Pärnu is a resort town on the southern coast of Estonia. It's famous for its mud baths that soothe away cares. A strip of hotels lines the long, sandy beach where swimmers and sun-bathers relax during summer. People arrive by the busload from all over Baltic Country to get pampered.

There's a touristy part of town where you can shop for antiques and souvenirs or just walk the streets and window shop. If you're daring, you can wend your way through the back streets to look at the lazy Pärnu? river but it's not in a trendy part of town.

Tervise Paradiis Hotel

The Tervise Paradiis hotel
welcomes guests even in the
wee hours of the morning.

For us, one of the best things about Pärnu is the Tervise Paradiis Hotel. Once, when we didn't like the accommodations in the town we were in, we got in the car and drove in search of a nicer hotel. We checked each of the hotels on the tourist map but none was open in the off season. We drove to the next town but nothing was open there, either. We drove down little dirt roads which, according to our map, had guest houses at their ends. No luck. Eventually, we covered large parts of Latvia and Estonia until sometime around 2:30 a.m. we decided to head for Pärnu because it overflows with hotels.

Even in Pärnu we found nothing. One time, our hopes rose when we were able to rouse a sleepy girl from behind the desk at a major hotel but she grumpily told us there were no rooms. We suspected that she just didn't want to do the paperwork to admit us.

At last, we tried Tervise Paradiis. A perky--well, almost perky--young woman helped us willingly. Soon, we were settled into comfortable, quiet rooms. It was 4:00 a.m. and we were ever so happy to have found a place to rest at last.

A gray day on the Pärnu River.