Tallinn ~ Travel

High rise buildings looking over the Old Town

Tallinn /ˈtælɪn/ is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of 159.2 km2 (61.5 sq mi) with a population of 414,752. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It is ranked as a global city and has been listed among the top 10 digital cities in the world. The city is a European Capital of Culture for 2011, along with Turku, Finland.

The old town

Notable headquarters

Among others:

Ø NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE)

Ø Estonian Air has its headquarters in Tallinn.

Ø Skype has its software development centre located in Tallinn

Ø Ericsson has one of its biggest production facilities in Europe located in Tallinn, focusing on the producing of 4G communication devices.

Ø Statoil has announced moving the group's financial centre to Tallinn.

Tourism

Since its return to independence, improving air and sea transport links with Western Europe and Estonia's accession to the European Union have made Tallinn easily accessible to tourists.

Estonia has made rapid economic progress since independence and this is reflected in local prices. Although not extortionate, neither are prices as cheap as in other former Eastern Bloc countries.

The original Old Thomas (1530)

The main attractions are in the two old towns (Lower Town and Toompea) which are both easily explored on foot. Eastern districts around Pirita and Kadriorg are also worth visiting and the Estonian Open Air Museum (Eesti Vabaõhumuuseum) in Rocca al Mare, west of the city, preserves aspects of Estonian rural culture and architecture.

Panorama of the central Town hall square (Raekoja plats)

Toompea – Upper Town

This area was once a separate town (Dom zu Reval), the residence of the Chivalry of Estonia, Roman Catholic bishops of Tallinn (until 1561) and Lutheran superintendents of Estonia, occupying an easily defensible site overlooking the surrounding districts. The major attractions are the walls and various bastions of Castrum Danorum, the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (built during the period of Russian Empire, the church was built on a site that formerly housed a statue of Martin Luther) and the Lutheran Cathedral (Toomkirik) and the old Estonian Royal Palace now the Parliament building.

Panorama of Tallinn's City Centre

All-linn – Lower Town

This area is one of the best preserved old towns in Europe and the authorities are continuing its rehabilitation. Major sights include Raekoja plats (Town Hall square), the town walls and towers (notably "Fat Margaret" and "Kiek in de Kök") and St Olaf church tower (124 m).

The mixture of old and new is seen everywhere in Tallinn

Kadriorg

This is 2 kilometres east of the centre and is served by buses and trams. Kadriorg Palace, the former palace of Peter the Great, built just after the Great Northern War, now houses (part of) the Art Museum of Estonia, presidential residence and the surrounding grounds include formal gardens and woodland. Restored 2001–2004 with a large donation from the Swedish Government

The new residence of the Art Museum of Estonia: KUMU (Kunstimuuseum, Art Museum) was built several years ago.

St. Olaf's church was the tallest building in the world from 1549 to 1625

Pirita

This coastal district is a further 2 kilometres north-east of Kadriorg. The marina was built for the Moscow Olympics of 1980, and boats can be hired on the Pirita River. Two kilometres inland are the Botanic Gardens and the Tallinn television tower.

Part of Lower Town city wall.

Transport

City transport

The city operates a system of bus (62 lines), tram (4 lines) and trolley-bus (8 lines) routes to all districts. A flat-fare system is used. Payment for single tickets is made either by pre-purchase of tickets at street-side kiosks or by a purchase from the transport vehicle. Monthly cards are available by registering through the national ID-card.

Kadriorg Palace

Air

The Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport is about four kilometres from Town Hall square (Raekoja plats). There is a local bus connection between the airport and the edge of the city centre (bus no. 2). The nearest railway station Ülemiste is only 1.5 km from the airport.

The construction of the new section of the airport began in 2007 and was finished in summer 2008.

There has been a helicopter service to and from Helsinki operated by Copterline and taking 18 minutes to cross the Gulf of Finland. The Copterline Tallinn terminal is located adjacent to Linnahall, five minutes from the city center. After a crash near Tallinn in August 2005, service was suspended but restarted in 2008 with a new fleet. The operator cancelled it again in December 2008, on grounds of unprofitability. On 15 February 2010, Copterline filed for bankruptcy, citing inability to keep the company profitable.

Viru Gate, entrance to the Old Town. One of two remaining towers that were once part of a larger gate system built in the 14th century

Ferry

Several ferry operators, Viking Line, Linda Line Express, Tallink and Eckerö Line, connect Tallinn to

Ø Helsinki (Finland)

Ø Åland (Finland)

Ø Stockholm (Sweden)

Ø Rostock (Germany).

Passenger lines connect Tallinn to Helsinki (83 kilometres north of Tallinn) in approximately 2–3.5 hours by cruiseferries.

St. Catherine's Passage

Rail and road

The Edelaraudtee railway company operates train services from Tallinn to Tartu, Valga, Türi, Viljandi, Tapa, Narva, Orava, and Pärnu. Buses are also available to all these and various other destinations in Estonia, as well as to Saint Petersburg in Russia and Riga in Latvia. The Go Rail company operates a daily international sleeper train service between Tallinn-Moscow.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral built in 1894–1900

Tallinn also has a commuter rail service running from Tallinn's main rail station in two main directions: east (Aegviidu) and to several western destinations (Pääsküla, Keila, Riisipere, Paldiski, Klooga and Kloogaranna). These are electrified lines and are used by the Elektriraudtee railroad company. The trains are a mixture of modernised older Soviet EMU's and newly built units. The first electrified train service in Tallinn was opened in 1924 from Tallinn to Pääsküla, a distance of 11.2 kilometres.

The port of Tallinn, seen from the tower of the St. Olaf's Church

The Rail Baltica project, which will link Tallinn with Warsaw via Latvia and Lithuania, will connect Tallinn with the rest of the European rail network. A tunnel has been proposed between Tallinn and Helsinki, though it remains at a planning phase.

The Via Baltica motorway (part of European route E67 from Helsinki to Prague) connects Tallinn to the Lithuanian/Polish border through Latvia.

Frequent and affordable long-distance bus routes connect Tallinn with other parts of Estonia.