Saaremaa Island Circuit

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kuressaare

   Kuressaare is the only real town on Saaremaa, Estonia's largest island, and it wears that distinction lightly. About fifteen thousand people live here, and the place is built around an old bishop's castle, a square, grey limestone fortress with a moat, which dates from the fourteenth century and is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the Baltic region. The castle is surrounded by a park with earth ramparts, and the pale town streets, lined with wooden and limestone houses, lead down to a small harbour on the shallow Baltic coast. The air here is clean and salty, with a hint of juniper and seaweed.

   Read the complete Kuressaare write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kuressaare is where the day begins. Next is Kaali.

2. 2. Kaali

   Around three and a half thousand years ago, something from space hit the island of Saaremaa, and the people living nearby saw it. Kaali is the site of a meteorite impact, and the main crater, about a hundred and ten metres across and some sixteen metres deep, is a circular pond of dark water surrounded by a grassy bank. Eight smaller craters lie scattered around it in the surrounding fields and forest. It is one of the best-preserved small impact sites in the world, and a rare find in Europe.

   Read the complete Kaali write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kaali comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Panga Cliff.

3. 3. Panga Cliff

   Panga is the highest cliff on Saaremaa, and at just over twenty metres it is a good example of how scale is relative. In a country as flat as Estonia, twenty metres of Silurian limestone rising out of the Baltic counts as a mountain range. The cliff runs along the northern coast of the island for about two and a half kilometres, a pale band of layered rock with a green fringe of grass on top and a rough beach of stones and seaweed at the foot. The sea looks very big from up here, and on a clear day you can see all the way to the horizon.

   Read the complete Panga Cliff write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Panga Cliff. Next is Kihelkonna.

4. 4. Kihelkonna

   Kihelkonna lies on the west side of Saaremaa, where the island begins to dissolve into a scatter of peninsulas, reefs and low islands. It is a small village with a stone church, a school and a few shops, and its main importance is as a gateway to Vilsandi National Park, a protected area of coast, islets and shallow sea that is among the best places in the Baltic for birds. In spring and autumn, huge flocks of geese, ducks and waders gather here on their way between Siberia and the north Atlantic, and in summer the islands are covered with nesting terns and gulls.

   Read the complete Kihelkonna write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kihelkonna, late in the day. Next is Kuressaare.

5. 5. Kuressaare

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kuressaare write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Kuressaare. That is the ride.