Two weeks, Tallinn to Riga

[rprager]

Hi. This is my first post, I just joined the group. It is great that you have this place for exchanging ideas and helping each other!

We are planning a trip in Estonia, arriving in Tallinn about July 10th and taking about two weeks to arrive in Riga and continue on to Vilnius. We have a lot of questions, and hope you can help us with answering some of them. Thank you in advance for your time and providing information to make our trip very good.

We have many questions:
Are there good bike paths in Tallinn? What is the best cycle route out of Tallinn for avoiding traffic after taking 1 East - 2 or 13?

Are all of the routes marked on the cycle map on paved roads? Is there much traffic? We are afraid of getting flat tires on gravel roads.

At Turi, we would go on the 2 to Tori and then go on the 5 to Viljandi. We would spend a day or two at the Soomaa National Park.

We are thinking of going to the Voru Folk Festival from July 16 to July 20th, but we are wondering if that will be too many kilometers to the southwest, when we want to go next to Cesis and Sigulda. We also are afraid that it will be hard to find accommodations in Voru since the festival is probably quite popular.

If we don't go to Voru, we would go directly south from Viljandi into Latvia, probably via Valga.

We also have some questions just about Tallinn:
Do you recommend reserving accommodations in Tallinn in advance, especially since Tallinn will probably be unusually crowded that second weekend in July because of Ollesummer? Can we cycle from the city center to the festival?

Do you recommend buying tickets in advance for Ollesummer?

Are there businesses we can contact in Tallinn about renting or touring in kayaks one day?

Can you recommend any restaurants for vegetarians?

Thank you so much! We are looking forward to our visit!
If you can tell us anything about this route, we will really appreciate it.

Rich

[tripp]

Hello, and welcome to Estonia!


1) There are not so many good bike paths in Tallinn, and they do not form a well-connected system. Some roads have a narrow marked bicycle lane. However, car traffic is sparse, and you can always use pedestrian roads, so getting from anywhere to anywhere will not be a problem.

2) I do not understand the route selection question. Where do you want to go?
Road #13 is Piibe maantee. But again - all roads would be fine.

3) Routes on the map being gravel or paved - depends, which map? All decent maps have different marking for paved gravel roads. Any petrol station or larger shop will sell you a good paper atlas for Estonian roads, I suggest you to get and use this. Paper maps are much better for route planning, they show the local landmarks and are way more accurate (so far) than google / bing maps.
Gravel will slow you down but won't give you flats.

4) What do you expect from Soomaa? The fun season there are springtime floods. You wont get this. Do you want to visit bogs? Have a canoeing trip? And, why Tori?
Pärnu is the main summertime resort in Estonia, spend a day or few there if you can. Or possibly go from Tallinn to Haapsalu (like Pärnu but smaller and cosier) and follow the coastal roads to the south.

5) I have no clue about Võru but I doubt that finding accommodation would be a problem anywhere in Estonia. Except Pärnu / Haapsalu in high season.

6) Tallinn will not be crowded because of Õllesummer... who told you that? No idea about accommodation.
Yes you can cycle from city center to the festival, it is a few km.
Safe bike storage may be a problem though.
Buying tickets for Õllesummer in advance.. no.
(Suggesting this as something to visit... also no.)

7) Kayaks - try http://www.360.ee/ and be sure to book early.

8 ) Vegetarian restaurants - all decent restaurants in Tallinn offer vegetarian dishes. If you want to have a wider selection, then indian places are a sure bet. http://www.chakra.ee/indexeng.html in old town is my personal favourite. http://www.elevant.ee/en/ nearby would be another. Also try Balthasar, a garlic restaurant, at http://www.balthasar.ee/?lang=eng

9) "If you can tell us anything about this route, we will really appreciate it." - which route? Or do you mean suggestions about what to see and do in Estonia in general?

Again, welcome, and have a pleasant stay!

[tripp]

Some suggestions.

Cycle through a bog! http://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oandu%E2%8 ... a_matkatee gets you across Estonia (from North coast to Latvian border in the South), some parts of it are plank roads through bogs & marshland, try those!

http://www.culture.ee/en/ gives (some) suggestions about events to go to.

There are still old soviet-time military installations in Estonia. Depending on where you come from, those may be of interest.

Cycling is fun, but if you want to go to Võru, then you can use trains to cover some part of the distance.

[vidrikjupiter]

Estonia is well covered by Google Street View - you can use it to get to know road conditions and plan your route.

[Mati]

Check out this topic from last year - viewtopic.php?f=13&t=41674&hilit=Estonia%27#p280721

This guy could give you some useful hints and ideas based on his own experience

Welcome to Estonia

[tripp]

Estonia is well covered by Google Street View - you can use it to get to know road conditions and plan your route.

Well you can. But if you are experienced enough to plan a Tallinn - Riga - Vilnius trip, then no road in Tallinn or Estonia would be a problem for you.

[ele]

Just a comment on vegetarian restaurants:

see the list and comments here: http://www.happycow.net/europe/estonia/tallinn/
There are many more of course, like the brand new vegan restaurant: http://sommeljee.wordpress.com/tag/vegan-restoran/

My personal good experience: Aed, Chakra, VS, Mamo - all very central and nice.

Some pubs and very touristic places can offer you just fries and that's it, some other places can prepare you a good vegetarian meal that is not on the menu. The more hipster-looking people you see in the restarurant/cafeteria the better is a chance for a choice of vegeterian food.

In Tallinn you better keep your eye on your bike. Always.
And Pärnu is definitely a nice place to go. If you go to Haapsalu first then you end up in Pärnu anyway - its on the way.