All activities / Trekking / Hiking / Soomaa
Trekking / Hiking in Soomaa
A lowland wilderness of raised bogs, flooded forest and four slow rivers in southwest Estonia, protected as Soomaa National Park and known for its fifth season, the annual spring flood that turns the land into a paddling landscape.
Why here
Soomaa means land of bogs, and walking on those bogs is the signature Estonian hike. This national park of raised mires, flooded forest and four rivers is best crossed on bogshoes, wide frames that let you pad across the spongy sphagnum surface of mires thousands of years old and studded with dark pools. The park runs on five seasons rather than four: the fifth is the great spring flood, when snowmelt and rain lift the rivers by several metres and submerge the forests, and you swap boots for a canoe. Guided bogshoe walks and canoe trips both put you deep into a wilderness that feels far larger than Estonia's flat map suggests, with beavers, elk and cranes for company.
Best months
Bogshoe hiking works across most of the year, over firm frozen bogs in winter and dry footing in summer and early autumn. The fifth-season flood usually arrives between March and April and lasts a few weeks, turning the park into a paddling landscape; exact timing shifts each year with the snowmelt. Trips are guided because the bogs and flood channels are easy to misjudge.
Getting there & around
Soomaa lies inland between Parnu and Viljandi in southwest Estonia, about ninety minutes to two hours from either city and roughly two hours from Tallinn by car. There is no public transport into the park, so operators arrange transfers and provide bogshoes, canoes and dry gear. Sessions run rain or shine, so bring layers that handle wet, cool weather even in summer.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate
Schools & guides (2)
Seikle Vabaks
OutfitterSeikle Vabaks is a local adventure operator on the edge of Soomaa National Park, running small-group trips on the Navesti, Raudna, Halliste and Lemmjogi rivers and across the park's bogs. Its programme spans bogshoe hikes over the raised mires, canoe and kayak paddles, beaver-watching evenings, wild swimming in bog pools, and winter skating when the wetlands freeze. Guides are Soomaa locals who read the shifting water levels behind the park's five seasons.
Soomaa.com
OutfitterSoomaa.com is the tour brand of Viis Aastaaega OU (Five Seasons), run by Aivar Ruukel, who grew up by the Navesti river and led the first guided canoe trips in Soomaa in 1994, a year after the national park was founded. The company holds the EUROPARC European Charter for Sustainable Tourism and works to the area's five seasons, guiding bogshoe walks across the raised mires and canoe trips, including the spring flood locals call the fifth season.