Many of Saaremaa’s most bewitching landscapes are to be found in the west, its rugged, deeply-indented coastline backed by a sparsely populated hinterland of grasslands, juniper heaths, small lakes and bogs. Much of this territory falls under the aegis of the Vilsandi National Park, which covers much of the island’s northwestern corner and a group of offshore islands famed for their birdlife.

Loona & Kürassaare Bay

Main entrance point to the park is the village of Loona, site of the Vilsandi National Park Vistors’ Centre (this entry’s map location). From here forest roads lead west to the reed-fringed Kürassaare Bay, from where you can follow the coast southwest through a tranquil region of pine woods, grassland and swamp.

The Harilaid Peninsula

North of Loona the National Park boundary continues to follow the island’s coast, ballooning out after some 20km to envelop the Harilaid Peninsula, a compact thumb of land offering some of Saaremaa’s most strikingly stark scenery, characterized by stony ground sparsely covered by waist-high junipers. Its part sandy, part pebbly shoreline supports a stubbon covering of mosses and heathers. Right at the peninsula’s northern tip is the famously leaning Kiipsaare Lighthouse, built in 1933 and no longer in use - with its foundations battered by the Baltic Sea, its foundations are listing dramatically.