BudgetTravel

The rest of Estonia is surprisingly empty of people but full of beautiful landscapes and ruins of German manors (as well as some derelict Soviet military and factory hulks). There are fine beaches and beautiful forests, all at prices even more reasonable than in the "big city."

One area especially worth noting is the Lahemaa National Park (tel. 55-663, fax 55-664), about 90 minutes east of Tallinn, unique in that it's a reserve that embraces villages as well as wild areas and beaches. The eighteenth-century manor at Palmse has been restored, the estate including wooded trails and lakes, museums, an arboretum, and a beautiful new Park-Hotel Palmse (tel. 32/23-626, fax /34-167,info@phpalmse.ee). Staying in its $37-48 doubles (including breakfast) is truly like living in your own private mansion. You get here by renting a car from Tallinn's Tulika Autorent (Tihase 34, 612-0012, tulika@online.ee) for $30 daily/$148 weekly. Still inside Lahemaa Park, the beautiful beach town of Kasmu is a popular yet uncrowded peninsular enclave of summer vacation homes - very quiet and quaint, with fine walking trails and pristine swimming spots. It's an excellent day trip, or you can stay close to the water for $28 per double room (including breakfast) at Rannamannid Guesthouse (Neeme tee 31, tel. 511-7975 or tel./fax 32/38-329). Or try the Merekalda Pansion (Neeme tee 2, tel. 32/38-8451, helen.kaldre@mail.ee), whose charming rooms run $25 to $35. Buses from Tallinn to Kasmu depart daily and cost about $2.50.

One pleasure of summer in Estonia is the slew of village festivals and gatherings, from the Viljandi Folk Music Festival (folk.ee) to the summer beer festival and the Baltoscandal Theater in Rakvere. If you plan ahead and do your homework, you certainly won't run out of things to do.

Cyber-Eesti

Estonia today is an extremely wired country, and you can find a lot of useful information on the Web before you go or while you're there. Accommodations of all types are listed at tourism.ee. News about the region (along with reviews of new restaurants and hangouts) can be found at balticsworldwide.com. For more information on the wilds of Estonia, try ecotourism.ee/. For car rental info, try auto-rental.net/balticrates.html.

Hightailing it to Tallinn

Off-season roundtrip fares from NYC on Finnair (800/950-5000) via Helsinki can be as low as $450, rising to around $1,200 from mid-June through August. If you're already in Helsinki, there are so many ferries making the crossing that it's gotten absurdly cheap-as low as $19 round-trip for a day cruise on the Nordic Jet Line (njl.ee), Tallink Express (tallink.ee), or Silja Line SuperSeaCat (silja.ee). The last is the most pleasant of the fast boats, thanks to its size (allowing for a large outdoor deck and a smoother ride).

There are also slower, larger boats run by Eckero Line (631-8606) and Tallink that make a leisurely crossing in three hours, but they run in all kinds of weather and year-round; the crossings - including lavish all-you-can-eat buffet meals-cost about $15. Many of these companies also have special packages including round-trip travel from Helsinki and reasonable rates at one of the hotels near the harbor.

From Stockholm, Estline (estline.ee) runs daily service; its two boats are the most comfortable of the big ferries, particularly the smaller Baltic Christina. An economy cabin for the overnight trip starts at $44 per person each way. Tallinn is also accessible by air from London, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Moscow, and other European cities via Estonian Air, SAS, Aeroflot, and LOT Polish Airways. An American travel agency that specializes in Estonia and the other Baltic countries is Uniontours in New York (212/683-9500, fax 212/683-9511).