Pärnu

Pärnu Beach, a wide band of fine sand stretching along the town's edge backed by a pine-forested park, has been the resort's central draw since organised sea-bathing tourism began here in the 19th century, and it remains genuinely popular with Estonian and regional visitors rather than existing primarily for international tourism. The spa tradition that built the town's reputation — originally centred on mud-bath and mineral-water treatments believed to have therapeutic value — continues today through several dedicated spa hotels, some occupying historic buildings from the resort's original 19th-century development, offering a continuity of purpose rare among European seaside resorts of comparable age.

Pärnu's old town and the streets leading toward the beach preserve a genuine concentration of wooden villa architecture from the resort's turn-of-the-century boom — Art Nouveau facades, elaborate wooden fretwork, and eclectic-style mansions built by wealthy visitors and local merchants alike during the decades when Pärnu drew spa tourists from across the Russian Empire. This architectural layer survived both world wars and the Soviet period with less damage than many comparable Baltic towns, giving Pärnu a genuinely well-preserved sense of its resort-town golden age rather than a reconstructed approximation of it.