Pärnu is a beach town first: a long sandy shore backed by Rannapark, with the 1927 Mud Baths and the Rannahotell on the promenade. Walk out along the mole at sunset, then cross into the old town for the Tallinn Gate, the Red Tower and Rüütli street. Book a spa day, and give a third day to Kihnu or Soomaa.
Pärnu has been Estonia's summer capital since its first bathing house opened in 1838. The beach runs straight off a park of old trees, the spa hotels keep the mud cure going year round, and the old town behind them still holds a Swedish rampart and a Hanseatic tower.
The reason the town exists as a resort: a long, shallow sandy beach backed by Rannapark, laid out in 1882 and now protected for its plants. Come for the sand and the promenade, and use the park's shade at midday.
The neoclassical Mud Baths went up in 1926 and 1927 on the site of the 1838 bathhouse burned in the First World War. It reopened as Hedon Spa in 2014, so the pools and treatment rooms sit inside the building that made Pärnu's name.
Two kilometres of stone jetties built in the 1860s to keep the river mouth open, now the town's sunset walk. A lit boardwalk runs about half a kilometre from Rannapark along the river to the start of the mole.
The only 17th-century town gate with its embankment left standing in the Baltic states, called the King's Gate until 1710. The Swedish rampart and moat that survive beside it lead down to the river.
A 15th-century prison tower, the oldest structure in Pärnu and the only defensive tower left from Hanseatic New Pärnu. It is a Pärnu Museum branch now, with a circular panoramic cinema on the top floor.
The county museum fills a converted 19th-century riverside storehouse and runs from the first Stone Age settlers to the resort years. A new permanent exhibition was scheduled for February 2026.
Catherine II paid for this Orthodox church, built from 1764 and consecrated in 1768 to a Greek-cross plan by Pyotr Yegorov. It is the finest baroque building in the old town.
A merchant's Art Nouveau villa completed in 1905 and restored as a hotel. The way in is the restaurant: book afternoon tea or Sunday brunch and you get the interiors and the park with it.
A short boardwalk loop with a viewing platform through Pärnu's coastal meadow reserve, 341 hectares of grassland grazed by cattle. It starts where the beach hotels end, and it is the quietest walk in town.
The schoolhouse where Estonia's national poet grew up, and where her father J. V. Jannsen ran the school and launched Perno Postimees in 1857. It is a Pärnu Museum branch across the river, small and specific.
Estonia's big water park, with slides and a warm outdoor pool in winter.
Pools, a hammam and a Japanese-style sento, open year round.
The resort-hotel half of the Estonia group, by the beach park.
Where Estonian independence was first read out, on 23 February 1918.
The UNESCO-listed island of striped skirts, via a ferry from Munalaid.
Bogs and rivers, famous for the spring flood called the fifth season.
New music in the depth of the off season, when the town belongs to locals.
Kites over the beach, billed as the opening of the summer season.
The old town's medieval fair, with craft stalls, music and Hanseatic costume.
Pop and electronic acts on stages set up on Pärnu Beach.
The Järvi Academy's orchestral festival, with Paavo Järvi and young players.
A light-theatre festival staged in the early October dark.
The 40th edition of the festival that began as a documentary and anthropology week.
A week of special menus across the town's restaurants.
The practical gateway. Some Lux Express coaches to Pärnu stop at the airport; otherwise take a tram or taxi to Tallinn bus station and the coach from there.
No passenger train runs since December 2018. Coaches take about 1.5 hours from Tallinn and 2.5 from Riga, into the bus station at Pikk 13 by the old town.
Tap a county e-card (€2) on boarding: an hour is €1.50 and a day €6. A paper ticket from the driver costs €3 in cash.
A small airfield with no international routes; it serves the island of Ruhnu and charters. Rail Baltica aims to bring trains back around 2030.
Rye bread with butter, marinated sprat, egg and green onion.
Baltic herring, fried, marinated, salted or smoked along the coast.
Caught in the morning, smoked by day, eaten that evening.
Dense, sour black rye bread, on the table at nearly every meal.
Blood sausage with barley, the winter and Christmas dish.
Potato and barley mash with fried pork, from Mulgimaa inland.
Roasted grain flour stirred into kefir or buttermilk.
A chocolate-coated curd bar, made industrially since 1949.
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