Tallinn
A complete medieval walled town with a start-up city bolted on: cobbles, bastions, Kalamaja's wooden streets and Telliskivi's bars.
Red-tiled roofs and church spires of Tallinn Old Town seen from Toompea hill
Why people stay in Tallinn
Tallinn's Old Town is the real thing — 2 km of standing wall, twenty surviving towers, a functioning 1404 town hall, and a street plan that has not been rationalised. The lower town around Raekoja plats is merchants' Tallinn; Toompea, up the limestone hill through Pikk jalg gate, was where the nobility and the bishops sat, and it still feels administratively separate. Come at 8am and the cobbles between Pikk and Lai are empty and echoing. Come at 1pm in July, when three cruise ships are in, and Viru gate is a slow-moving queue.
The city is much bigger than its postcard. Kalamaja, ten minutes north of the walls, is a district of two-storey wooden apartment houses with limestone ground floors — the classic Tallinn worker housing — now full of coffee roasters and small restaurants. Telliskivi Creative City, in the old railway workshops behind the Balti Jaam market, is where the design shops, Fotografiska and half the good bars are. Noblessner, a former submarine yard on the sea, has Põhjala's taproom and a swimming spot. Kadriorg, east along the tram line, has Peter the Great's baroque palace and Kumu, the national art museum.
Prices are no longer the bargain some guidebooks promise. A three-star double in the Old Town runs €80-140 in summer and €55-85 in January; a beer costs €5-7 on Raekoja plats and €4-5 in Kalamaja; a good mid-range dinner is €25-40 a head. The medieval-costume restaurants on the square are a tourist tax. Rataskaevu 16 is genuinely excellent and needs booking two or three weeks ahead. Avoid the strip-lit bars on Suur-Karja and Vana-Turg that hustle stag groups; the drinks are weak and the bills are creative.
At 9pm in June it is still fully light and families are eating outside on Pikk while somebody plays a hurdy-gurdy badly by the town hall. At 9pm in December the Christmas market is on the square, glögi is €4, and it is minus eight. Tallinn suits absolutely everyone for two or three nights, which is why it is the base for the rest of this site — Lahemaa is an hour east, Pärnu two hours south, and the Helsinki ferry is a two-hour crossing from the terminal at the end of the tram line.
For a first visit, sleep inside or immediately outside the walls. Vanalinn proper — Pikk, Lai, Rataskaevu, Müürivahe — is atmospheric and puts everything at your feet, at €80-160 in summer, but the buildings are old, lifts are rare and Friday and Saturday nights get noisy around Suur-Karja and Vana-Turg; ask for a courtyard room. The Rotermann quarter and the streets around Viru väljak carry the modern chain hotels at €75-130 and are five minutes' walk from the square. Kalamaja and Telliskivi are the better choice for a longer stay: apartments and small hotels at €60-110, wooden streets, the best cafés, and 15 minutes on foot to the Old Town. Kadriorg is quiet, green and tram-connected. Skip the cheap hotels out on Peterburi tee or Järve — you will spend the trip commuting for a €15 saving.
Things to do in Tallinn
Lai 50, at the northern end of the Old Town. A tight 258-step spiral leads to an outdoor gallery at 60 metres with the best view over the red roofs, the port and the sea; entry around €5, open roughly April to October in daylight hours. Not for anyone uneasy in confined stairwells.
Enter at Müürivahe 48 by Hellemann tower and walk the covered wall-top passage above the Sweater Wall knitting stalls; a few euros, short but the only stretch where you get the archers' view down into the street. Combine with the Nunna-Sauna-Kuldjala tower walk on the northwest side for more wall.
Weizenbergi 34 in Kadriorg park, ten minutes on tram 1 or 3 from the centre. Estonian art from the 18th century through the Soviet period to now, in a limestone-and-glass building cut into the hillside; entry around €12-14, closed Mondays. The Soviet-era floor is the most revealing hour you can spend in Tallinn.
Behind the Baltic station on Telliskivi street. The market has three floors of fish, berries, cheese and second-hand junk with a street-food level; the creative city next door has Fotografiska, design shops and about twenty bars and restaurants. Busiest Saturday lunchtime; most kitchens run to 10 or 11pm.
Peetri 5, in the old submarine shipyard on the sea about 25 minutes' walk north of the Old Town or a short bus ride. Estonia's best-known craft brewery with a smokehouse kitchen; mains €15-22, beers €5-7. The seafront quarter around it includes the Kai art centre and the Proto invention factory for children.
Terminals A and D at the passenger port, 15 minutes' walk or bus 2 from the centre. Crossings take about two hours and cost from €20-40 return if booked ahead, with several departures a day. Leave on the 7.30am boat and you get a full Finnish day; take your passport or ID card.
What to see
Hotels in Tallinn
No hotels are listed in Tallinn yet. The nearest ones are on the region page.
Every hotel we cover in Tallinn
- Orange Apartments Tower & Free Parking 4★ · 5/5
- Stay ÖÖD Rannamõisa with sauna 3★ · 5/5
- Puha Vaimu Kulalistemaja 1★ · 5/5
- The Park Mansion 5★ · 4.9/5
- Hyatt Place Tallinn 4★ · 4.9/5
- Nunne Boutique Hotel 4★ · 4.8/5
- Tallinn Apartment Hotel 4★ · 4.8/5
- Hektor Container Hotel 3★ · 4.8/5
- Hotel Regent Tallinn 5★ · 4.7/5
- Hotel Telegraaf Autograph Collection 5★ · 4.7/5
- Mövenpick Hotel Tallinn 5★ · 4.7/5
- Schlössle Hotel Small Luxury Hotels of the World 5★ · 4.7/5
- Swissotel Tallinn 5★ · 4.7/5
- Hessnery Hotel 4★ · 4.7/5
- Hestia Hotel Kentmanni 4★ · 4.7/5
- Palace Hotel Tallinn a member of Radisson Individuals 4★ · 4.7/5
- Vihula Manor Country Club & Spa 4★ · 4.7/5
- Iglupark 3★ · 4.7/5
- Tallinn Apartment Hotel Suites 3★ · 4.7/5
- Radisson Collection Hotel Tallinn 5★ · 4.6/5
- St Petersbourg Hotel 5★ · 4.6/5
- Hilton Tallinn Park 4★ · 4.6/5
- Nordic Hotel Forum 4★ · 4.6/5
- The Three Sisters Hotel 4★ · 4.6/5
Getting around Tallinn
Lennart Meri Airport is 4 km from the centre — tram 4 runs from the terminal door to Hobujaama and Viru in about 15 minutes, and bus 2 goes to the passenger port. A single ticket is €2 from the driver or €1.50 loaded onto a Ühiskaart smartcard, which costs €2 and works on trams, buses and trolleybuses. Taxis and Bolt to the Old Town run €8-15. Trains leave Balti jaam, on the western edge of the Old Town, for Tartu (about 2 hours, €12-15) and Narva; coaches leave the bus station on Lastekodu for Pärnu, Kuressaare and Riga. Inside the Old Town you walk — cars are largely excluded and cobbles wreck wheeled cases.
Questions about Tallinn
Two nights covers the Old Town, Toompea and one museum properly. Three lets you add Kalamaja, Telliskivi and Kadriorg without rushing, which is where the city stops being a film set. Four or more makes sense if you are using Tallinn as a base for Lahemaa National Park, an hour east by car.
Mid-range by European standards and no longer cheap. Reckon on €80-140 a night for a decent central double in summer, €25-40 a head for dinner with a drink, €5-7 for a beer on Raekoja plats and €4-5 a few streets away. Public transport at €1.50-2 a ride and museum entries around €12 are good value.
The neon places on Suur-Karja and around Vana-Turg that employ people to pull you in — measures are small, prices climb after midnight and stag traffic dominates. The costumed medieval restaurants on the square are pricey theatre. Telliskivi, Kalamaja and Noblessner have better drinks at lower prices with locals in them.
Easily. Tram 4 leaves from directly outside arrivals and reaches Hobujaama or Viru in about 15 minutes, from where the Old Town is a five-minute walk. Tickets are €2 from the driver in cash-free form or €1.50 with a Ühiskaart. Trams run from roughly 6am to midnight.
