Estonia is a small country on the coast of the Baltic Sea in the northern part of Europe.
Latvia and Russia are mainland neighbours while Finland and Sweden adjoin it across the sea. From Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, any rural locality can be reached in a three-hour car ride. In order to visit our biggest islands one has to take a ferry or a plane. Most of the visitors arrive to Estonia via Tallinn airport or harbour. Major international roads connect Tallinn with Riga and Saint Petersburg. Several mannas and small airports welcome tourists in summer.
Estonia has distinctively seasonal climate characteristic of the temperate zone. All four seasons are present, although many people find the summer too short. The so-called T-shirt weather can be enjoyed mostly from June to August, sometimes longer. The period between January and March offers good skiing weather. Sometimes the dream of White Christmas comes true, but not always. Typically, tourists do not see the rather excessive precipitation as a problem.
Estonian landscape is mainly fiat, this however cannot be always explicitly perceived due to the high share of forests forests cover nearly half of the Estonian territory. Like
elsewhere in North Europe the landforms in Estonia were formed by the continental ice sheet. Estonia was over and over again covered by glaciers, the last one of which
ultimately retreated about 11,000 years ago, leaving behind the moraine hills, sandurs and eskers.
The highest landform of both Estonia and of all the Baltic countries is the Suur-
Munamagi Hill with the highest peak of 318 metres above the sea level. Here and there one can find huge erratic boulders with a height up to eight metres brought here by ice
from the distant areas in Finland. For several millennia after the he had retreated the territory of low-lying West Estonia remained the sea bottom. Nowadays Estonia unceasingly gains land due to the post-glacial crustal uplift. The rise is the most outstanding in Northwest Estonia with a lift rate of 2-3 mm per year. Estonia is extremely abundant in mires and lakes since the terrain is mostly flat and precipitation exceeds
evaporation.
Estonia  has a long and curvy coastline featuring a mynad of bays and peninsulas. There are about 1,500 islands in the coastal sea. the majority of
which are small low-lying islets. Permanent human settlement is present on only about ten islands. Owing to the limited water exchange with the Atlantic Ocean the brackish water with salinity below average  of the  Baltic  Sea  has  peculiar  biological
characteristics.
The coasts of Estonia are predominantly covered by stones and pebbles but also many sandy beaches can be found along bay coasts, in addition several high cliffs
(up to 55 m) can be encountered on the North-Estonian coast.
Woodland, mainly mixed forest with pines and spruces representing the dominant tree species, is the most typical biological community in Estonia. Almost all the land needed for human activities has previously been forested. Without human care the land would become reforested. In coastal areas and on riverbanks more open landscapes with natural meadows and flood plains can be seen. The landscape openness can also be experienced in bogs that have formed either as a result of paludification of mineral land or lake overgrowth. Mires occupy nearly one fourth of the whole territory of Estonia. The share of cultivated land in Estonia is small compared with the average in Europe. Fields, mines, urban areas and roads take up only about one fifth of the land cover. Similarly, the average population density (30 people per km2) is several times lower than in West Europe.
Sometimes Estonia is divided into three major regions, i.e. North Estonia, South Estonia and West Estonia. Each of these has peculiar natural characteristics listed below.
North Estonia: coastal cliffs, limestone outcrops, waterfalls and rapids, erratic boulders, extensive forests, and oil-shale mines in the Vim County. West Estonia: islands and islets, beach ridges, extensive reed beds, juniper fields, bird migration, numerous nature reserves. South Estonia: hilly terrain, deep primeval valleys, flooding rivers, yellow sandstone, numerous small lakes, and rustic lifestyle.