We are only going to be in Tallinn for 1 day from our cruise. Is it possible to avoid tours and walk from the ship to Old Town on our own?
Thanks for your advice.
Florida
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Absolutely! It is an easy walk from the harbor into Old Town. There is so much to see in Old Town but if you don%26#39;t do a tour or do some homework, you won%26#39;t know what you are looking at. So you may want to pick up a guidebook or good tourist map before hand if you want to skip the tour.
FYI: I am a Floridian as well (living here in Tallinn) so feel free to PM me if you have any questions or need suggestions for stuff to do.
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We also will be in Tallinn for a day (10 am - 6 pm) during the cruise in July. We%26#39;d like to get good city photos from Patkuli %26amp; Kohtuots viewpoints before the crowd, what time of the day should we get there? How long dose it take to get there by foot? Thank you.
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Thank you so much for your help. Please, I will take any advice you have to offer on what is best to see in such a short time. %26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; What part of Florida?...Venice for us.
Thanks again for your advice.
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If you really want to see it all, or at least a good overview, I would recommend a tour (Citybike offers a good walking tour...I have taken it and then given the same basic tour to friends visiting the city. See citybike.ee). But if you really want to avoid the tour, these are some of my favorites:
1. Be sure to see the town hall square in Old Town and Vana Toomas. However, skip the cafes on the square cause the are very busy. Go down Vene street to Vene 8...there is a quiet courtyard with a cafe called Cafe Pierre...they have an excellent hot chocolate and cappucino.
2. Restaurants: if you want a nice lunch, I recommend Beer House (more traditional food), Elevant (if you like Indian Food) or African Kitchen. These are 3 of my favorites in the Old Town area.
3. You have to see: Alexander Nevsky cathedral, Oleviste Church, Niguliste Church (this one is worth going into). It is also a nice view to climb Vana Toomas if you are not claustrophobic or have trouble with stairs (there is no elevator...lol!)
I am from Orlando...the happiest place on Earth!
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01 Parkers,
I%26#39;m on a cruise in July and also only in port one day in Tallinn. On the Cruise Critic web site, look for the Ports of Call Board for Northern Europe. Someone has posted a proposed self-guided walking tour from the port through Old Town, with pictures and descriptions of the buildings. It looks pretty good and is in PDF format, so easily downloadable.
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The walking tour and good information can be found at the Brentjes family page (I have no affiliation).
www.brentjes.com
The walking tour of Tallinn is at
http://www.brentjes.com/tallinnwalk.html
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In addition to KD%26#39;s overview - Olde Hansa is a good place for lunch. It offers unique medieval dishes. Yes, it%26#39;s tourist oriented, but it%26#39;s one of a kind experience. And tastes good.
In addition to the birds-eye views from Toompea (Patkuli etc; and they are breathtaking), St Olaf%26#39;s church (Oleviste) offers a beautiful view. in I5th century St Olaf%26#39;s used to be the tallest building in N-Europe. But you must be up for climbing.
Off the beaten track - walk along the town wall from Suur-Kloostri street to Tolli street (on Kooli, Gümnaasiumi and Laboratooriumi streets respectivley). Some towers are open and you are welcome to visit, take a look at the Ukranian church and enjoy a cup of coffee at the Horse Mill (that%26#39;s where you%26#39;ll end up). If you like the milieu, then have lunch around the corner at Le Chateau restaurant (Lai street 21). It is in musketeers%26#39; style gives you a taste of North-European Baroque. In the same building complex you%26#39;ll find Tallinn City Theatre (you can pop in their main building on Lai 23 and see what a medielval merchant%26#39;s house looked like). It should actually give you a rather good feel of Tallinn without crowds and extensive climbing.
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Some other options for lunch are Hell Hunt and Karja Kelder which both offer traditional Estonian pub grub and good beer. I thought the food and beer (particularly the %26#39;Tume%26#39;) were better in both of these than the Beer House which felt more like a Bavarian theme pub.
For something different you could try Kompressor which serves cheap and filling pancakes.
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I too will be doing a 1 day tour off a cruise ship...so thanks for the advice in this thread. Is there a guidebook you can recommend?
PS - I was just in the Happiest Place on earth!
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Well, be prepared for a sharp contrast...this is NOT the happiest place on earth. The people can be nice once you get to know them but alot of them are aloof at first. Some of the restaurants at Old Town (Olde Hansa, Peppersack, Elevant) usually have friendly staff because they are used to dealing with tourists.
There are some online links about Estonia and Tallinn that you may find useful...I have them on my website at the bottom including the Tallinn webcam:
anamericanextrovertinestonia.blogspot.com/
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