If there is a "best kept secret" in Estonia, it's Lake Peipsi! It lies along the eastern border with Russia, each country sharing part of this breathtaking lake.

Peipsi is so huge that you can't see the other side. It's a flat water mammoth, surrounded by luxurious, undisturbed beaches of sand. In the Soviet era, it was a major recreation spot. Now, it's just beginning to be discovered again. Developers are building occasional summer cottages in the forests around it. The beaches themselves remain, for the most part, undeveloped and lovely.

Paths like this one lead
from narrow roads to the
beaches at Lake Peipsi.

If you're driving along Route 3 toward Tartu, you can easily pass by Peipsi without knowing it's even there; the forests on either side of the road hide the view most of the time. Few road signs say anything about the lake so If you want to see it, look for a small sign that says "Vasknarvi" when you get to Kauksi. (Careful, you may even miss Kauksi if you don't keep your eyes open.) Turn onto the road to Vasknarvi and follow it. You'll find small villages along the road, but lots of woods, too. Stop every once in a while, where you see a path, to walk through the forest to the lake.

The Peipsi region is home to a group of about 1,500 people known as the Old Believers. Centuries ago, they fled the Russian tsar's soldiers because they refused to accept sweeping revisions to the Russian Orthodox faith. Settling near Peipsi, they raised onions--said to be the world's best because of the soil there--and fished. Their standard of living was never high, but they got to practice their own religion. For centuries they have held to their faith, but today the youth are connected by Internet and TV to the larger world. They're beginning to lose interest in the religion of their forefathers so that church elders fear their faith may soon die out.