into Estonia, about a week or so, especially those who're coming here with big trail bikes (like the BMW GS) to access and experience the Europe's very best gravel roads, and those in amounts you can only dream of, especially when coming from the UK.

For a start:

- A small travel guide you can get here.
- The best maps for Estonia are Regio maps. You can obtain them from most petrol stations, tourist information points or book shops.


Anyone who has interest in visiting Estonia - feel free to post your questions/suggestions/ideas here. I'll try to respond adequately and give the best information I have.

I'll try to post some tips and pics too.

Good roads, Margus

Big trailies (like a BMW GS) is an ideal bike here in Estonia, IMHO. If you like gravel roads then this will be your heaven, with decent mix of slow and fast curves, fast straights to get the best joy out of your bike that has both longer distance comfort, power and capability. 600cc or less bikes can be a bit too "cramped" when loaded if you plan to ride a lot which you'll probably do.

A good place to start or to end the journey would be our main islands Saaremaa and Hiiumaa.

Island Saaremaa (quite touristic in summer) with its nice town Kuressaare. Also, very close to Tallinn is small Soviet chemical factory/mining town Maardu, this is a very strange town that partly feels more like long gone USSR. It is completely untouristic and many Estonians even don't know what is in there. There is more Russian influence in North-East, with abandoned Soviet industrial objects etc. Actually if you take small gravel backroads you can find abandoned houses and stuff like that all over Estonia -- something you don't often see in the West. We also have abandoned Soviet nuclear missile launch base and other military objets. There's a abondoned nuclear submarine base in Paldiski as well.


The best if you visit both Hiiumaa and Saaremaa, there's a daily ferry connection between the islands.

Some pics from Hiiumaa and Saaremaa just to get the idea:


In Tallinn "a must" is the old Medieval Town.


There are dozens of good roads and destinations in the inland part. From the small village of Vask-Narva in the east to Häädemeeste in the west, from the beautiful banks of Paldiski to the hilly Haanja... Actually I mean the whole contry criss-crossed here. Whether you like to see a sunset on the Paldiski banks along with having a cooling estonian beer or have a swim in the lake Peipsi, visit the highest peak in the Baltic states in Haanja just to get that "ironic feeling" (you'll get it once you're there ) or just to ride 400+kms of gravel per day to enjoy the roadside scenery varying from the beutiful nature/forests to the artificial abondoned USSR buildings, ...or have it all mixed is up to you and your travelling style.


A good tip for Estonia: in Regio maps, gravel roads are usually marked with the yellow line: plot your destination(s) to get the most done on the gravel, avoid tar an affordable, slight de-tour compromise if needed. You'll do have some mixture with tar roads anyway (which are "bumpy" in most cases too btw), but the interesting phenomena here is that the scenery on gravel roads can be in 70-80% of cases marked as "beautiful", altough Regio maps mark "beautiful" roads with a green sideline, but only for tarmac roads. Thus the the principle is simple - follow the yellow line to enjoy your ride

Another good tip involves a bit more technical tracks which are marked "colourless" (just two parallel lines) in Regio maps. I highly recommend riding those very small roads in the national parks (only where vehicles are allowed), forest areas etc. You just need to check if it's "ridable" or not - some of them may be fully swamped by spring floods or after the rain, but there's no reason not to try - you can always turn around, it's a small country and you'll never get lost or lose too much time in any struggle. But if you find a nice ridable version of that road in a beautiful "environment" (i.e. like national parks), you'll enjoy it. Usually they are some small 4x4 tracks (you can ride them much faster with the bike of course), usually with the condition like these:



Good roads, Margus

Nice write up, whats the camping/accomodation situation like, can you wild camp etc.

illustratedman said:

Nice write up, whats the camping/accomodation situation like, can you wild camp etc.

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Yes you can and I highly recommend to (just clean up your mess always please, be respectful to the nature).

You need to ask a permission only if you want to camp on a private land, but most of private lands are well marked, so shouldn't be a problem.

Guest houses are also relatively cheap here, so it's not expensive to travel around for those who prefer a soft bed and other lazy comforts, too.

prices

Beer is cheap, around 10EEK (0.5£) per 0.5L bottle average if buying from shops.

Fuel 95 unleaded is a bit less than 15EEK (0.65£) per litre.

Restaurant prices vary very much, but multiple times less cheaper than in UK with similar or even better quality, from 3£ to whatever to get a decent meal. The most expensive restaturants are in Tallinn old town of course, but some very nice restaurants are there as well.

Usual (quick) food places cost you around 2-5£ to get yerself fully "fueled".

I also know of a company that has produced a Garmin compatible map. When I was last there, 18 mths ago it had to be uploaded to the unit, but they had planned to release a CD of this. No route planning software, but detailed enough to find our South Estonia cabin in the middle of nowhere.

One of the guys also spoke English. Cost about €30 ish.

Jakari Marine OU
Regati 1 Pirita Sadam
Tallinn 11911
Phone: +372 6398 993

Judith Charlmers on a GS


Enjoyed it there but its a twat to get to

Lovely photo's but haven't they heard of tarmac?

Peter Pan said:

Lovely photo's but haven't they heard of tarmac?

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Around half+ of the roads are tarmac, some with GS footpeg scratch action capable:




(NB: On coming here please note that we ride on the right (I mean 'right') not wrong side of the road like you to avoid big collisions! )

Still our tarmac is mostly bumpy as in Russia.


But why to hassle on tar when you can have a breath of healthy fresh air in the free nature where's little or no traffic at all?

This also separates men from boys.



You can always plot your destinations fully on tarmac in the most cases. On plotting your destinations on gravel there's usually some small amount of tar coming up too, around 10-20% from the distance if you choose carefully. Thus there's always possibility to have the best of both worlds and possibiliy to choose your own amount of mix. Anyways, the choice is yours.

I've always wanted to go, now you have just convinced me. I'll be over in 2009 if i'm still above ground and perpendicular .

Any sign of the proposed ferry service from northern Germany to the island of Saaremaa?

Margus, as I will be arriving in Tallin on Saturday 26th May (then going to Tartu via Narva - can we do this in one day?) do you have any suggestions for a club, pub or restaurant on the Saturday evening?

Cheers
Dave

Kritou said:

Any sign of the proposed ferry service from northern Germany to the island of Saaremaa?

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No sign yet. From Saaremaa it currently goes to Ventspils, Latvia.

You can get from Rostock (Germany) to Helsinki (Finland). There're regular ferries between Helsinki and Tallinn, multiple per day. So doable this way too.

Also ferries from Stockholm - Tallinn, or Käpellskär - Paldiski (cheaper version) if coming from over Sweden route.

Coming fully overland is through Poland and Baltics.

Genesis said:

Margus, as I will be arriving in Tallin on Saturday 26th May (then going to Tartu via Narva - can we do this in one day?) do you have any suggestions for a club, pub or restaurant on the Saturday evening?

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Yes, doable in one day, quite much riding tho.

Club, pub or restaurant - too many of 'em in Tallinn . From my relatively short experience in Tallinn very good restaurants are Olde Hansa and Balthasar that serve some fantastic meals. But there're may others as well. Take a good walk around Tallinn Old Town and pick up the menu you like - it's mostly marked on the outer wall aside the entry door of the restaurant or pub, so you even don't have to go inside to find out what they serve.

Best, Margus

Margus
thanks for the re-assurance. We will attempt it tomorrow
Off into the old town now for a beer or two and some food.
Cheers
Dave

f**k estonia

Well, been here oh ... 9 hours and already robbed !
OK it was about 50 uk but didn't take long. It is up to you but if you do decide to travel to thje eastern eropean block then keep your hands on your fuc*ing wallet or some theiving bastar* will ...
Margus I know it is not your fault but those theiving russian twat% can fuc. off
sorry but not well pleased
If you visit eastern europe be ready for some kuntz who are only too pleased to see you ...
Won't be coming again any time soon
Dave

oh ... and if some bast@rd starts pulling at your jeans and asking how much they cost ... lamp the **** and ask questions later ...
sorry but just really angry ... and I hate to down a cuntry like this but just travelled a thousand miles through Norway, Sweden and Finland with no problems and then ... hey welcome to Estonia
It is my first impression ... but we can only try I suppose ...

Genesis said:

Well, been here oh ... 9 hours and already robbed !
OK it was about 50 uk but didn't take long. It is up to you but if you do decide to travel to thje eastern eropean block then keep your hands on your fuc*ing wallet or some theiving bastar* will ...

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Dave,

come down, can you explain how it happened and where? A gang approached you or just one passing "wallet robber"? Was it just a wallet or did you have any credit card there???

Are you sure it was a russian speaking person?

Did you call the police?

If you're still in Estonia let me know, +372 52 21 710 is my phone, will help you out as much as I can. To find that bastid is the most important thing IMHO, those things should be reported to police right away, not just walk away with dissapointment or any other feeling. The same thing can happen in Oslo, Stockholm etc too. Robbing, it's the same everywhere in metropol cities, nobody's full 100% safe and definitely naive tourists are their main "easy to get" target, possibly the things are a bit stiffer here too after the relocation of the soviet memorial, especially when it comes to the robbers who mostly are russian speaking persons here in Tallinn.

Tsiklonaut said:

after the relocation of the soviet memorial,

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Unfortunately, this event and the resulting tensions have not been covered one iota by the British media: there was maybe a small article on page 172 of the news paper.... So the significance is not obvious.

So much for taking an interest in the well-being of fellow EU states, even after the recent shall we say "cross border internet activity"

I only know through Kris...

Margus
thanks for taking the time to reply after my, shall we say, spur of the moment rant.
My emails were straight after the robbery (I do realise robbery can happen anywhere, it just happened in Tallin) and the annoyance factor was high to say the least.
We didn't know who to report it to at the time, well how to anyway so we went back to the hotel and the nice lady there on reception noted it in the hotel log and reported it to the police for us.
The pickpockets took the wallet then someone, somewhere, threw it back at me. It still had my friends bank card in it so I guess they only wanted non traceable cash.
I cannot be 100% sure they were russian speakers but in my short time in Estonia the russian speakers had a different english accent than the Estonians who spoke english and from that I got the impression they were russian.
The real problem this gave us when we set off round a short tour of Estonia was a knock to our confidence and the sudden realisation that you were very isolated should something go wrong. We did still travel to Narva and overnight in Tartu but stuck very much to the main road.
This was a shame as I had hoped to try some of the smaller roads and tracks as we had in Finland. We got out into the countryside a little near to Valga as the main road was closed for repair and the detour sent us through some small villages which was much more interesting than the main route.
Anyway, thanks for your offer of help but we were only passing through. We only had 2 days in Estonia and were constantly moving round the Baltic area.
Cheers
Dave