I moved to Tallinn, Estonia, 11 years ago. I’m from a small town in the US and my husband is from Santiago, Chile, but work brought us here, and both of us like it for the same reason: life is easy. Everything we need to do can be done online, it’s safer than Santiago, and we can get by without a car – which is hard to do in the US.
I also love the country’s quiet beauty. About half of Estonia is forested, criss-crossed by thousands of kilometres of well-maintained hiking trails. There are empty beaches for strolling and islands of all sizes to explore. I’ve even come to love the bogs, with their bonsai-like trees.
Estonia has a wealth of hiking trails, including on Aegna Island (pictured) and wild camping is permitted in many areas (Photo: Dmitri Toms/Getty/iStockphoto)
After the long winter, summer in Estonia is fleeting, but glorious. Most days are a pleasant 16°C-20°C, and the sun doesn’t set until after 10pm. Estonians spend as much time outdoors as possible, swimming in lakes or the sea, picking mushrooms and berries, going to festivals and tending the garden and grilling at their summer houses in the countryside.
We don’t have a summer house, but when the weather is nice, we like to get away with our children for a day or two – by train, bus or ferry. These are my favourite summer escapes from Tallinn.
