looduskalender.ee

Alutaguse

 

I have been engaged in nature tourism for almost 15 years, more recently especially with bringing people from abroad to Estonia. Because of this I have had to ask the question in the headline of myself very many times, and searched for an answer. Because Estonia is so small in a world perspective we have decided to introduce us firstly among Europeans.

 

If the main target of an average tourist’s trip is to be nature, we should have something outstanding and top-class to offer, comparable for instance to the Old Town of Tallinn for history enthusiasts.  Estonia has no highest mountains, no deepest valleys, no longest rivers, no viewing platforms with the most fantastic views. The same is true to a large extent of people who go for physical activities in nature, or in short, for hikers who focus their travels abroad primarily on off-road experiences in landscapes. We are used value our thousands of islets and coast highly which it surely is worth but unfortunately the Hiiumaa islets cannot compete with photos from Croatia and Norway. Our one true exception are the bogs. We can well be proud of them; in the bogs and marshes there are exciting experiences for  some hours or several days.

 

But a new branch of tourism is gaining momentum in Europe, one that primarily  focuses on seeing and studying species. Evidently this branch cannot attract very huge numbers of people, but the number of enthusiasts who travel from one country to another to study the species in nature there is quite considerable seen on our scale.

 

In this area Estonia is completely differently ranked as competitor. I can safely say that we belong to the absolute top in Europe. Why?

 

Frankly, I have not a single answer that  covers all. On one hand the answer can be had from every promotional material introducing Estonia: the variety, the diversity of habitats in a small territory, the rapidly alternating landscapes and so on – all certainly very good  arguments.

 

Good food, helpful people, comfortable accommodation, an efficient infrastructure in such a sparsely populated region, the silence and much more are important.

 

But on the other hand the most memorable experience for a visitor has often been a moment unnoticed by us local Estonians: a beautiful sunset with a snipe sitting on a pole, a black grouse display in early morning, five cuckoos calling simultaneously in an evening forest with a woodcock passing by, an elk crashing about in the thicket at a roadside – these things are evidently so everyday to us that we may overlook pointing themn out. Still, all in all the feedback on Estonia from tourists  is mostly very good indeed.

 

 Evening on canoe hike among the islets of Hiiumaa

 

Since the number of nature watching trips is growing rapidly we look for new people to our team.

OÜ Natourest http://natourest.ee/ is a tourist enterprise founded in 2008, bringing nature interested tourists mainly from Western Europe to Estonia.

 

We arrange mainly bird and mammal observation trips, but also tours dedicated to botanics, dragonflies, butterflies and all kinds of combined nature trips,

 

Most of our customers come from Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark but we also have visitors from Belgium, Spain, France and elsewhere.

 

In the German-language market we operate as the BaltikumNaturReisen: LINK

 

In connection with the increase in the number of trips we are looking for nature guides for our team.

 

From the candidates we look for:

 A will to work with people interested in nature;

German and/or English language skills (Dutch, Danish, Russian, French and Spanish are also merits);

Willingness to work long days in nature;

B-category driving licence;

Knowledge of  the nature that is in the primary subject of the excursions.

 

We offer you:

The opportunity to spend time in nature together with other nature enthusiasts from Europe;

Competitive wages;

Opportunitis to acquire new knowledge of nature;

Experiences of dealing with people from different language and cultural backgrounds.

 

Candidates should contact us on January 15^th 2016 at the latest

bert@360.ee

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