Otepää is a small town in southern Estonia that bills itself as the country's "winter capital." Set among the rolling hills of the Otepää Uplands — the highest ground in the Baltics, though still modest by most standards — it is Estonia's main winter sports centre.
Cross-country skiing is the main event: Otepää hosts World Cup races on the Tehvandi Sports Center track and the town fills up with Estonians and Scandinavians whenever snow falls. Downhill skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, and sledging are also on offer, with several small slopes around town. In summer the same hills draw hikers and mountain bikers, and the surrounding lakes — particularly Pühajärv, the "Holy Lake" — are good for swimming.
There is more to Otepää than sport. The hill above the town carries the ruins of Otepää Castle, an Estonian stronghold first recorded in 1116, and a stone-built medieval church where the Estonian national flag was consecrated for the first time in 1884. The wider Otepää Landscape Conservation Area makes it a useful base for a few days of walking among lakes and forest.