Hiiumaa

Hiiumaa (Dagö in German and Swedish) is a 989 km² island with 10,623 inhabitants in the western part of Estonia, being its second largest island. The largest town is Kärdla and it forms the County of Hiiu. The island keeps being covered with pine, spruce and juniper forests (as it used to be) with windmills, lighthouses and small villages that seem to be lost in time.

How do I arrive to Hiiumaa?

 The best way to reach Saaremaa is by the ferry from Rohuküla, close to Haapsalu, to Heltermaa. 

• Plane: there are two daily flights to Tallinn from Kärdla airport. It's located 5 km east from Kärdla and there are buses to Kuressaare Bus Station.
• Boat: there are boats to Heltermaa from Rohuküla (aprox. 1.5 hours), close to Haapsalu, 7 to 9 times every day. But there are also 2 daily boats from Trigi, in the north of Saaremaa, to Sõru in Hiiumaa (aprox. 65 minutes).
• Bus: there are 2 daily buses to Kärdla from Tallinn (aprox. 3 hours 45 minutes), stopping in Suuremõisa, Heltermaa, Rohuküla and Haapsalu. There is also a daily bus to Käina from Tallinn (aprox. 2 hours).
• Car: if you rented a car, you can use the ferry to cross it too.

Once in the island these are some of the best ways to move along it.

• Bus: the main bus station is Kärdla one, from where there are many unfrequent buses to other parts of the island like Kõrgessaare (aprox. 20 minutes), Käina (aprox. 30 minutes) or Sõru (aprox. 1 hour).
• Car: if you rented a car you can reach every point in the island of Hiiumaa in less than 1 hour.
• Bicycle: this island is perfect to do some cylcing with many roads without traffic and secondary roads to explore.

What can I visit in Hiiumaa?

These are many things to do in this island, explained now according to the village where they are or the nearest one:     

• Suuremõisa (Storhovet in Swedish, Großenhof in German): 216 inhabitants village in the eastern part of Hiiumaa.
  

  

  Suuremõisa Manor

  • Suuremõisa Manor (10-17 from Jun to Aug; 9-16 Mon-Fri from Sep to May; 2€/ 1.50€  adults/ kids): 18th century manor that belonged to Ungern-Sternberg family, a quite wealthy family. It's not preserved in the best way possible but its English-style gardens are quite nice.
  • Less than 1 km away, in the small village of Pühalepa (Pühhalep in German), it's placed St. Laurentius Lutheran Church, the oldest building in Hiiumaa (13th century) with an appealing 20th century stained glass and a nearby cementery with circular crosses.
• Käina (Kärrdal in Swedish, Kertel in German): 3,278 inhabitants town in the northern coast of Hiiumaa. It's the capital of Hiiu County and the most popular and visited town in the island.

  

  Ruins from St. Martini Church

  • Ruins of St. Martini Church: ruins that witness a former church from the year 1500 destroyed during WW2.
    
  • Rudolf Tobias House-Museum (11-17 Wed-Sat from May to Aug; 3€/ 2€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids): humble birthplace of Rudolf Tobias, composer of some of the first orchestra pieces in Estonia. There's a windmill in the back of the house.
  • On the way south, 13 km far from Käina, it can be found Kuriste Estonian Orthodox Church. This church was completed in 1873 and is the only Orthodox church to have survived in the island.
    
• In front of Käina it is placed Kassari, an 8 km long island that is connected to Hiiumaa with two roads, an important bird reserve.
  
  • Kassari Exposition Building (11-18 Tue-Sun from May to Aug; 3€/ 2€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids): museum about the history and diversity of Hiiumaa with curious objects such as stuffed wolf that attacked the inhabitants of Kassari in 1971, a 1955 Russian TV or a jewel from Tahkuna lighthouse.

    

    Kassari Lutheran Chapel

  • Kassari Lutheran Chapel (11-16 from Jun to Aug): nice chapel with straw ceiling from 1801 with an unfrequent pulpit and all the masses are done with candles (this part of the island has no electricity). From here there's an small trail (2 km) to a small bay.
  • Sääre Tirp: fine 3 km stretch of sand, a beautiful place to walk and, on the way, there's a popular beach.
• Kärdla (Kärrdal in Swedish, Kertel in German): 3,278 inhabitants town in the northern coast of Hiiumaa. It's the capital of Hiiu County and the most popular and visited town in the island, whose importance is due to a textile factory from 1829. It's located on the edge of one of the best kept metheorite craters in the world.

  

  Long House of Hiiumaa Museum

  • Hiiumaa Museum (10-17:30 from May to Sep; 10-17 Mon-Sat from Oct to Apr; 4€/ 2.50€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids): museum located in the Long House, former dwelling for directors of Hiiu-Kärdla textile factory. Nowadays it has expositions about the factory, the reconstruction of a worker's house and local works of art.
  • Kärdla Beach: although it can't be considered spectacular this beach is quite nice and has a park quite close (located in a former Swedish cementery).
  • St. Ristija Johannese Lutheran Church: Neo-Gothic church built for the workers of the factory in 1863.
• Not far from Kärdla there's a place know as Ristimägi or Hill of Crosses, place where the last Swedish inhabitants celebrated the last religious ceremony before Catherine the Great expelled them in 1781. The tradition says that the inhabitants should leave a cross.

  

  Mihkli Farmstead Complex

• Malvaste (Malmas in Swedish): a 3 inhabitants small village in the northern part of Hiiumaa. Here it can be visited Mihkli Farmstead Complex (11-18 Tue-Sun from May to Aug; 3€/ 2€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids), an originally Swedish farm that shows how rural life used to be. And there's a smoke sauna that brings an extraordinary experience (but it should be booked on advance).
• Tahkuna Peninsula: peninsula in the northern part of Hiiumaa where there were fierce battles between Nazi German and Soviet armies during WW2. In the municipality of Tahkuna (Taknenäset in Swedish, Tachkona in German), with 7 people and the place that names the peninsula, has some interesting sightseeing points like Hiiuma Military Museum (10-18 Tue-Sat from May to Sep; 3€/ 1.50€   adults/ retiree and students), small museum that shows military equipment, photografies, uniforms and many other things, placed in a former border police headquarters. In the northernmost point of the island it's placed Tahkuna Lighthouse (10-19 Tue-Sun from May to Sep; 3€/ 2€   adults/ retiree and students), a 43 m lighthouse from 1874. Here there's also a monument to conmemorate the victims of the ferry Estonia (1994) and a labyrinth.

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  Kõpu Lighthouse

  On the way to the western part of Hiiuma it is a good idea to take a moment to visit Reigi Lutheran Church, a Gothic small church with nice works of art from the 16th to 18th centuries.
  
• In the western part of Hiiumaa there are two interesting lighouses. One of them is located close to Kõpu, a village with 35 people; Kõpu Lighthouse (10-20 from May to Sep; 3€/ 2€   adults/ retiree and students) is a pyramid-shape lighthouse, considered one of the oldest unstopped lighthouses in the world, dating back to 1531 (although the current tower was rebuilt in 1845). It's one of the symbols of Hiiumaa. In the border of that peninsula is locate Ristna Lighthouse (10-20 from May to Sep; 3€/ 2€  adults/ retiree and students), second lighthouse of Kõpu placed in a place where, on the other side of Baltic Sea, Stockholm is just 200 km away.

  

  Exhibition at Sõru Museum

  Here you can find Surf Paradiis, an excellent point to practice surf, kayak, diving or just sunbathe.
• In the sourthern part of Hiiumaa, close to the ferry harbour to take ferries to Saaremaa, there's the village of Sõru (Serro in German) and visiting Sõru Museum (11-17 Wed-Sun from Jun to Aug; 11-16 Wed-Fri from Sep to May; 2€/ 1€  adults/ retiree and students), small museum with works from the kids in the village, black-and-white photographies of fishermen and farmers, as well as old tools.

Where can I eat in Hiiumaa?

This island doesn't have have a bad culinary offer, mostly based in Kärdla. Some of the most interesting places to eat are Gahwa Cafe (Põllu 3), Linnumäe Puhkekeskus (Heltermaa Maanteeamet), Kuur (Sadama 28) or Rannapaargu (Lubjaahju 3) in Kärdle or the Estonian restaurants Lest & Lammas or Vetsi Tall, in the island of Kassari.
There is a kind of renaissance of craftswork with shops like Kassari Museum, Heltermaa Craftswork House and Hiiu Wool Factory in Vaemla.

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