My partner and I spent 3 amazing nights in Tallinn back in September 2019. Tallinn was top of my bucket list for sooo long, and we finally made it! I can’t wait to share our amazing weekend with you all, but just a quick little disclaimer, the whole point of this trip was to relax and have some much needed down time, not to cram in as many sites as possible!
Day 1:
We landed in Tallinn at around midday and after checking in to our Airbnb, we headed straight for the old town. We’d seen so many photos and videos of Tallinn, that we thought we knew the whole layout before we even went! But our imagination didn’t even come close to the reality! Tallinn boasts the most stunning old town I’ve ever been to! It’s medieval charm still remains to this day, and the Estonians have really made the most of it, by building around it. It is definitely still the focal point of Tallinn. Me and my partner are massive football fans so headed to find a sports bar. We thought we would struggle to find anywhere showing English football, but literally every bar we found had a huge range of sports to choose from, along with an extensive, cheap cocktail menu. We could have just stayed in the bars all day! Well, we pretty much did actually! We made our way from bar to bar and made the most of the laid back atmosphere. It was nice to just sit and wind down whilst watching the world go by. I can’t remember the last time we did that on a city break! We were so shocked at how quiet the bars were, but I imagine in the summer, they would be rammed. We could tell that they were really focusing on stag and hen dos, but everyone seemed really laid back and welcomed.
Day 2:
After a bit of research we decided that there were 2 main sites we wanted to see; the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and the Kohtuotsa viewing platform. These 2 sites are very close together, so it was very easy to see these within around an hour. The cathedral is huge! It’s such a pretty building, but unfortunately it was closed for works the day we went. The platform gave us the perfect view of the old town and beyond, and even out on to the sea! We spent the rest of the day making our way through the winding cobbled old town streets, and exploring the markets in the main square. There was also a big performance on with a stage set up in the middle of the square. We planned to visit the KGB museum on top of the Viru hotel, but just a word of warning, you do need to book this in advance! You can’t just walk round by yourself, and the tours do fill up fast. We were quite disappointed that we missed out on this!
Day 3:
Tallinn is in such a great location, and there are so many different day trips that you can do! We chose to do a trip to Helsinki, Finland. It was only a 2 hour ferry trip away, and cost just £25 per person for a return ticket. We chose Tallink, as they had the best time table. I will also do a separate post on Helsinki, for anyone who is intrigued about the Scandinavian gem.
A lot of people have asked me just how expensive Tallinn is. Well this all depends what you’re looking for. I would say that Tallinn is more expensive than the other Baltic capitals, but much cheaper than Scandinavia. Just bare in mind that Estonia is in the Euro, so prices will be higher than other countries in Eastern Europe. Surprisingly, we found that the closer to the old town we were, the cheaper the prices of food and drink. We think this could be down to there being so many bars and restaurants, that they all have to compete with each other. Just to give you an idea of costs, a meal in a pub or bar, such as a burger or fish and chips would cost somewhere in the region of 7-10 euros, a beer, spirit or wine is around 3 euros and most places have 2 for 1 cocktail deals at around 4 euros. Obviously, you can expect to pay more in a restaurant, so Tallinn can be as cheap or as expensive as you make it. I will say though, if you do take a day trip to Finland, although it is the cheapest Scandinavian country, prepare yourself for much higher prices!
In terms of things to do, there is a Tallinn City Card which covers most of the museums, sites, public transport and also money off in some bars or restaurants. The card will set you back 29 euros for 24 hours, 43 euros for 48 hours and 52 euros for 72 hours. So if you plan to see and do as much as possible, it is worth it. Something to note, if you are travelling on to St Petersburg or Helsinki, this card will also get you a discounted rate for the city cards in those cities too.
Getting to and from Tallinn is pretty simple too! You can easily arrive by ferry from Helsinki, Stockholm and St Petersburg, and by land from Latvia and Russia. Tallinn airport is also very well connected to most of Europe. We travelled from Luton for £35 with Wizzair. Air Baltic and Ryan Air also keep Tallinn airport well connected throughout Europe.
Accommodation costs can vary quite dramatically in Tallinn, so I would always recommend using Airbnb. We stayed in a studio just outside of the old town, right near the port. It was quite small, but big enough for the 2 of us for 3 days, and the location was perfect. This cost us around £50 per night. It was basic and small, but did have everything we needed, including an en-suite bathroom and a small kitchen.
I literally cannot recommend Tallinn enough. If you’re looking for a fairy tale city where you can either chill out and relax or do plenty of medieval site-seeing, then Tallinn is definitely the place for you! Out of the 3 Baltic capitals, Tallinn was by far our fave! I really do think that the photos speak for themselves though, so I’m going to end this here and let you see for yourself!
