Paali cottages

A lovely, romantic place.

The owner was incredibly kind and thoughtful. They even lit the stove so we could dry our rain-soaked cycling gear. Staying in this Estonian farmhouse from 1920 was a wonderful experience: it feels frozen in time, with modern comforts too 😅.

I’ve stayed in plenty of places in different countries, but this was a first. The view left everyone stunned, and the only photos I took were of the doors. I’m not picky, but from now on I’ll ask for detailed accommodation photos. I wish we’d booked through Booking.com, or at least been shown real photos and told what to expect. We were told the apartment had a complete kitchen with a kettle, refrigerator, and stove. On arrival, we were shown a huge house, with grass already overgrown around the entrance. Nothing looked like the online photos. The place felt like an old, abandoned barracks, fit only for pigs these days. We’d told them there would be 12 of us, but were given three rooms, one supposedly serving as the kitchen. There weren’t enough beds or bed linen for two. The first room by the entrance had a microfridge, a 500ml micro-kettle, an electric stove, and eight mugs. That was the whole kitchen. There had been no renovation in the rooms since the Tsarist era. Paint was peeling and the switches were ancient, so I was afraid to touch them in case I got an electric shock. Every room smelled of mold or something similar. The toilet was inside the house, dry, and had a strong, persistent, toxic smell that drifted into the room. There was a sink that looked as if it hadn’t seen detergent in a hundred years. It was basically impossible to use. The beds were ancient, probably as old as the house, and only 1.6-1.8 meters long, as if made for dwarf miners. There was a modern fold-out sofa in the main room, but it was crooked and ugly. How can anyone rent this out in good conscience?

The manor’s one-story stone main building, with its hipped roof, was built in 1840 by the von Nolckens, who rented the estate. That modest style was common in Saaremaa manors of the period. Private manors were often rebuilt toward the end of the 19th century, as at Paadla and Kyläla, while state manors generally stayed as they were. The building survives with altered windows and doors, after being converted into a kindergarten in 1965. It is privately owned now, and some modest outbuildings remain too. Uuemõisa Manor (German: Neuenhof) began as an order manor in the mid-16th century. It was newer than neighboring Saare Manor, also owned by the order, which is how it got its name. After the Livonian War it became state property and remained a state manor until the end of the manor era.