Nomme area guide: forest suburb 20 minutes from the Old Town
Wooden villas among pine trees in Nomme district of Tallinn
A garden district of wooden villas, ski trails and a Saturday market, sitting 7 km south of the centre with room rates 30-40% below Old Town.
What Nomme actually is
Nomme is Tallinn's forest suburb, roughly 7 km south of the Old Town, built between 1870 and 1940 as a garden-city retreat for the middle class. Its streets are lined with wooden villas painted ochre, cream and pale green, most of them still single-family homes with pine trees in the yard. The centre of the district clusters around Nomme train station, Turu plats market square and Vabaduse puiestee. Beyond that, the housing thins into forest — Pääsküla bog, Glehn Park and Hiiu-Rahu cemetery form a green belt that runs the whole southern edge of the city.
It became part of Tallinn in 1940 but still feels like a separate town. There is a train station, a market, a couple of schools, an ice rink, a ski jump built in 1935, and cross-country trails that fill with locals every winter weekend. Cafes are few but good. There is no tourist infrastructure to speak of, which is exactly why some visitors love it.
Who Nomme suits
Book Nomme if you are on a longer trip — five nights or more — and want to see how Tallinn actually lives when the cruise ships leave. Runners, cyclists and cross-country skiers will find some of the best urban forest access in Northern Europe fifteen minutes from their front door. Families with children who need space and quiet will sleep better here than in the Old Town, and the playgrounds at Glehn Park and Rahumäe are properly good.
It also suits repeat visitors who have done the sights and want a residential base with a garden. If you rent a house here in summer you can cycle to work in the centre in 25 minutes on a dedicated path along the railway. Photographers who like wooden architecture without the crowds of Kalamaja will find plenty of material — Nomme's villas are grander, older and less made-over than the fisherman's cottages by the port.
Who should book somewhere else
First-time visitors on a short trip should not stay here. Everything you came to see is in the medieval centre, and commuting 20 minutes each way eats an hour a day of a three-day visit. Anyone without a taste for suburbs will find Nomme too quiet — evenings are dark and empty, and there are essentially no bars. If you want to walk out of your hotel into a lit street with restaurants at 22:00, book Kesklinn or Rotermann.
Business travellers with meetings in the centre will burn their expense budget on taxis. Ülemiste business park is a 15-minute drive but there is no direct transit. Party travellers and stag groups have nothing to do here after 21:00 and will be unpopular with neighbours. And in deep winter, the walking paths ice over quickly and the pretty forest becomes a nuisance if you are not equipped for it.
What a night costs
Nomme runs 30-40% cheaper than the Old Town for comparable space. Serviced apartments and guesthouses start around €55-70 in shoulder season for a double with parking, and top out around €110-130 in July and August. There is one small hotel near the train station and a handful of well-run Airbnbs in villa attic conversions. A three-bedroom house with a garden rents for €140-190 a night in summer, which is unbeatable value if you are a group of four or five.
Value pick: a converted upstairs floor of a wooden villa near Hiiu station for €70-90, with a private entrance and often a sauna. Splurge pick: a full villa with garden and detached sauna house at €180-240, walkable to Glehn Park and the market. Skip the cheapest listings in the concrete Soviet-era blocks along Pärnu maantee — technically Nomme, but you get none of the district's actual character and the same commute.
Getting into town
The train is the key. The Elron commuter service runs from Nomme, Hiiu, Kivimäe and Pääsküla stations to Balti jaam next to the Old Town in 12-15 minutes, with departures every 20-30 minutes on weekdays and hourly on Sunday evenings. A single ticket costs €1.50 if you buy on board, less with a Tallinn transit card. This is faster and more reliable than any bus. From Balti jaam it is a five-minute walk into the Old Town or into Telliskivi.
Buses 14, 17 and 36 also serve the district and run into Vabaduse väljak in 25-30 minutes. Driving into the centre takes 15 minutes off-peak and 30 in rush hour; parking near the Old Town costs €4-6 per hour or €20 per day at the Foorum garage. Bolt taxis to the Old Town run €7-10. If you are staying in Nomme without a car, memorise the train timetable — the last train back is around 23:30.
Walking distance in Nomme itself
Nomme Turg on Saturday morning is the main event: a covered market plus outdoor stalls selling smoked fish, fresh cheese, honey from Saaremaa, seasonal berries and cut flowers. Locals shop here from 08:00 and it winds down by 14:00. Around the square you have Kohvik Sinilind for coffee, Ranna Rannu bakery for cinnamon buns, and a couple of solid lunch spots. Glehn Park, the estate garden of Nomme's founder Nikolai von Glehn, sits ten minutes uphill and includes a small palace, a folly castle and forest trails.
The Nomme ski jump is a genuine curiosity — a 1935 tower still used for training, with a viewpoint over the district. Cross-country ski trails start at Männiku and loop 5-15 km through pine forest, groomed all winter. In summer the same trails are for running and mountain biking. Pääsküla bog boardwalk is a 20-minute walk from Pääsküla station and takes you across raised peatland with cotton grass and cranes. None of this is on a standard tourist itinerary and all of it is free.
When to come
Nomme is a four-season district but shows best in late spring and early autumn. May brings lilacs and cherry blossom in the villa gardens; September turns the birches yellow along every street. Summer is quiet — many locals go to their own summer houses on the coast — but the daylight lasts until 22:30 and the forest is at its warmest. This is the season when Nomme starts to feel like the escape it was designed as.
Winter is the surprise season. From mid-December through early March the ski trails are groomed, the market keeps running, and the wooden houses under snow look like something out of a Christmas card. You need proper boots and a torch after 16:30, but a weekend renting a villa with a sauna in February is one of the best-value Tallinn trips available. Skip late October and November — the light is grim and the forest sits under mud.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Kesklinn, answered with this month’s numbers.
Yes. It is a low-crime residential district with almost no bar traffic. The streets are quiet after 22:00 and lighting is patchy on smaller roads, so bring a phone torch. Locals walk dogs alone at all hours. The station areas at Nomme and Pääsküla see occasional rowdy behaviour on Friday nights but nothing serious.
Yes. The Nomme Sports Centre at Külmallika rents cross-country skis, boots and poles for around €15 per day and has trails starting from the door. They also rent snowshoes. Conditions are usually reliable from mid-December to early March. The staff speak English.
Several. There is a Rimi at Nomme turg, a Coop on Vabaduse puiestee, and a Selver next to Järve keskus shopping centre, which is a 15-minute walk from the district. All are open 08:00-22:00 daily. Prices are the same as elsewhere in Tallinn — around €40-60 for a week's basic groceries for two.
Kadriorg is closer in, greener in the manicured sense, and has museums on the doorstep. Nomme is further out, wilder, cheaper and more residential. Choose Kadriorg for a two- to three-night culture trip, Nomme for a week-long stay where you want forest access and a real neighbourhood rhythm.
