Local tours in Tallinn
Tallinn Old Town Walking Tour
The tour guide introduces the country and its people, the history of Tallinn and the Old Town, Tallinn's number one attraction. The tour of the Old Tallinn begins at Toompea (Dome Hill) where Tallinn was founded in the 11th century. We will visit the viewing platforms to enjoy the panorama of Tallinn and view to the sea and port area.
During our walk back to downtown we pass the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral with magnificent onion domes, Houses of the Parliament of Estonia, the defence towers Tall Hermann and Kiek in de Kök (Peep-into-the Kitchen) and Fat Margaret that are the reminders of the mediaeval citadel.
In Lower Town, the tour passes the Great Guild and the Brotherhood of the Blackheads, the Town Hall Pharmacy that has been in business for 500 years and ends with a visit to historical Town Hall at the Town Hall Square.
Tour to Kadriorg and KUMU Art Museum
Tour to Kadriorg and KUMU takes you to the Kadriorg park residential just few kilometres outside the city center. On the way to the KUMU art museum you pass the baroque style Kadriorg Castle and the residence of the President of Estonia.
The Kumu (KUnstiMUuseum) Art Museum is a modern multifunctional art building opened in 2006. It is the National Art Museum of Estonia and one of the most outstanding cultural projects in Estonia which contains exhibition halls, a lecture hall offering diverse facilities and an educational centre for young visitors and for art lovers. KUMU serves not only as a museum but as a laboratory where diverse ideas emerge and develop. These ideas examine contemporary visual culture and its function in the society. In 2008 KUMU was awarded the title of the Best Museum of the Year in Europe. During a 2 hour tour KUMU building and Estonian art exhibited there (17th-21st century)will be introduced to guests.
Visit to Rocca al Mare Open air Museum and Estonian-style Lunch
Estonian Open Air Museum was founded in May 1957 in Rocca al Mare. It is set in a magnificent forest park at the seaside, 7 km from the city centre and belongs together with the Old Town of Tallinn to the one of the most favourite tourist sights of Tallinn.
The Open Air Museum owns the largest collection of national architecture in Estonia. Museum’s primary goal is collecting and researching countryside architecture. 72 old village structures have been delivered to the museum and rebuilt on location. The museum displays fine examples of Estonian farmhouses and folk costumes that enable you to explore how Estonians lived centuries ago.
Mysterious Bastions Tour
The numerous and mysterious passages are located inside the bastions laying around the Old Town of Tallinn. Passages were constructed simultaneously with the building of bastions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The hidden passages were constructed inside the bastions in order to shelter the men, ammunition and supplies but especially to hide their relocation from the enemy. The passages also served as observation posts to spy the enemy's activities in mining explosives.
The exhibition of "Kiek in de Kök and Bastion Passages" opened in March 2010 takes the visitor to a time journey that begins in 1219 and offers experience, information and entertainment. With the help of innovative video- and sound-effects and means of multimedia the birth and evolution of Tallinn, the history of town fortifications and the most significant military events are introduced to the visitor. The time train in the bastion passages takes the tourist to 2219. The other part of the passage display concentrates on the history of the passages.
Tour to Lahemaa National Park
The full day trip to Lahemaa Nature Reserve 50km east of Tallinn on the Gulf of Finland offers you the chance to see the natural beauty of Estonia’s countryside, and see some more of the country’s cultural history. The cultural heritage within Lahemaa National Park goes back as far as 800 BC in the ancient burial barrows of the local Finno-Ugric tribes at Jõelähtme.
We will visit the 18th century manor houses of the German landowning families in Palmse and Sagadi. Both manors with their parks, greenhouses, stables and other buildings have been furnished and decorated in the style of 1820s, the period when the German landlord class was at its height.
To compare with the lifestyle of the Baltic barons, we will then see Estonian rural life of the centuries past by visiting fishing villages that date back more than 500 years. At the idyllic captains’ village of Käsmu you can see something of Estonia’s seafaring past.
The wild beauty of the scenery of Lahemaa is worth the visit in itself, with its bays, forests, bogs, limestone cliffs and huge erratic boulders. The park is rich in fauna and flora.