Suurupi.Travel Whilst the Suurupi rear lighthouse was opened on 1 May 2017 and the Suurupi front lighthouse on 21 May 2018, this year both lighthouses could start the season together. The opening year is the time for learning and adapting, as the lighthouses are located in the courtyard of the lighthouse household and it is not possible to enter the lighthouses at every moment. Both the household has to get accustomed to the visitors and the visitors to the household.
In total over 5600 guests visited the Suurupi lighthouses in the summer season of 2019 (1 May to 30 September). This year the number of group visitors grew, especially in the Suurupi front lighthouse. The hostess of the Suurupi rear lighthouse Kristiina, who is a certified guide in Harju County, guided over 70 tours in the Suurupi rear and front lighthouses as well as trips introducing the military history of the peninsula. The hostess of the front lighthouse Anne-Ly guided 20 cruise groups visiting Suurupi front lighthouse. From this year lighthouse keeper Meelis joined us in the front lighthouse, introducing visitors to both Suurupi lighthouses as well as the possibility to visit other Estonian lighthouses with the Estonia Lighthouse Passport.
2000 guests visited the Suurupi front lighthouse in 2019, 430 of whom bought the joint lighthouse ticket and visited both lighthouses.
2700 guests visited the Suurupi rear lighthouse, 600 of whom bought the joint ticket.
This year also some of the locals, who had not known anything of the lighthouses in Suurupi so far, came to visit the lighthouses. 5 small concerts were held at the lighthouses this year. It is planned that the concerts will become a tradition. Suurupi Lighthouse Day, taking place for the 7th time already, was this time part of the Open Villages Week of Harku Municipality and during the week the 160th birthday of the only functioning wooden lighthouse in Estonia was celebrated with a concert.
The majority of the group visits were senior tourism, and also Russian and Latvian groups. In addition, cruise tourists visit the Suurupi lighthouses and we hope to continue to promote Estonia to the world as a sea nation with history in the future as well. 32 groups of cruise tourists, in total 600 cruise tourists visited Suurupi lighthouses this season. Visitors finding their way to the lighthouses by themselves were from Germany, Finland, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, from more distant countries Japan and South Korea. Cruise tourists were primarily from the USA, Canada and Australia.
The garden of the Suurupi rear lighthouse was awarded the special prize of the National Heritage Board in the Estonian Beautiful Home competition 2019, the Suurupi front lighthouse ensemble earned the same award in 2015.
The new joint season of the Suurupi lighthouses will start on 1 May 2020.
In the winter season the Suurupi rear lighthouse is open on weekends until 3 November. The Lighthouse Christmas World will open in the town of Suurupi rear lighthouse in December weekends.
Group visits are available upon reservation to both lighthouses throughout the whole winter season.
Suurupi Selts (Suurupi Society) will publish a new English homepage this year making the history of Suurupi better available to foreign tourists. The new homepage is still in progress, but you can already visit it. In addition, we plan to open a new homepage for the new season introducing Suurupi in Russian. We encourage everybody who has historical information about Suurupi to share it with the Suurupi Society.
