Snow and Saunas in Estonia

Marta Marinelli, raised in Italy’s serene Prosecco Hills, dreamt of global adventures, inspired by her father's travel stories. Her passion evolved into a career, backed by a decade of studies including degrees in international tourism and destination management. She’s worked in the adventure travel sector since 2012, living in Italy, the UK, and now sunny Portugal.

Over twenty years, Marta has explored over 55 countries, visiting remote areas like Ghana, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Haiti and Nepal’s Upper Mustang region. As a Senior Adventure Expansion Manager at Much Better Adventures, she focuses on creating life-changing experiences, ranging from multi-activity adventures, challenging treks to ultimate adventures in iconic places. She loves the challenge of finding the best local adventure hosts around the world, collaborating on adventures that offer genuine immersion, pushing beyond the beaten path and working on exclusive itineraries that challenge your comfort zone.

What makes her tick? Enabling people to live adventure-rich lives while positively impacting and empowering local communities around the world, generating sustainable opportunities for both the host, guides, community, and the environment.

The sauna tradition is an important part of the country's identity – in many ways, life in Estonia revolves around the sauna. Although sauna may seem like a winter activity, Estonians actually go all year round – family gatherings and birthdays are often celebrated with sauna.

The steam generated by pouring water onto hot rocks in a sauna is believed to have many benefits: it cleanses the skin and increases heart rate, and the heat does its magic by expanding your bronchi and relaxing the joints. The ritual also includes light 'whisking' with birch branches, which acts like a massage.

After you heat up, it's time to cool down. Saunas are often built next to the sea, a river, a lake, or a pond so that during winter, brave sauna-goers will cut a hole in the ice before taking a dip or even rolling around in the snow. The rapid temperature change stimulates blood flow and strengthens the immune system. If that sounds too bracing, you can stand in the cold air outside the sauna while enjoying a cool drink.

Two private group sauna sessions are booked on Days 2 and 4 of the trip. The first will take place in the igloo saunas of Sportland Kõrvemaa, which are 100% hand- crafted and covered with spruce chips from the outside, and aspen chips from the inside. The heat is equally distributed, which makes the sauna nicely humid. The sauna comes with a steam room, a spacious anteroom, and a toilet and shower room so you can alternate time in the heat with socialising in the common room and even an ice dip outside.

On Day 4 you'll get the chance to try an authentic smoke sauna. Like a traditional sauna, the Estonian smoke sauna usually consists of a small house heated with wood in a brick oven. However, the smoke sauna has no chimney through which the smoke can escape. Instead, it circulates inside the room while the sauna is heating. In 2014, UNESCO included the smoke sauna phenomenon in its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The smoke sauna ritual consists of many stages which must be followed carefully. You'll enter the sacred hot room, where you are met by the heady aroma of burning wood. You'll then rub yourself with ground plants and salt, followed by the 'whisking', gently beating your body with birch branches to exfoliate skin and stimulate circulation. Then, you'll plunge into the icy waters nearby to cool down, rinse off and feel new again!

Other sauna sessions can be booked for free at the luxurious sauna centre of the Vihula Manor Hotel & Spa.

Fat bikes have extra fat, knobbly tyres that are designed for riding on soft surfaces like sand and snow, and they have little or no suspension. The super-fat tyres distribute the rider’s mass across a larger area, so you don’t sink in and do gain more traction than you would with a standard tyre size. The bikes used on this trip are all Bottecchia Senales 26” Fat Bikes.

The tap water in Estonia is safe to drink. Please bring along your own reusable water bottle to fill up at the hotels to avoid buying single use plastic bottles.

Yes, you can leave your luggage in Tallinn or with your host on Day 1, as you'll be returning there for the last night of your trip.

Overall, the choice of the route, distance and activity duration is always decided by your local guide taking into consideration group's fitness and weather conditions, so small alterations may take place with your safety in mind. In case the snow conditions on a certain day are not ideal for the scheduled activity (i.e. terrain is too icy for fat biking, snow too soft for kicksledding, etc), your host will offer alternative suitable activities locally, whenever possible, or may suggest to carry these out in alternative areas nearby. One of the alternatives may be cross country skiing so you are advised to ensure your travel insurance covers this activity.

This trip includes locations or elevations where conditions can be extremely cold. Daytime temperatures may drop below freezing (0°C/32°F), and nights are often significantly colder. These conditions can affect physical performance and increase the risk of exposure-related issues, such as frostbite or hypothermia.

Your guide is trained to manage these risks, adapting activity intensity and monitoring group wellbeing. However, it's important to take personal responsibility – bringing the right cold-weather gear (see Kit List), staying hydrated and well-nourished, and recognising early signs of cold stress.

We recommend assessing your personal comfort and resilience in cold environments, and consulting a medical professional if you have health conditions that may be affected. Arriving early can also help you acclimatise to the colder conditions, especially if you're coming from a much warmer climate.

Sure can! Over 70% of our travellers travel solo, it’s a great way to meet like-minded people.

Our team of Adventure Hunters co-create exclusive adventures which are run by highly vetted, specialist hosts. The trip is run by our trusted host partner in the destination. We only work with independent, local, in-destination experts who know the very best places to explore and how to stay safe. Read more information about the local teams we partner with. You’ll be introduced to the host straight after making a booking via the Much Better Adventures platform.

Much Better Adventures refer to the UK Government’s official travel advice when designing trips and monitoring trip operations. We recommend that all customers are familiar with the practical information provided on the Government’s FCDO website, where current travel advice can be found by searching for the applicable destination(s).

For customers joining this trip from other international destinations – please also read the official travel advice applicable to your country of residence/origin, as this may differ.

We recommend checking out the country-specific information and also talking to a travel nurse.

We automatically convert prices from the local currency that a host receives to your chosen currency. We update our exchange rates on a daily basis so this does mean that prices displayed on the site are subject to currency fluctuations, which is why you may see them change over time.

If you wish to change the currency you pay in, head to the bottom of the page.

All of our group adventures are specially designed for adults to enjoy as we want these adventures to bring together outdoorsy people who are truly like-minded. You must be over 18 to join one of our trips.

You're always in good company on one of our adventures.

Our trips are typically made up of a mixture of solo travellers and small groups of 2 or 3 friends, with most in their 30s-50s.

Our sociable adventures are solo-friendly by design and naturally attract outdoorsy people with a shared mindset; a love for adventure, a desire to push themselves and meet awesome, like-minded people along the way.

It’s this camaraderie that has so often turned a great adventure into a life-changing one.

Don't just take our word for it:

• 95% of people rate the group dynamics on our trips 5/5
• 90% of people recommend joining a trip to make new friends
• 75% of people have met people on our trips that they would now consider friends

See here for more info about the Much Better Adventures tribe.

Winter in Estonia lasts from late November until late March, with temperatures ranging from mild (above freezing) to as low as -30°C, although temperatures just below 0°C are far more common. Snow usually falls as early as late November but it is most common in the months of December to March, when this trip runs.

Mother Nature is unpredictable so snow can never be 100% guaranteed on every departure. However, recent reports show a very high chance of snow between the months of December and March. Winter hiking and fat biking without snow will be equally spectacular and enjoyable, and your hosts will do their best to suggest the best alternative activities according to the local weather conditions in this situation.