Hi
I%26#39;m coming to Estonia for Easter, and will fly back to the UK from Riga a week later. Since I have the time and love trains, I plan to do Tallinn to Riga by train. Problem is, I can%26#39;t understand the Estonian rail site - the plan is to hop off the ferry from Helsinki in the early afternoon of Easter Monday, and get a train as far as Valga.
This raises two questions - is there an afternoon train to Valga? If there is, does Valga have somewhere close to the station to stay for the night? Even tripadvisor comes up short in telling me that, so hopefully there is someone here who knows.
I guess another question is - if not Valga, is there somewhere else on the line south from Tallinn I should consider stopping for the night?
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I%26#39;m afraid there are some bad news. It looks like the repair works on the Elva-Valga railroad are not quite finished. That%26#39;s probably the reason, why you couldn%26#39;t find the train to Valga on the website.
You could take the train from Tallinn to Tartu and continue on a bus to Valga. Tartu would be a good place for spending the night (and looking around a little). The last trains from Tallinn to Tartu leave 17.58 and 19.17.
I suppose, you should check if the train goes from Valga or Valka. It%26#39;s a twin town, Valga on the Estonian side, Valka on Latvian. It%26#39;s no problem really, it%26#39;s a small town.
For the bus schedule, see www.bussireisid.ee. It%26#39;ll also provide scehdules to Riga, if the other idea proves to be too complicated.
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For lodging in Valga, the town has a web page, but only in Estonian.
Säde külalistemaja (guest house) looks like it is near the station (Jaam in Estonian).
Contact information is provided and generally they all speak English. Also can read and write e-mails in English.
For information on railroads, this site is fantastic:
http://www.seat61.com/
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BTW link for Valga accomodations is at:
http://www.valgalv.ee/et/turistile/Majutus
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As mentioned, there are no direct trains to Valga from Tallinn - but, if you want to keep on the train as much as possible which covering ground from Tallinn to Riga then you can get a train to Tartu and a connecting bus to Valga (www.bussireisid.ee). The Estonian rail site is not in English (even though there is a tab for it) but they seemed to have just changed it, it%26#39;s clearer now, and the thing to find the Tallinn Tartu timetable is to click on %26#39;sõiduplannid ja hinnad%26#39; (timetables, prices) on the right-hand column and that will lead you to your route choices. If you want to stay overnight in Tartu, (lots of accomodation on www.tartu.ee )the 12.30pm bus the next day will get you to Valga in time for the Riga train at 17.29, but you will have few hours to kill then and it gets you to Riga quite late. There%26#39;s very early trains to Riga from Valga in the morning (5.26 and 10.27) (www.ldz.lv) which you could take if you stay in Valga - you can pay in Estonian kroon or in Latvian lats on board. There is a hotel across the road from the train station called Hotel Sõde I believe, but I have not stayed there and it looks somewhat iffy. There%26#39;s a posh hotel on the edge of town as well, called the Metsis - newly renovated and possibly worth the extra and a bus or a cab can bring you back to the train station (either to Valga, or Lugaži in Latvia, as from that hotel the distance to either train station is negligible). Link for hotel: http://www.hotellmetsis.com/. For a time short enough to stop to check a couple of things out, I would probably choose Valga as things are more conveniently located. There%26#39;s a great museum there on the main street, ground floor is art, and the two other levels are a nature museum and a permanent exhibition of the Valga/Valka divide and the towns history under Soviet rule. While staying in Valga you have the added bonus of visiting the twin towns and seeing the marked difference in culture and development between the two last/first towns in either country.
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Thanks so much for the replies - unfortunately I have just caught up with the last two, and really wish I%26#39;d had the last one to guide me.
As it is, I am in Tartu and glad of it, it seems a very nice place and can get a bus which will get me into Valga at 9:45, with the train south to Riga at 10:27. This raises one final question - where in Valga does the bus drop off. I%26#39;ve been told 5 km from the rail station, but suspect/hope that is old information, dating to when the trains didn%26#39;t come over the border from Latvia.
Thanks.
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The bus drops you at the train station, which is also the bus station.
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