We Went to Tallinn Again Over the Easter Long Weekend

In Finland, Easter is a very suitable long weekend for going out.

Friday is Good Friday, Monday is Easter Monday, and together they make exactly four days. Many shops close, and the city also becomes much quieter than usual.

At times like this, the thought comes very naturally: should we go stay somewhere else for a couple of days?

This time we did not make any complicated plans. Some friends happened to be free, so we went to Tallinn again together.

I say "again" because this was not our first time going. We also took the ferry there last year, and from time to time we think about taking another trip to Tallinn. This year, Easter happened to be the perfect occasion, so we decided to drive there again with friends.

A high point in Tallinn Old Town, Kohtuotsa viewing platform, where you can overlook the whole old town of Tallinn. It was raining that day, but the view still held up well.

For people living in Helsinki, Tallinn really is a very convenient short trip. You drive to the port, board a Tallink ferry, and arrive in about two hours. There is none of the tension of catching a flight, and it does not require overly complicated preparation. It feels more like a very light change of scenery.

Driving Abroad Is Actually Easier Than It Sounds

This time, we drove our car directly onto the ferry.

After arriving at the port, you basically just line up and slowly follow the stream of cars forward. The whole process was not as complicated as I had imagined. Instead, it felt oddly fascinating.

The Tallink check-in gate. If you just follow the flow of cars, you will get onto the ship.

You are really just driving as usual, but then the same car boards the ferry with you and, two hours later, appears in another country. That experience feels pretty special.

The facilities on board are fairly standard, with restaurants, a cafe area, and seating areas. If the weather is good, you can also go out onto the deck and look at the sea. For traveling with children, a ferry ride of around two hours is also quite manageable and not too exhausting.

What We Did After Arriving in Tallinn

This time we did not rush through a long list of attractions. We mostly picked a few places that were easygoing and suitable for visiting with children.

The first place we went to was the Energy Discovery Centre.

This place was converted from an early-20th-century power plant, the former Tallinna Elektrijaam, and it feels quite different from the more polished and quiet kind of museum. It preserves a lot of real industrial equipment, and you can see pipes, gauges, and all kinds of structures related to power generation.

There were also some activities on the top floor of the museum. I did not manage to take many photos there, so I asked AI to Photoshop in the lightning inside the Faraday cage ))

There are also some hands-on interactive installations, so if you are visiting with children, this kind of place is more interesting than simply reading display panels.

After that, we went to Tallinn Old Town.

Tallinn Old Town is the kind of place where you do not need to do much research in advance. You can just walk in and start wandering around. Cobblestone streets, colorful buildings, churches, and towers all come together to create a very typical medieval old-town atmosphere.

Buildings like Alexander Nevsky Cathedral are easy to spot while walking through the streets. Another place I think is well worth visiting is Kohtuotsa viewing platform. From there, you can get a very direct view of the rooftops and urban layout of the entire old town.

The next day, we went to the Seaplane Harbour Museum.

In fact, this museum is built around the historically significant Lembit submarine.

The most striking part here is the submarine that you can actually walk into.

The interior of the submarine is exactly the same as it was when it was retired, and it has been preserved so completely that I half-suspected it could go back to sea after just a bit of maintenance.

You can go inside the submarine, and it gives off that vague but impressive feeling of "I don't fully understand it, but it seems incredible."

Outside the maritime museum, there is also an icebreaker called Suur Tõll.

This ship is a steam-powered icebreaker built in 1914. It looks heavy and solid overall: a black hull, a red waterline, and a very blunt bow. One look tells you it was not built for speed, but for breaking through ice.

The structure inside is also very straightforward: multi-level engine rooms, dense networks of pipes and valves, and all kinds of machinery, all designed around one question, how to keep this ship moving through ice. The nice thing about a place like this is that it does not need many abstract explanations. The structure itself already says everything, and for children it is also easier to understand than simply reading descriptions.

The inside of the ship is dominated by mechanical structures, but somehow it all looks a bit like a scene from Resident Evil.

Tallinn and Helsinki

One very obvious impression from this trip to Tallinn was this:

Overall, it is quite a bit cheaper than Helsinki.

This is especially true for restaurants, coffee, and some very ordinary everyday spending. The prices are all noticeably lighter.

The difference is not just that it feels "a little cheaper." It is the kind of difference where, when you order something or pay the bill, you really notice: oh, so this is the price here.

So every time we come back, our last stop is usually a local supermarket where we stock up, at least enough to earn back the ferry tickets.

The two cities also have quite different vibes

Besides the prices, Tallinn and Helsinki also feel noticeably different in character.

Overall, Tallinn feels a bit newer. Even though ChatGPT tells me Helsinki is more modern than Tallinn, my own impression is actually the opposite.

Why We Would Still Go Again

This trip to Tallinn did not have the freshness of a first visit, nor was it the kind of big trip that requires careful planning.

But precisely because of that, it feels more like the kind of short trip that can genuinely become part of everyday life.

For people living in Finland, this is exactly where Tallinn's convenience lies. On a long weekend like Easter, you drive to the port, board the ferry, and two hours later you are in another country, with different streets and a different rhythm. People naturally begin to relax.

It is not because it is overwhelmingly spectacular, but because it is convenient enough and just right.