{"id":151712,"date":"2025-10-11T01:49:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/?p=151712"},"modified":"2025-10-10T12:04:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T09:04:36","slug":"five-reasons-why-visiting-estonia-is-safer-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/five-reasons-why-visiting-estonia-is-safer-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Reasons Why Visiting Estonia Is Safer Than Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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When I first came to Estonia in the 1990s, I was warned by my friends that I would never come back. And they were right! But for the wrong reasons. This is a contemporary list of why visiting Estonia has never been safer.<\/p>\n

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  1. The US Senate has voted to extend an \u201cironclad commitment\u201d to the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. This includes the sale and delivery of 21st-century technology, such as the HIMARS missile system, bolstering Estonia\u2019s ability to strike deep into the territory of any neighbouring aggressor state, should the need arise. Incidentally, the term \u201cironclad\u201d refers to 19th-century technology involving warships covered in iron, which effectively resulted in naval stalemates. This comes at a time when the US government itself is shut down due to a political stalemate in the Senate, which approved the ironclad commitment.<\/li>\n
  2. Estonia\u2019s beaches are clean, pristine, and not in any way crowded. While this could largely be attributed to Estonians\u2019 commitment to environmental cleanliness, and penchant for avoiding social contact\u2014similarly to Finns\u2014it could also be a result of the current water temperatures at Estonia\u2019s numerous seaside beaches being anywhere from 10\u00b0C to 13\u00b0C. It is the perfect time to enjoy swimming in a wetsuit at one of Estonia\u2019s many nudist beaches. Also good to know is that the wetsuit could also protect you from sunburn.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Tallinn has been named as one of the safest cities to visit in the European Union. It is generally considered safe to walk alone downtown in the middle of the night. Common sense should still be practised of course, yet it is safe to say that gun violence in Estonia is non-existent, despite the massive influx of American tourism in the country. In fact, the largest and most recent mass shooting<\/span><\/a><\/span> in the country involved only cameras.<\/li>\n
  4. Traffic safety in Estonia has improved remarkably over the years. There is zero tolerance for driving under the influence of alcohol, meaning that if you\u2019ve had even a small beer, take a taxi. The vast majority of Estonians respect this total ban on drunk driving, and the traffic culture shows it. Bicycle lanes are becoming more common, speed limits have been lowered to near-walking speeds in the more congested traffic zones, and the use of AI cameras has recently been approved. This means that even if you are somehow victim to a hit-and-run traffic accident, rest assured that the Finnish* driver will be identified.
    *This was said only to keep readers engaged in reading this article.<\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Camping and hiking in Estonia are perfectly safe. The State Forest Management Centre, or RMK, maintains a robust network of campsites throughout the country, and keeps these sites stocked with firewood, as well as permanent, on-site grills. Most campsites are free of charge. There are hundreds of kilometers of boardwalks through wetter areas, such as Estonia\u2019s famous bogs. Visitors to Estonia can also enjoy over a thousand kilometers of well-maintained hiking paths, despite Estonia\u2019s recent decision to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Enjoy your time in Estonia! And remember\u2026when leaving some cities, you will see a sign that says \u201cWelcome back\u201d in English, even though you\u2019re on your way out. The city official responsible for such signs has not yet heard of ChatGPT.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      When I first came to Estonia in the 1990s, I was warned by my friends that I would never … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":151713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estonia"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}