Perched on the island’s northeastern shoulder, Kärdla is a blissfully uneventful place with an infectiously laid-back atmosphere. It’s Hiiumaa’s only real service-centre and transport hub - if you don’t have your own vehicle it’s the best place to base yourself. Pretty timber houses surrounded by beautifully well-kept gardens are the main features of this low-rise town. Most households come complete with a mound of earth resembling an air-raid shelter - they are, in fact, traditional potato cellars.

Kärdla was a textile-producing town in the nineteenth century, and the former factory manager’s house (known as the Long House or Pikk Maja) now holds the Hiiumaa Museum (this entry’s map location: open Mon–Sat; also Sun May–Sept; €5), with a delightful display devoted to the life of the child in Estonia. There’s a shop selling books and Hiiumaa handicrafts on site.

At the northern end of the village is a grassy, boulder-strewn seaside park that fills up with bathers in summer.