Padaste Manor travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises, spa and resorts

Guests may not expected to find a luxury country house hotel on a small island off the coast of Estonia. Certainly Padaste Manor is a unique escape: a fabulous conversion of a historic estate in a stunning location. For 700 years, Padaste was the country estate of the Von Buxhoeveden family. The crescent of grand buildings facing the sea dates from the nineteenth-century, to when the wealthy Baron Axel von Buxhoeveden was imperial hunting master at the court of Czar Nicholas II. This was his family’s summer home, but Von Buxhoeveden was assassinated by revolutionaries as he left the manor one day in 1919.

In the Soviet era, the manor became a fish distribution center and home for the elderly and was completely abandoned twenty years ago. It still stands in a landscaped park surrounded by meadows and forests looking out across Padaste Bay and is now an opulent country house hotel, with all the crackling log fires, squashy sofas, and wood paneling that implies.

The fourteen rooms have lavish fabrics, simple wooden floors, and thick rugs. Guests are treated to unobtrusive technology, and spa treatments are available in traditional period rooms. The balconies and terraces all have wonderful views across the island shores and softly breaking waves. True romantics should choose Room 15, which has its very own poetry loft. You will climb a farmer’s ladder to tiny mezzanine, which is crammed with a fine collection of poetry. A small window opens up to the sky, and you may lean back in your chair and escape into the world of verse. Location: Muhu Island, Estonia. Photos by: adomadom