Being adjacent to the eastern border and its distance from Tallinn mean Ida-Viru County has long been somewhat off the beaten track, attracting more niche types of tourism than other parts of the country.

One classic example of this is the former mining town of Viivikonna, famed for being a ghost town, though there are people living there again nowadays.
Local residents are often keen to move away from the old Soviet tag and embrace something new.

"We want to turn [Viivikonna] back into a holiday destination, with beautiful backyards. Perhaps in the future it could become an example of how to turn an ugly town into a beautiful settlement," Priit Orav, who has worked as a tour guide in the area for around 25 years, suggested.

Viivikonna as it is now has, thanks to its abandoned and eerie nature, long been a popular destination for visitors, tourists, and even filmmakers exploring new locations.

"I think there is already enough material about it on YouTube, and filmmakers from all over the world have been there. Now I think it is time to draw a line under it. We need to move on from this Soviet nostalgia. Right next door, beautiful private homes have been built or old ones have been renovated, and everything is already beginning to take on a European appearance," Orav explained, talking to "Vikerhommik".

The transformation process is already underway, and the larger buildings have largely been demolished, leaving only the former schoolhouse and a few smaller residential buildings.

These latter buildings are often being used as homes nowadays in any case, Orav noted. "What is left are smaller houses that were once built for four families. They have become homes for one or two families, with beautiful gardens. People do care about their surroundings."

In the quarter of a century Orav has worked as a guide in Viivikonna, he has conducted around 100 tours of the so-called ghost town, and so has seen the transformation at first hand. "I have seen this change and I have also seen the reaction of the local residents. They have for a long time been tired of the fact that so many people go there, and that the place has attracted the attention of social media around the world," he said.

The same can be said of the surrounding area. "I hope this place will develop into a quiet, nice settlement with low-density housing. Just 10 kilometers away is Sillamäe, which has also become very beautiful nowadays," Orav added.

He also often conducts tours of Sillamäe, a nearby port town with notable neoclassical architecture dating mostly to the Stalinist era. "Of course, it has a Russian or Soviet 'accent', but that is exactly what people come to see, because there is no other city like it in Estonia. Now we just have to wait for the local residents of Sillamäe to grasp that the old town of Sillamäe is an attraction, and that the buildings and exterior façades ultimately need to be restored."

Other highlights include the beach at Narva-Jõesuu, downstream from Narva and a resort town. It is very difficult to find anything similar to Narva-Jõesuu elsewhere, Orav said, also bringing out the Aidu quarry, where a versatile water sports center has been established, as characterizing a new emerging trend.

"The Kiviõli ash hills have found their place, but the new rowing channel at Aidu and everything else around it, as well as the underground mine in Kohtla-Nõmme, are things that only we have; there is nothing like them elsewhere in Estonia."

Kiviõli hosts a notable motocross circuit, skiing can be done on some of the artificial slopes left over from mine tailings, and the forests of Ida-Viru County are home to a population of Siberian Flying Squirrels.

Ultimately what makes Ida-Viru County a special tourism destination is its natural beauty: Its vast array of rivers, lakes, the sea, forests, bogs, and wetlands, Orav concluded.

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