Pärnu · Backpacking

Off season the town costs almost nothing: beach, parks and promenade are free and a weekday päevapraad is the cheapest hot meal. The paid attractions are the real spend — three hours in the Tervise Paradiis water park is €22 Mon–Thu outside summer and €25 at weekends and all summer, with children aged 4–6 at €5–6 and under-3s free. In July, beds are the problem, not meals.

Cheap beds cluster inland from the beach in Raeküla and Mai and around the old town, with campsites out along the coast road towards Valgeranna. Nothing is far — the sand is a 20–30 minute walk from almost any of it.

Pärnu sits on the Tallinn–Riga coach corridor, roughly two hours from Tallinn with frequent departures, and advance online fares are the cheapest. The bus station is central, a short walk from the old town and about twenty minutes from the beach.

The beach itself, the promenade, Rannapark's pines and the green moat walk at Vallikäär cost nothing, and between them they are most of what people come for. Budget for one wet-weather attraction and leave it at that.

The sea is swimmable from late June, crowds and prices peak through July, and by the last week of August the beach is quiet again while most places are still open. That week is the best value of the Pärnu year.