Piusa caves and Southern Estonia

Piusa Caves – Piusa Caves Visitor Center- Cafe Mahlaveski – Lake Kõverajärv – Beach of Värska Sanatorium

In May, my friend and I decided to go and explore Southern Estonia. This time I could choose where we go 🤭.
Since I hadn’t been to the Piusa caves for a long time, I chose that area.

Piusa is famous for its sand caves along the river. Sand quarries for glass production have been active in Piusa since 1922.
And let me tell you- this sand IS super soft! 😊

It’s a super beautiful place, but even more so is the view from the bottom to the top of the Piusa sand quarry, which I forgot to take pictures and videos of. But you can see the views from the top 😍.

I made a cute video of our day, which you can find here.

While walking in the area of the Piusa caves, we also found a cool clay workshop on the way – Keraamikaateljee Piusa Savikoda. Open all year round, every day.

When we came back from a walk, we discovered the Mahlaveski cafe with very tasty food inside the Piusa visitor center. If you happen to be there, be sure to stop by!
They are on Facebook: Mahlaveski kohvik.

NB! Don’t be intimidated by the 8€ price on the front door of the visitor center.
There is a souvenir shop in the visitor center and the Mahlaveski cafe right next to it.

Photo autor: Janis Berzins

The €8 price is for visiting the visitor center, where you can see videos and where the guide tells more about that place. And you can see Piusa’s caves from the inside.
NB! You can see the Piusa caves from the inside only if you buy a ticket for a guided tour.

The cafe attendant’s uncle was very kind and gave us a buckthorn ice drink and handmade blueberry ice cream to taste 😁.
Let’s just say that his sales trick was successful – because before I had no appetite for ice cream, but before leaving I bought myself an ice cream 😄. The ice buckthorn drink was also very tasty! It’s just that I had more of an appetite for ice cream 😁.

The food was very tasty 🤤, the atmosphere was cozy, the view was beautiful 😍, and the prices were affordable.

We didn’t have a waiting line, but if you are with a larger group, the waiters said that it would be wiser to order in advance – you will get your order faster. For example, there was a busload of people before and after us, and some of them were eating, which would have increased the waiting time.

After visiting the cafe, we tried to find the Piusa River or at least a beautiful part of it, but in the end, we didn’t find it.
However, while wandering around, we found an EXTREMELY beautiful place to stay – Päikseranna 😍. I didn’t leave the sound on the video, but it was heard our squeals and the ultimate enthusiasm about this accommodation 😄.
This place looked like a very beautiful mysterious fairy place 🧚🏼‍♀️. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it into the video :/.
Grass grew on the roof of the house, there were small cottages around the main house, and in the distance, there was a beautiful clean sandy beach with a mirror-smooth lake.

Next to it was the RMK house open to all people, which is right by the lake – RMK Kõverajärve forest house.

Accommodation in both is €120 per night.

The RMK house can accommodate 9 people and there is also a large barbecue house. The house itself seemed nice and cozy, but because people were renting the house, I didn’t want to film that.