Vormsi

Vormsi was a Swedish-speaking island for some seven hundred years. In 1944 almost the entire population left for Sweden ahead of the Soviet advance, and the island went from around three thousand people to a few dozen. It is still very lightly populated, and the emptiness is the first thing you notice.

What you actually see

Flat country with thin soil over limestone - alvar meadow, juniper, low pine and birch, and a shoreline of reeds and stones. It is small enough and level enough to cycle end to end in a day, which is how most visitors do it.

St Olaf's church at Hullo has the island's defining feature: a churchyard full of round Swedish ring crosses, stone wheels on a shaft, in the largest concentration of the form anywhere. The Rumpo peninsula, a long spit of juniper heath, is the other landmark.

When to go

• June to August - full ferry timetable, meadows in flower, warm enough to swim off the stones.
• September - the island at its quietest and best.
• Winter - ferries reduced or interrupted by ice, and almost nothing open.

Honest expectations

There is very little infrastructure - a handful of guesthouses, one or two places to eat, and no reliable shop hours. Bring what you need.

Nothing here is dramatic. Vormsi is flat, quiet and slow, and if that does not appeal, Hiiumaa and Saaremaa offer more to do.

Nearby

Haapsalu and its castle are on the mainland side of the crossing. Hiiumaa leaves from the same port at Rohuküla.