THINGS TO DO IN TALLINN

 – 1. THE OLD CITY – 

Tallinn’s old town is just marvelous!  I walked around there for days shuffling down cobblestone paths on Tallinn’s narrow streets, staring at medieval cathedrals and sunny squares full of people.

Though the city was quite bombed during the WW2, Tallinn’s old town is astonishingly well preserved. It was built between the 15th and 17th centuries and for this reason it is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list!

You don’t really need a map nor an itinerary to discover it. Just going by foot everywhere and stumbling on interesting things is fulfilling enough. Go eat some local food in one of the countless restaurants, stroll the narrow streets checking the cute stores around.

When walking around the Old Town do not miss Raekoja Plats, Toompea Hill, Viru Gate and Raekoda (Town Hall).

Read below to know more about where to eat amazing food in the city

 – 2. GO UP THE SAINT OLAF’S CHURCH TO ENJOY THE VIEW – 

After walking around those pretty streets of the Old city, you would like to take a look at those pointy spires and red-tiled turrets from above, wouldn’t you?

The best place to do so is St. Olaf’s Church (Oleviste kirik). You can see the view to the whole city from there, absolutely stunning! Be prepared to climb some stairs, at the end, it is worth the view!

NOTE: It might be better to go to the tower of St Olaf’s church right after the opening (10 a.m.). There is only one spiral staircase to go up and people obviously need to go both directions, up and down. Thus, if you are visiting in the middle of the day, you will have to often stop and let people who go down pass.

ENTRANCE: 2 EUR

– 3. ESTONIAN HISTORY MUSEUM – 

“No way, seriously, she want me to go to a history museum?” – you might think.

Trust me on this one, the Museum of the History of Estonia is not as boring as it sounds!

On the contrary, the Museum of History of Estonia  is one of the most interactive museum I have been to. They really did make a great job making the museum as engaging as possible. You can touch and play with some displayed items while learning cool stuff about the national history (something that I really appreciate!), not only stare at text.

Just to give you an example of how the museum is made: there is a cabin, in which you go inside. It first takes a picture of your face and pastes it in the body of a character (someone from the history of Estonia). In my case it was a Viking woman. You will see a small movie that YOU starred in, where YOU choose what is going to happen next (answering Yes/No questions). At the end, the cabin will tell you if your character would survive in that era doing the actions you chose to do. How awesome is that? I would survive! 

Do go there, it is interesting and fun. I have spent at least a couple of hours in the museum alone.

NOTE: Every last Thursday of the month the entrance to the museum is free.

ENTRANCE: 5 EUR – full price, 3 EUR – for students

 – 4. KADRIORG PALACE AND KADRIORG PARK – 

Estonia was ruled by the Russian emperor Peter the Great from 1710.  He has built a beautiful palace for his wife Catherine in Tallinn (ok, actually the one he has built for himself in Petergof, Russia is way more beautiful, you absolutely have to visit it!). Nevertheless, the park is nice to walk around and the palace itself is worth checking out too!

HOW TO GET THERE: Kadriorg is a bit outside from the Old Town, but it is very easy to get there by public transportation, Tram Nº1 goes right to its entrance. The price of the tram ticket is 1,60 EUR for adults, and just 80 cents for students. You should buy a ticket directly from the driver (there is a little drawer where you put the money, and the driver will give you the tickets and change in return)

ENTRANCE: 5,50 EUR (3,5 EUR reduced fare)

There is also the KUMU Art Museum in the park. While I am not that much into contemporary art, I did not go, but I have heard it is interesting. You can check it out at least from the outside, the building is very special.

 – 5. LENNUSADAM – SEAPLANE HARBOUR – 

Last, but definitely not least, you should check out the Seaplane Harbour museum!

As Tallinn is an important port city, as I mentioned above, it has A LOT to show you about its fleet.

Even if I am a typical girl in this sense and am not interested in boats and submarines, this museum is absolutely amazing, because it lets you see and touch things as they were before!

No boring texts included!  Definitely one of the best marine museums in the world!

Did you ever have a chance to crawl through a huge 600-ton ones working submarine from 1936? See how the crew member sleep, cook, eat. How the engine and the torpedo rooms looks like? And how tiny and narrow everything is?

Guess what, you totally can do it in the Seaplane Harbor museum!

It was used during the war time and it had 30 people as the crew. It is right in the middle of the museum exposition and it is so huge, you won’t miss it!

Except the jewel of the museum, the submarine, you will see the history of boats in a nutshell. You will get to know everything about boat style starting atthe wooden simple fisherman boats and eskimo-style canoes used in icy waters to some modern big ships.

Don’t forget to go outside of the museum to the seafront (just 50 meters away) and walk inside the real boats, it is included it your ticket! You will be able to see the rooms of different crew members class (from high ranking officers to janitors), go down to the engine floor (incredibly big) etc. In fact, some of the boats are operating boats, so there is a dispatcher, ready to leave at any moment.

NOTE: Take the free guided tour when you go to the marine museum, it is also included in your ticket. While I cannot find information about it on their official website, it exists, believe me! You can ask your hotel to call them and ask about the precise time of the tour. There are a couplea tours a day in Estonian, Russian and English. I really recommend taking that one, it is quite short, about half an hour, but it gives a great general overview about the museum.

ENTRANCE: 14 EUR  – adults, 8 EUR  – students. Combined ticket (Seaplane Harbour museum and Maritime museum) – 16 EUR . You can use your ticket the next day as well.

NOTE2: You can buy a combined ticket for 2 museums, but, honestly, I didn’t like the second one too much, it is nothing special compared to the first one, but you can learn about the city’s fortifications and have a nice view from Fat Margaret tower.