Autumn trip to Tallinn, Estonia

Wow Tallinn. One of my favorite trips of 2026. Beautiful panoramic views, nature, history, museums, walkable city. What’s not to like? This capital has everything.

We stayed 5 nights in Tallinn, and felt we never ran out of options.

First Day

Arriving at the Tallinn airport and going to the city is super easy. Exiting the airport you arrive straight to the T2 tram which takes you to the city. You can just buy your ticket with your contactless card onboard.

The tram took us very close to our hotel called Hyatt Hotel, close to the sea harbor, and I personally loved it. Our flight was very early from Copenhagen, so we arrived early with a full day in front of us.

We were too early for the check-in, so left our suitcases in storage and walked to the city old town.

Old Town

Tallinn’s medieval old town immediately reminded me of some Germanic old gothic town. C.’s top priority as a true Dane was to go to the legendary place where the Danish flag fell from the sky and led the Danes to victory against the Estonians. Apparently, there’s quite some history between the two countries. The name of the capital, Tallinn, derives from a Latin derivation and archaic Estonian “taani linna”meaning “Castle of the Danes”. Who knew?

Close by, you will find the Danish King’s garden with three monks statues in it. Continuing our walk, we admired the orthodox church right in front of the Estonian parliament.

Across to the church, behind the Estonian parliament, you can find a park leading you to “Pikk Hermann” tower, part of Toompea Castle. At the top there is the national Estonian flag hoisted every morning at sunrise together with the national anthem and lowered at time of sunset. This is one of the main symbols of the national government in force. The unique colors of the flag represent: blue for the sky, white for hope, black to remind of the countries black past.

Finally, after reaching the top of Toompea hill, we found several beautiful panoramic views. My personal favorite the view from Khoutsoutsa viewing platform.

Lunch

It was lunch by then, and we went to a pub where I had traditional Estonian elk meatballs with mashed potatoes and berries, and C. had a pumpkin soup. The food was ok, but the atmosphere was nice.

We walked to find another view point, and from there reach the “Tallinna tahis”, a good spot to take a picture of the Tallinn sign.

Going down the steps you will reach Freedom Square. A monument dedicated to the deaths of Estonian War of Independence, an aftermath of World War 1.

Weather was cloudy and a bit rainy, but we trudged on. We reached the entrance of the Old Town at the “gates of Viru”. Adjacent to the doors there’s also a nice flower market. Nearby, we walked down St. Catherine passage, and ended up at the center square again. It was the afternoon by then and decided to go back to our hotel to rest for an hour before heading out for dinner. We went to a Belgian restaurant called Bruxx. I ordered the Entrecote and C. had the Salmon. We recommend it.

The restaurant was located in the Rottermann neighborhood. A modern neighborhood with contemporary architecture. I really liked this neighborhood and their choice to keep the exposed bricks on many buildings. There are lots of trendy coffee places, restaurants.

Second Day

The next day, C. saw some type of viewpoint structure from our hotel room window and we were curious to investigate what it was. It was a beautiful viewpoint overlooking the harbor. We later found out, it was “Tallinna Linnahall”, an old concrete amphitheater built in the Soviet era for the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. From the small detour, we went ahead on our planned itinerary to walk to the Kalamaja neighbourhood.

We walked all the way by the water, passing in front of an old prison, now turned museum, and reached the Sea Harbour Museum. We didn’t go as we are not very nautical people, but if you are into ships this is the place to go! The walkway had very modern buildings with a beautiful sea view.

We reached the Kalamaja neighbourhood and immediately noticed the characteristic wooden houses. Continuing our walk we reached the famous “Balti Jaama Turg Market” and tried an Estonian brand of chocolates called Kaleo. It tasted just like regular chocolate. Close by we had lunch at a vegan cafe’. We really enjoyed our lunch here, a simple and light “ceasar (soy) salad”. We recommend it.

With now renewed energy we walked to the Fotografiska museum.

Fotografiska Museum

I cannot say I have been to many photograph museums, but we were pleasantly surprised. We liked the fact that photographs provide more background on the subject of the photograph which is very insightful. The first exhibition was on Vivian Maier which is apparently a famous 20^th century photographer, taking lots of pictures of the middle class society throughout the 50-60s. The second exhibition was on a photographer, Inta Ruka, who took photographs from a poor village in Latvia. It really puts your life into perspective reading the stories from the people living in the village. (see some of the pictures here). There was also a very interesting film following Inta and her work in the latvian village. There was a particular scene where there was an old lady living in a house in the middle of nowhere with no electricity and no running water. After the exhibition, it was drizzling a little bit, so not ideal to stay outside.

Afternoon snack

We decided to walk to a cafe’ and have an afternoon break. We looked up some good cafes and decided on La Boulangerie where we had a nice hot chocolate and chocolate cake.

They have lots of nice things, and home made pastries. I was a bit surprised by how expensive the cakes were. They also have an exclusive Neapolitan coffee maker imported from Naples, which offers more control on how the coffee is made. After walking all-day long we were ready to go back to our hotel.

Third Day

Not much happened the next day. It was raining, so our plan was to stay indoor. We headed to the KGB museum at the top of Viru hotel. Apparently, this was the only tourist hotel for foreigners during the Soviet Union, and the KGB had installed listening devices in all the rooms and was at the top floor listening in to all the bugged rooms. Adjacent to the hotel, there is Viru mall. We walked around the mall and found a really big bookstore with a large variety of books, including english books. I found a very interesting book here called Estonian Lessons by Ross Allen, who was the UK ambassador for Estonia. Definitely a good read to learn about Estonia. Skimming through the book, Estonia has one of the most efficient tax systems and world class education.

After passing way too much time in the bookstore, it was time for some afternoon tea. We went to a chocolate museum, mixing business with pleasure. Surprisingly the museum was free, so after some history about chocolate history it was time for us to buy ourselves some well-deserved treats.

Since it stopped raining a little bit and we were not that hungry, we had to plan our dinner. We read we had to try these Estonian pastries from a particular bakery in Kalamaja. Unfortunately, we had not planned this so well and it was a 45min walk away in the rainy weather.

Fourth Day

It was finally good weather and luckily we were heading to Kadriorg park, and see the beautiful Autumn colours. From our hotel, we were also close to the Old City Harbour so took a purposeful detour to walk through it.

The park was exceptionally beautiful. I was surprised by how big the park was, it was huge. 70 hectars! A true summer palace for a Tsar of Russia.

Walking through the streets we also saw this cute community library. People can come and hang out here and read a book under the trees. How cool is that?

We continued walking and reached the Kumu Art Museum which is located inside the park. The museum has 3 floors of exhibitions:

•Permanent exhibition of Estonian art 18^th century

•Second exhibition from 1945 to 1991

•Last floor on some contemporary art

There were also some temporary exhibitions on the Sami people, indigenous tribes which slowly disappeared and received injustices from the governments at the time.

After the museum, we went back to sit on the park benches and enjoy the sun. We saw the President’s house and Kadriorg Palace.

It was time for lunch and we took the tram to go back, ending up at a cafe called Dot Cafe. We enjoyed it and recommend it for a quick lunch.

Nature

We still had the whole afternoon left, so we thought we had seen enough of Tallinn an wanted to explore the outside of the city a bit more. We took a commuter bus to go to Prati, which is 20km outside Tallinn where the beach is. It was very windy, but it was nice to walk through the smells of the pine cone forest and feel the piercing ocean wind a little bit. We didn’t have time, but close by there is also a memorial for victims of Communism.

It was time to go back. For dinner we booked a table at an Italian restaurant called “Controvento”. It didn’t make sense to go to the hotel and back out again, so ended up yet again at another mall to look at shops. I was very surprised by how similar they were to danish prices. One of my favourite danish shoe brands is Ecco and I was surprised they were the same price as in Denmark! The same went for other brands like Gant, Hugo Boss, etc. Our hunger was growing and we managed to go a bit earlier to the restaurant. We enjoyed our dinner by having some first course pasta dishes.

Fifth Day

The next day was also an exceptional weather day. After a quick tour again of the old town and enjoying the panoramic views in a different light, we went off to take our bus to take us a little bit outside Tallinn again to visit the tv tower.

The tv tower this year celebrates 100 years of history. It was nice to see some interesting facts, especially at one point there was a siege in 1991 where some radio operators locked themselves in the tower to prevent Soviets from blocking free media.

We enjoyed the breathtaking panorama view, and also went on the outside balcony which was extremely windy!! Time was running out, as we had to catch our flight at 3pm. Back to the hotel to check-out and take the tram which took us directly to the airport in under 20 minutes. I love cities that have such an easy way to get to the airport. There weren’t too many people in the airport since it is quite small, but there’s also a gym if you want a workout while you wait for your flight!

Conclusion

I absolutely loved Tallinn and will recommend it to all my friends and family. I was happy we stayed many days as it allowed us to enjoy the city at a slower pace without having to rush through each agenda item like a typical tourist. Hope you liked the post, lest us know if you have been to Tallinn and what your thoughts of the city are!