Pärnu

Pärnu in brief

Pärnu, Estonia's summer capital

Pärnu is the town Estonians mean when they say summer. The bay is shallow and warm, the beach is long and white, and the streets behind it — villas, gardens, café terraces — have been receiving summer guests since 1838.

The riverfront gives the town its evenings: boats on the Pärnu river, dinner tables that fill slowly, Villa Ammende's art nouveau silhouette against the late light. In high summer half the country seems to migrate here, and the town wears the crowd well.

Then there is the trick Pärnu plays: under an hour inland, through Tori village, the resort world gives way to Soomaa's raised bogs and floodplain rivers. Sea in the morning, wilderness after lunch — no other Estonian town pairs the two so cleanly.

I build Pärnu into southwest journeys of two to four days, guided or self-guided — beach and bog in one shape. Tell me your dates; in spring I will also tell you whether the flood is coming.