Cycling route in South Estonia - advise please!

[Sol]

Hello, everyone,
I would appreciate your thoughts and advise on cycling route in South Estonia. We'll be visiting relatives in Valka/Valga and would like to escape "sitting and eating" routine for 3 days straight. We're looking for a circular route starting and ending in Valga, with 70-100km a day, 3 days 2 nights. We enjoy quiet roads overlooking nature, but with minimum gravel roads. We'll have tent with us for overnight stay in campsite or just in nature.
Would like to include Otepaa as I've read nice things about it. Would you suggest cycling around lake Vortsjarv ?
We don't have much time left till holidays and I start to panic as the route is not ready jet. Basically any advise would be great - good roads / bad roads not to choose, links to previouse discussions about similar subject, anything. Thank you!
Keep strong and positive,
Solveiga from Riga

[j6ukur]

I'd suggest route from valga to Piusa, after that you could do a train trip to Tartu, and from there with the train back to Valga.
Places on the road to visit:
Sangaste - old mainor
Antsla - not on the way, but google may suggest what to do there
Sõmerpalu - ...
Võru - bigger town, nice beach
Rõuge - great views, hiking tracks etc
Haanja - highest peak + tower, great hiking tracks (Vällamägi) nearby
Vastseliina - ...
Vana-vastseliina - old castle ruins
Meremäe - can't remember what it was famous for - probably another church or chloister
Obinitsa - museum, church, etc
Piusa - closed sand mines (caves)

Roads are mainly good, look them up in google streetview.

train info can be found at http://www.elron.ee - bikes don't require any extra tickets. I can share my similar trip map with you, if you PS me your google account.

[mtm]

Adventure Cycling Club of Tallinn University of Technology have made some years ago a bike-trip in Valga county: http://ratas.tipikas.ee/eelmised-marsru ... algamaale/
I suppose is worth to ask them for advise: http://ratas.tipikas.ee/english-information/

[vidrikjupiter]

You mentioned Võrtsjärv, so I thougth that this could be interesting:
http://www.visitestonia.com/en/vortsjar ... nce=normal

[Sol]

Great, thank you - j6ukur, mtm, vidrikjupiter - very, very much!
I feel like taking vidrikjupiter suggested Võrtsjärv Cycling Track.
We will definitely try route from Valga to Piusa next time visiting Valka. I realised I have only 2 days for cycling ( not 3 ) as I should meet my relatives at some point.
My best wishes to everyone who will be cycling this midsummer most likely rainy weather )
Solveiga

[wagner]

Suggestion to use train is good. When heading to Võrtsjärve circle, you could take train to/from Puka or Palupera
http://peatus.ee/#route_search;A32989;2 ... ,34165/eng

EDIT: more about trains - on maps, you can see railway between Valga and Võru. Actually it's closed down and there aren't any departures.

Some map resources:
http://kaart.postimees.ee/ - with road surface
http://kaart.delfi.ee/ - with routing

And definitely, whole South-East area is worth to cycle - so there will be something to discover on next years.

Enjoy your trip!

[siim_s]

Having cycled around Võrtsjärve, I'd say it's not too spectacular and I'd rather suggest some other areas for this kind of trip. Piusa is a good suggestion and in the other direction, Mulgimaa has also nice places: http://www.mulgimaa.ee/turism/marsuudid ... moisakula/ (unfortunately In Estonian)

[Miki-Hiir]

I would suggest also site http://loodusegakoos.ee/where-to-go/search-options for finding nice places.

[Sol]

Having cycled around Võrtsjärve, I'd say it's not too spectacular and I'd rather suggest some other areas for this kind of trip. Piusa is a good suggestion and in the other direction, Mulgimaa has also nice places: http://www.mulgimaa.ee/turism/marsuudid ... moisakula/ (unfortunately In Estonian)

Thank you, I was hoping to hear from someone who has cycled around Võrtsjärve.
I'm a bit worried that train Piusa - Tartu runs once a day at 3PM. What if I miss that one? Pluss I would love to cycle till late evening. I guess I will figure out something halfway to Piusa and back to Valka. Thank you!

[wagner]

I'm a bit worried that train Piusa - Tartu runs once a day at 3PM. What if I miss that one?

There's also one departure really early in the morning:
http://peatus.ee/#region;distantbus;train;88270;
It starts from Koidula stop, which is ~8 km-s from Piusa.

Also you can begin your trip with train and cycle back to Valga. Also, it should be possible to travel on bus (from Võru, for example), but it would require disassembling and packing of bike; persuading bus driver and there's still chance, that you're not taken to bus (don't have experience myself).

I'll add one more place to j6ukur's list: Karula rahvuspark (national park);
and one more link, to RMK Aegviidu-Ähijärve hiking path
http://www.loodusegakoos.ee/kuhuminna/m ... e-matkatee
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewe ... sp=sharing
Haven't ridden it myself (yet - hope to do it soon), but it should be mainly on gravel roads (which can be in poor condition) and in forest tracks. So something for MTB bike.

[Sol]

I would suggest also site http://loodusegakoos.ee/where-to-go/search-options for finding nice places.

Thank you! I like this site and all the options you have in Estonia for cycling and camping in nature - beautiful.