Estonia Activities

There are plenty of good activities for children in Estonia, with the major attractions found in Tallinn. The Kalev Water Park is great for both adults and children with waterslides, hot tubs, a children’s pool as well as a spa with health and beauty treatments. There is also a good zoo in Tallinn and the chocolate factory, which is a very popular place to spend an afternoon. Outside of Tallinn, the Tartu Toy Museum has a huge range of toys and is both educational and fun.

Kalev Chocolate Factory
It is safe to say that most children will enjoy a trip to the Kalev Chocolate Factory and its museum. Kalev is Estonia’s leading manufacturer of chocolates, making over 200 different products. At this factory in Tallinn, you can learn about how chocolates are made as well as reading about the history of chewing gum in the Soviet Union. The displays include antique sweet boxes, an exhibition dedicated to marzipan and a shop to buy some of the local produce. The factory is located in Tallinn and can be easily reached by taxi, or by taking tram three of tram four.

Kalev Spa Water Park
Kalev Spa Water Park, located in Tallinn, is a great place to take the kids. Facilities include an indoor water park with a whole range of different activities as well as three waterslides, a 50m swimming pool, children’s pool, bubbling hot tubs, Finnish saunas and a good café to relax after all the excitement. The water park is part of the Kalev Spa hotel complex and there is also a spa here where you can get a range of health and beauty treatments.

Tallinn Zoo
This Zoo really started to thrive after independence was declared. Today, it is a modern zoo with excellent facilities. Over 5,000 animals are homed here, with Polar Bears and Siberian Tigers being two of the big attractions. Other animals include elephants, crocodiles, rhinos and chimpanzees. There is a children’s playground, a café and McDonalds on the site, making it an ideal daytime getaway. The zoo has recently been actively involved in certain conservation campaigns such as the Save the Rhino which has added to its profile and made it even more popular with tourists.

Tartu Toy Museum
The Tartu toy museum is interesting, fun and educational, making it a good trip for visitors with children. The museum is situated in an old wooden building in Tartu and opened in 1994. It houses an enormous range of Toys dating from the 19^th century, right up to the present day. Most of the toys are from Estonia, but there is also a small collection of toys from other countries. Dolls make up the largest part of the museum, with over 1,000 dolls of all different types although there are also some very rare puppets. The playroom and crafts room will ensure that children enjoy the visit as much as their parents.

There are good options for outdoor activities in Estonia, with some particularly good hiking on some excellent hiking paths. Saaremaa Island and Otepa in the southeast are two of the most popular hiking areas. The Baltic Sea and a number of still lakes offer numerous water sports ranging from swimming to kayaking and water-skiing.

Hiking
Estonia has four natural parks and numerous nature reserves, making hiking a popular activity here. In many of these parks, you will find well marked paths and walks, allowing you to enjoy the beautiful countryside. Saaremaa Island is one of the best hiking areas and is largely unspoiled. During the Soviet era, even Estonians themselves needed a visa to visit. Otepä, in the southeast of the country, offers many lakes and woodlands and is another good place for hiking. Horse-riding, canoeing, and even skiing in winter are also popular pastimes here.

Water sports
Much of Estonia is surrounded by water and alongside the many lakes inland, water sports are a popular option for tourists. Swimming is popular across the country and there are some lovely white sandy beaches for relaxing on. Canoeing and kayaking on the country’s rivers and lakes is great fun and it is possible to organise specific trips with travel agents. Scuba diving is becoming an increasingly popular hobby in Estonia and although you won’t see colourful and tropical fish, there are some interesting sights such as shipwrecks. Water-skiing and fishing are also popular.

Shooting
For an adrenalin rush, you might want to spend an afternoon shooting Kalashnikov’s and various other shotguns. Shooting trips are becoming a popular activity in Estonia, especially for those travelling in groups. Paint-balling and clay pigeon shooting are both possible here and make a pleasant change from normal holiday activities.

Racing
Other high adrenalin sports that are common in Estonia include go-karting, quad biking, and 4x4 off road driving. Again, these activities are only really viable for small groups, and they are particularly popular with corporate trips, stag weekends and sports club tours.

Many different countries have ruled Estonia over the centuries, and the national food reflects this. Estonia food is perhaps most similar to traditional German cuisine, but Scandinavian and Russian influences are both strong. Most traditional dishes are focused firmly on good, hearty home cooking with meat, potatoes and garden vegetables. Visit this website for further information about Estonian food.

Estonian cuisine is not the world’s most famous, but there are some interesting dishes, particularly with adventurous meat eaters. You will find many types of game meat available. One of the most popular dishes, and some would say the national dish, is verivorst, a blood sausage which is usually served with a type of sauerkraut called mulgikapsad. 

The traditional food of people living by the coast is salted, dried smoked fish, eaten with potatoes and bread. Russian influences can be seen in things like hapukoor, a sour milk dressing for salads, likewise kartulisalat is similar to a traditional Russian potato salad. 

Game meat is regularly served in Estonia and it is common to find wild boar, deer, and elk being offered in restaurants. There are even some restaurants offering bear meat. Other more unusual dishes include; marineeritud angerjas, marinated eel; and keel hernestega (tongue served with horseradish).

Estonia has a huge number of small breweries, all producing various beers and other alcoholic drinks. Vana Tallinn is a sweet, dark brown liqueur made with a number of different herbs. There are no grapes growing here, but they do produce some wild berry wine. 

Since independence, eating options in Estonia have become much more varied with French, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Greek, and Tex-Mex among the possibilities. 

There are some excellent shopping opportunities to be enjoyed in Estonia with particular emphasis being placed on arts and craft shops and markets. The area around the old town in Tallinn has many souvenir shops, but a lot of the items here are cheaply made and over-priced. For quality souvenirs in Tallinn, head to some of the city’s art galleries or Katariina Käik, a small shopping street with numerous small boutiques. You will find arts and crafts shops in every Estonian town and city. 

Ceramic items are particularly famed here and in a country which can suffers from severely cold winters, you won’t be surprised to hear that they also make excellent woollen items. 

For more practical shopping, there are a number of large department stores in Tallinn selling clothes, electronic items and everything else you would expect. Some of the items here will be cheaper than at home and it’s particularly popular for Scandinavian tourists to take advantage of the cheaper prices in Estonia.