Southeastern Estonia is dominated by Tartu, a university town that combines nineteenth-century gentility with raw, student-fuelled energy. The one place outside Tallinn with a sufficient menu of urban sights to keep you going for several days, it’s also a good base from which to explore the lakes and rolling hills of the far south, with Suur-Munamägi, the highest point in Estonia, and the winter sports resort of Otepää, both within easy striking distance.

Bearing witness to Estonia’s cultural and racial diversity, Russian Old Believers continue to inhabit bucolic fishing settlements along the western shores of Lake Peipsi, while surviving communities of Setu – an Estonian people with a distinct folk culture – still live in the scattered villages of the extreme southeast.

Transport

Getting around is fairly straightforward, with buses from Tallinn and Tartu serving almost all the places mentioned in this chapter.