Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
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Planning a backpacking route through Estonia can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized Estonia itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
No vaccinations are required to enter Estonia. Make sure routine shots (MMR, tetanus-diphtheria) are up to date, and consider hepatitis A. Tick-borne encephalitis vaccination is strongly recommended if you plan to hike, camp or spend time in forests and meadows between April and October, because ticks are common across Estonia.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in Estonia, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
Estonians value personal space, punctuality and quiet, so keep your voice down on public transport and don’t take reserved silence as rudeness. Do take your shoes off when entering someone’s home, bring an odd number of flowers if you visit (even numbers are for funerals) and arrive on time. In the sauna, nudity is normal in single-sex sessions, so follow the lead of those around you and always sit on a towel. Don’t describe Estonia as Russian or lump it in with the former Soviet Union, as the occupation remains a sensitive topic, and avoid jaywalking, which locals and police take seriously. Women can dress as they would elsewhere in Northern Europe, and same-sex couples face no legal issues, though discretion is wise outside the cities.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for Estonia.
- Must leib (black rye bread): dense, slightly sour rye bread served with almost every meal. Estonians treat it with near-reverence, and it is a cornerstone of the national diet.
- Verivorst and mulgikapsad: blood sausage with sauerkraut stewed with pork, the classic Christmas plate, often served with lingonberry jam.
- Kiluvõileib: a sprat sandwich on rye bread with butter, boiled egg and spiced Baltic sprats, a staple of bar snacks and festive tables.
- Mulgipuder: mashed potatoes and barley mixed with fried bacon and onion, a hearty peasant dish from the Mulgi region of southern Estonia.
- Sült: pork jelly (head cheese) eaten cold with mustard or horseradish, a traditional winter and holiday dish.
- Kama: a flour blend of roasted barley, rye, oats and peas, stirred into kefir or buttermilk for breakfast or dessert and unique to Estonian cuisine.
Tap water in Estonia is safe to drink and locals drink it straight from the tap without a second thought. Tourists can do the same in cities and towns, so carry a refillable bottle and skip bottled water. In some rural areas with private wells the water can taste of iron or sulfur, but it is still generally safe.
The main language in Estonia is
Estonian. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Estonian skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for Estonia includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - is widely spoken in Estonia, especially in Tallinn and Tartu, where restaurant staff, ticket offices and nearly every hostel handle it with ease. People under 40 are often fluent, thanks to school lessons and a lot of undubbed TV. In rural areas and among older people English gets patchier: Russian is the most useful second language, particularly in Narva and the rest of Ida-Viru County, and some older Estonians also speak Finnish. Download Estonian for offline use in Google Translate, and learn aitäh (thank you), which gets a warm reaction everywhere.
Money & Payments
The local currency of Estonia is EUR (€).
Estonia uses the euro, and ATMs from local banks such as Swedbank, SEB and LHV are easy to find in every town, usually with no fee from the machine itself, though your home bank may charge. Skip the standalone Euronet-type machines in tourist areas, which add high fees and push poor conversion rates. Cards, especially contactless, are accepted almost everywhere, including buses, market stalls, museums and even many public toilets, so most travelers barely touch cash. Keep €20 to 30 in coins and notes for rural guesthouses, small farm shops and some village saunas. Bring euros or a card rather than US dollars, since dollars are not accepted for payments. If you must exchange cash, use a bank or a reputable exchange office in central Tallinn and avoid airport and port kiosks with poor rates.
Tipping in Estonia is appreciated but not expected, and service charges are rarely added to the bill. In sit-down restaurants, leaving around 5 to 10% for good service is common, while in cafés and bars people usually just round up. Taxi drivers and hostel staff don’t expect tips.
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Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
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Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.