Helsinki Day Trip to Tallinn, Estonia: 9-12 Fun Hours

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Funnily enough, one of the best things to do in Helsinki, Finland is….to leave hahhaha. No no, I’m not being shady, Helsinki is actually only two hours away from Estonia by ferry, so it’s very common (and encouraged) to take a little day trip to Tallinn while you’re in the area. I was legit only in Helsinki for three days, but since the city is on the more lowkey side, two days is a solid time in my opinion.

So yes, I fully endorse taking a day trip to Tallinn! As I soon found out, Tallinn is…another very lowkey city, and actually one of the best things to do in Tallinn is…to also leave and take a day trip to Helsinki hahha. I don’t know why but that just tickles me so much.

Anyways, enough rambling! Here’s an overview of what I did on my day trip to Tallinn, Estonia, as well as a few local recommendations that I didn’t get to, but I feel like could really flesh out your trip if you have the time!

Getting to Tallinn

Before we get into the juice of it, I want to preface these by saying: taking a day trip to Tallinn is not cheap at all. AT ALL. Although the ferry is only two hours one way, a round-trip ticket is about €100 or $117 USD. In my opinion, that’s not thaaat bad considering the experience, but again, it’s not cheap and something that most folks will have to budget into their plans.

With that out of the way, what are the deets you need to know??

So the ferry I took to Tallinn is the MyStar. I believe there are other options, but MyStar was the one I saw most recommended by other travelers and our hotel staff. The price ranges slightly depending on what time you leave/return. Of course, the more popular times (late morning and afternoon) are slightly more expensive while early mornings and late at night are a little cheaper. Depending on how much you want to do while you’re in Tallinn will determine how long you should aim to stay.

Personally, I took the 10am departure from Helsinki (I think it was actually like 10:10 or 10:15-ish, but you get the picture) and my return ferry was for 7pm. Overally, I think it was a suffiecent amount of time to get the jist of Tallinn, but I wishhh there was a 8pm one just so I could have stayed longer at a bar I found (more on that later). They do have a later one that returns to Helsinki at 9pm, but I initially didn’t want to stay up that late. Looking back, I might have opted to actually both arrive and depart later for a day trip to Tallinn, but everything in hindsight, yanno.

Now more about the ferry, it is actually closer to a full-blown cruise ships. There are cafes with food, caffiene, and even alcohol on board. There’s also a huge multi-level duty-free shopping area. There is a video game and arcade area, as well as a small play structure for younger kids. There’s even a corner with gambling slot machines!

You need to arrive at least 10 minutes early because, like on a plane, they close boarding in order to get ready for departure. I’d recommend arriving at least 20 minutes early though so you can have a better pick of seats, especially if you’re traveling during the busy time slots. That said, we arrived for both of my ferries pretty much on the 10 minute mark EXACTLY and were able to get seats together. They have check-in kiosks at the terminal, but it’s so much easier just to check-in online and use the QR code to swipe yourself in.

Two hours later, you’ll line up with the crowd to exit the cruise and slowly filter into Tallinn. There’s no customs or immigration check, but I did notice there were officers watching us file into the country. A sprinkle of folks were pulled aside for random quick questioning, I saw maybe three, but everyone chosen looked European (who were also the majority of those traveling). So from my point of view it at least didn’t seem racially targeted.

But then again this was just my first and only time taking a day trip to Tallinn, so idk. Coming back, I didn’t see anyone pulled aside. So once you’re off the ferry, it’s time to start your day trip to Tallinn.

Day Trip to Tallinn

Alright we’re kicking it off! Chances are, you’re probably arriving mid-to-late morning. If you took the 7am ferry and you arrive at 9am…I suppose my next suggestion remains the same. Start off your day trip to Tallinn with brunch/early lunch! Aside from avoiding the overpriced (imo) food on the ferry, you can get your belly full at a local spot. In my case, it was raining and I just really needed to warm up.

Thankfully, there are a lot of cafes in Tallinn, so you can really go anywhere. I dragged my boyfriend to Cafe Maiasmokk, which happens to have the title of the oldest cafe in Estonia.

He didn’t care, but he did appreciate that they had plenty of seating (there’s a floor upstairs with lots of tables as well). They open at 9am, so even the early day trippers can visit. It’s also probably less busy in the morning since most of the tour buses arrive to town around 10am. Overall they have a great selection of drinks and a pretty solid breakfast/early brunch menu. I’m not much of an eater in the morning, so I opted for a chai latte that was better than any I had in the Nordic countries….but then again, that bar is very low.

No shade.

There’s a full bathroom downstairs so it’s a good first stop on your day trip to Tallinn. From here, your itinerary could really go anywhere, it’s not that big of a city, but more than likely you’ll be spending the first half of your day in Old Town.

I hate to sound cliche, but really the only thing to do in Old Town is to stroll around and look at the old stuff. Tallinn is one of Europe’s best preserved medieval cities, so you’ll see that in the buildings and even the very layout of Old Town.

If you are someone who is perfectly content in strolling, by all means go forth and be merry. There are a lot of shops to dip into and buidlings to photograph. Keep an eye out for amber, since it’s a big industry in the Baltic region. The three countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania actually contain about 90% of the world’s amber. Just be wary of shops selling fake amber, usually resin. Unfortunately, I don’t have tips for telling fake amber from real amber, but I’m sure someone on the internet does.

However, if you are like me and get bored of mindlessly wandering, I have a few suggestions to help add a destination to your day trip to Tallinn journey. The first, and pictured below, is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Aleksander Nevski Katedraal). It’s stunning. I saw the top of it from across Old Town and immediately started down the winding (and lowkey confusing) paths to get there.

As the name suggests, it’s a church. More importantly for me on a cold and dreary day, it was also very warm inside. Out of respect, please keep your voice to a minimum while inside. The area open to visitors is not big, probably the size of a large living room, so it’s more of a quick stop. Still, the history behind it is pretty interesting.

Built over a century ago when Estonia was still part of the Russian Empire, the cathedral was meant to be a dominating symbol of that occupation. To add salt to the wound, it was dedicated to the Russian Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky and was built on the exact site a statue of the German monk Martin Luther (from the Lutheran branch of Protestant Christianity, not MLK Jr haha) was supposed to go. The church has actually faced multiple petitions from Estonians to be demolished, but so far it has avoided that fate.

From there, I needed a refreshing pick-me-up, so I continued my day trip to Tallinn and walked over to the only OakBerry in the region. If you’ve never had OakBerry, just know it’s amazing. Probably my favorite açaí chain in the world, which…makes sense because they are a Brazilian brand. The owner is actually from Brazil, though he’s been living in various European countries for the last 10 years (if I’m remembering that correctly). He gave us some more nature-focused recommendations for Tallinn, though since it was raining we wouldn’t be able to do them too comfortably.

More on those later though.

After chatting it up with him for almost half an hour (we had just gotten back from a whirlwind South American trip that included Brazil), we spent some time window shopping in the local mall.

Honestly, we were mostly just avoiding the cold.

Eventually though, we meandered our way back to Old Town, popping into a few stores and picking up a magnet as a souvenir. I also came across a cool art gallery A-Galerii, though just a heads up it’s expensive (and high quality!). That said, feel free to just go in to browse, there’s no expectation to buy the art or jewelry pieces. Around 2pm-ish, I was ready for lunch.

The “thing to do” on a day trip to Tallinn is to eat at a medieval restaurant. It goes with the whole theme of this old walled fortress town. The restaurant we ate at was Restoran Olde Hansa, right in the center of Old Town. When we went, one of the staff members was outside to get customers, and we went with it!

When I tell you the staff are all FULLY COMMITTED to the bit, they seriously might as well be from the Middle Ages. As a former theater kid, I really loved every second of it. I just wish I was better at improv (and ancient European history) so I could’ve kept up with their quips.

The menu mostly follows an olden Estonian diet, with lots of game-y meats (and lentils for non-meat eaters) and I was actually surprised by how many items they had on the menu. I ordered a deer soup that came with sourdough and my boyfriend ordered a lentil salad (much prettier to photograph haha). If I’m honest…the taste was fine. But that’s usually the case with any themed restaurant, so I’m not surprised. For the experience, I thought it was fun and tasted good enough.

Now you probably still have a few hours left in your day trip to Tallinn. If you’re exploring Old Town, feel free to have at it. It is definitely still lively in the afternoon, at least in the summer when the sun is still out. However, if you’ve seen enough of the strolling part of Old Town, I’d suggest breaking up the itinerary with a museum (or two, depending on how much time you have).

If you don’t want to venture to far out, then there’s always the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments. We came across it just walking around Old Town, with the most bored teenage employee I’ve ever seen freezing their butt off holding the promotion sign, but we didn’t end up going in. It has pretty bad reviews on Google, lol, but after a quick browse it seems like a lot of the frustration comes from it being similar to other medieval torture museums around Europe.

I’ve never been to a medieval torture museum, but I don’t imagine they’d be different to begin with. But hey, manage your expectations if you thought it would be some kind of revolutionary expose.

However, if you don’t mind a longer walk or grabbing a Bolt rideshare, then I suggest going to Fotografiska Tallinn for the more art-inclined. They have some great exhibitions on modern or contemporary photography and art. Even if you’re not particularly art-inclined, it’s still a nice stop. After a few more cafes, it was finally time for what I was most excited about during my day trip to Tallinn.

6pm hit, and we were off to the next stop.

We were going to visit one of the best bars in the world. Whisper Sister is a speakeasy in Tallinn that’s…actually kind of hard to find. Let me be the first to verify your sanity, don’t worry, the address in Google Maps IS correct.

Pärnu mnt. 12, 10148 Tallinn, Estonia.

It’ll look like an abandoned storefront, but if you look at the doorhandle, there is a small gold placard. On it, it will have a number and that’s it. The number is an Estonian phone number. If you have a European phone plan, call the number on the placard and one of the staff members will come up to let you in. Howeverrr, if you don’t, like me, the call will not go through.

Thankfully, the world has WhatsApp!! Just WhatsApp the number asking to visit and they’ll also come up to get you. They are very responsive so you shouldn’t be waiting more than a few minutes.

Y’all, no joke, I absolutely loved this bar. Not only do they have the perfect blend of cozy and plush decor, but their drink menu is incredibly innovative and even better tasting. I appreciated that they had a range of mocktails as well. The bartender was super friendly and talkative, even when we were the first ones in for the night, though as the hour went on, more people began to arrive and the energy was really fun and chatty and everyone just wanted to share experiences and have a good time.

Unfortunately for us, our return time was at 7pm, so about 6:40pm we checked out, grabbed a Bolt, and headed back to the ferry terminal. It almost made me wish we had opted for an overnight stay so we could spend more time at Whisper Sister. Alas.

Conclusion

Our day trip to Tallinn ended just as it was starting to ramp up. But all good things must come to an end. If I did have more time, obviously I would have probably stayed at Whisper Sister until they closed hahah. However since we had to cut our time short, the bartender did recommend a bar in Helsinki (Chihuahua Julep) so we could continue the fun.

But two hours after the ferry…I was just ready to go to bed lol.

Other than that though, if I had more time in Tallinn, and the weather was great, I would love to check out some of the outdoorsy recommendations the owner of the OakBerry recommended like Saula Siniallikad and the Rummu quarry.

So what did you think of this day trip to Tallinn? If you’ve ever been, is there anything on this itinerary that you also back? What would you recommend for first time visitors? Let me know your thoughts on a day trip to Tallinn in the comments below!

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