Pirita Beach Villa

Pirita Beach Villa is in Tallinn, Estonia (Puki Tee 2 4, Tallinn, Estonia), close to central Tallinn.

Prices are set live by the hotel — check the booking page for a real rate for your dates.

Seven nights is the right answer for a first trip covering both the north and the south. That comfortably allows three nights in Tallinn, one in Lahemaa, two in Tartu with a run out to the Lake Peipus villages of Kolkja and Varnja, and one in Pärnu. Five nights works if you drop either Tartu or the coast, and three or four means basing yourself in Tallinn and taking day trips. Add two to three more nights if you want Saaremaa, since the Virtsu–Kuivastu ferry plus the 75 km to Kuressaare eats most of an arrival day.

Tram line 4 runs from directly outside Tallinn Airport to Hobujaama and Balti jaam in about 15 minutes, and the airport is only 4 km from the Old Town. A single ticket bought from the driver is €2, or you validate a Ühiskaart. A taxi or Bolt to the Old Town is typically €10–15 and takes 10 minutes outside rush hour. If you are heading straight to Pärnu or Tartu, take the tram or bus 2 into town and pick up an intercity bus from Tallinn Bus Station on Lastekodu, or an Elron train from Balti jaam.

You need a car for Soomaa, Matsalu, Setomaa, most of Lahemaa and anywhere beyond Kuressaare and Kärdla on the islands; you do not need one for Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Viljandi or Narva. Elron trains connect Tallinn with Tartu in about 2 hours for roughly €13 and with Narva in around 2h30, and buses cover Pärnu and Haapsalu, which have no passenger rail. The bog boardwalks at Viru in Lahemaa and Riisa in Soomaa are effectively unreachable without a vehicle or a guided transfer. If you hire a car, book the ferry crossing separately for any island leg between mid-June and late August.

It works for both, but the areas differ. Families do best in Pärnu, where the beach shelves gently and spa hotels have pool complexes and family rooms, and in Tartu, where the AHHAA science centre sits by the Emajõgi. Couples tend to prefer Tallinn's Old Town, Käsmu and Altja in Lahemaa, or a Kuressaare spa on Saaremaa. Note that many rural guesthouses in Soomaa and Setomaa are small houses with two or three rooms, so cots and extra beds need to be requested when you book rather than assumed.

Book vehicle places on the Virtsu–Kuivastu and Rohuküla–Heltermaa ferries first, then accommodation for the fixed-date events. Viljandi during the Folk Music Festival on the last full weekend of July, anywhere coastal over Jaanipäev on 23–24 June, and Otepää around the Tartu Marathon on the third Sunday in February all sell out months ahead. Soomaa's flood-season canoe trips in late March and April run on limited dates with a handful of operators. Tallinn Old Town in July and the pre-Christmas weekends are the other two to lock in three months out.