40 Best Local Tours in Tallinn

My husband Pat and I opted for the private tour option since we only had a week in Tallinn, and without a rental car, we wanted to make the most of the trip by getting outside the capital for a bit. We took two private tours with Traveller, and neither one disappointed. On this tour, Sten picked us up promptly outside our AirBnB and gave us plenty of options of what we could go and see. Our response was "all of it." For the entire day (we left at 9am and got back around 5:30), we kept seeing one thing of beauty after another. Sten was so so knowledgeable about the history of Estonia, it's Occupation, it's subsequent Independence, what life is like now, and so much more. The highlight for me was climbing around the former limestone quarries and the flooded prison. If you're not afraid of heights, or, as he put it "to go mountain climbing in the country with no mountains", this is a real treat. Also the Soviet plane, now the home to a model airplane club, is surreal as you sit in pilot and Gunner seats and get transported back in time. We didn't only talk about the past, though. We talked hobbies, politics, culture, movies, etc. It really left us feeling like we'd made a friend in Estonia. I will absolutely recommend this company to anyone visiting the country.

Our guide Andres did a fantastic job of exploring the area around Tallinn as well as providing a detailed tour of the old town. Andres brought out the history, the culture and soul of the Estonians.

He shared his perspective of the history of his country.The area outside of Tallinn was as fascinating as the old town. The Festival area, the Memorial and the Maritime Museum were meaningful, important sites.

Kudos to him for bringing out the spirit of the country and allowing us to fall in love with the country and the people.

Just do it!

Interesting, informative and enjoyable food tour. From markets to restaurants to food stalls...tgis tour takes you on an Estonian/Russian exoerience. Highly recommend.

I am pleased as punch that we participated in this tour. We had originally intended to spend a few days exploring Lahemaa National Park and its various natural landscapes and manor houses. Unfortunately we needed to trim our itinerary by a few days, so this tour offered an ideal way to experience the park’s highlights. As an added benefit, it offered a delightful contrast to the city without having to drive far from Tallinn!

Our guide began by setting expectations with a brief outline of the day’s itinerary and expected return time - always a great way to start. At each stop, she provided an overview of the larger context—the geology underlying the Jägala waterfall, the history behind the Baltic German manor houses—before providing further specific details and engaging with questions to those interested. I very much enjoyed seeing the contrast between the unrenovated Kolga manor, with its massively looming (crumbling) pillars, set against the restored pretty-in-pink Sagadi manor, surely the backdrop for many Estonian weddings.

The extended nature walk in Viru Bog was an absolute highlight. Perfectly structured, she led us to the observation tower, with an amazing view over the technicolor pools, then picked up the car and met us at the other end of the trail, allowing some self-paced walking. The more adventurous could dip their toes in the water or even swim. Our guide called our attention to several types of plants found there, which we could again spot and examine during the unguided part of our hike. It is rare these days to get to enjoy such beautiful solitude, walking along a boardwalk, surrounded only by the evocatively twisted pine trees and still, dark water.

For lunch, we stopped at a simple tavern in Võsu, a tiny village of about 500 that was “one of the USSR’s hot resort towns.” Our guide told some stories of coming there as a young girl, and how crowded the area was with Ladas. Again, a highly authentic experience that encouraged our small group to interact and helped us see life outside “the big city.”

The second nature walk included some time in the quiet forest and on the sandy, rocky coast. Along the way, we saw a traditional fishing village and tested out a traditional 6-person swing—an unexpected workout! Photo opportunities abound on this tour, and the exercise is a nice bonus. You are guaranteed to learn several things about Estonian history, culture, or nature that you would otherwise miss.

Tallinn Motor Paintball was the surprise activity for my weekend stag do. I can honestly say it made for the best weekend of my life! Every single one of the nine lads who came along absolutely loved it. We are still sharing war stories days later and it provided so much fun.

Right from initially entering the ex military base, with old vehicles and concrete bunkers setting the scene, we were filled with excitement. Combining vans and other vehicles with paint balling is a genius idea and none of us had experienced anything like it. The scenarios were fast paced, challenging and exciting. They ranged from capture the flag with vehicle insertion and reconnaissance to a hostage rescue using a van and smoke screen. Of course the final challenge ‘shoot the stag’ provided a lot of entertainment.

The location was excellent providing varied battle areas in the woods and amongst bunkers. The vehicles were modified to shoot out from and insert or extract troops on the various challenges.

The gentleman running the day and his assistant were very good humored and had a lot of patience. He explained all the scenarios well and ensured we knew what we were doing and got the most out of each mission. I could go back tomorrow and do it all again. We all had such a great laugh. The bus ride back was great recounting so many moments from the day.

Thank you so much for such a memorable and enjoyable day. I couldn’t recommend Tallinn Motor Paintball more!

Zoran
Operation Stag Tallinn

One of the purposes of my trip was to understand and get to know more about this "digital Nomads Hub" which is called Tallinn. And I was not disappointed. George was the perfect guide to tell about its startup scene since he is involved on every day basis on its development, I mean, as a UX/Service Designer, he knew about the most representative start ups, its story of success, mixed with local story about specific politics that allowed the upbringing of digital innovations in Tallinn.
He explained details about the e-residency program, how nearby countries started to look at Tallinn, or the flux of highly skilled professionals that landed in the city to make a living by freelancing, pitching projects or enjoying their stay at the many co-work places.
Stories of success and failure, of design and innovation, politics and social/economical change.
If you want to know the very same core of this wonderful city, besides exploring its beautiful sight seeings, book this tour. I recommend it strongly.

:D!!!!!

The tour company (Tallinn Traveller) normally has a 4-person minimum, so I was very grateful that they still ran this tour even though there were only 2 of us. Our guide, Marju, was very kind and knowledgeable. I enjoyed the sights, especially since I had done the Lahemaa tour the day before, so I was a bit worried that it might be too similar, but the two tours complemented each other very nicely. This tour focused more on culture and religious history and life outside of the capital. I especially enjoyed that you could get up close & personal with all of the sights, especially the Padise monastery. I would highly recommend this tour to learn more about Estonia outside of Tallinn, just be aware that if it's not the tourist high season, it may not be offered.

I had an absolutely fantastic time running with Toomas. He asked me if he could bring his dog and I said of course, and that was a great decision- his dog is awesome, and kept me entertained the whole run. We saw large parts of the city I never would have been able to see in such a short trip, and it was beautiful. We ran at a great pace for me, with a couple quick water/snack breaks (and a couple photo breaks), and he was easily able to accommodate my requested distance. Usually I just try to figure out a route on my own when I'm in a new city, but this was great- I didn't have to spend any time looking at my map trying to figure out where I was or deciding if somewhere was safe, etc. Highly, highly recommend doing this.

I had a great time on the Lahemaa tour with Hindrek. He is very knowledgeable about Estonian history and culture, and I never expected to learn so much on this tour -- I thought we were just going to go out into nature. The Baltic German manor houses were fascinating, while the nature areas were nice too. I never expected I would call a bog beautiful! The bog walk was the best part of the trip. (For those, like me, who were wondering: you don't need any special shoes or gear for this; there is a wooden walkway over the bog, so you won't get dirty at all.) Thanks for everything, Hindrek!

This tour was the exact reason why I came back to Tallinn, after a summer trip to explore the city itself.
For 55 euro, this tour is a bargain. I am speaking for myself of course.

Our guide was excellent, fluent in English and very up to date with all our questions. Getting out of Tallinn to see what other beauty Talinn has to offer is a must. You will see a waterfall, a gorgeous bog (a type of swap), abandoned Russian industry and the cutest museum you will ever see. At that particular museum we were served a delicious meal, prepared by a true viking. :)

Highly recommended!

Our guide, Katrin, was waiting for us a the meeting point which was an encouraging start. She was extremely friendly and her English was excellent as was her knowledge of the local history and culture. She put this across in such an interesting manner that no guide book could ever hope to convey. It was such a pleasure to hear about so many aspects of Estonia and Tallinn's history and sights that would have ordinarily just passed us by. I couldn't recommend this tour highly enough and wish Katrin all the best with her studies at Durham.

The saturday morning run was really awesome. Toomas took me through windy and snowy Tallinn for a 14km run. Because of the heavy wind we started running with tailwind to the Soviet memorial, and while we warmed up we went back through Kadriogh Park, ran along the palace, through the embassy neighbourhood, to the song festival stage en through the harbour.
We ran at a convenient pace (11km/h) and Toomas told me a lot about the city, the origins and the Soviet history.

I really recommend this trip for people who love to run.

I truly enjoyed the tour.

It provided me with a lot of useful information on what the startup scene in Tallinn looks like - what industries are the most popular, what are the most important hubs, how and where to find the investors...

Even more important, this tour has motivated me to keep hustling on my own startup and work hard towards becoming a huge company one day.

For all people with the entrepreneurial mindset, if you are coming to Tallinn, this tour is a must-do thing.

This was your was a fun way to see the city and get a personalized tour to learn about the history and current state of Tallinn and Estonia. Our guide, Leah, was knowledgeable and flexible sharing both the country/vity’s History but her own perspective as well. We had fantastic conversations over meals as well as feeling comfortable to stop along our rides to take photos or pop into a shop. If you only have a day to explore this wonderful, vibrant city, this tour is a must!

Our guide, Andres, was amazing! He explained everything very well and answered all of our questions! We visited the Jägala waterfalls, the viru bog, the abandoned Hara submarine base, the kasmu maritime museum, a fishing village and the Sagadi manor. We also had a very tasty lunch at the kasmu village (not included in the price but totally worth it). Everything was great! I definitely suggest this tour to every body!

When you visited Tallinn, and only see the Old Town, New Town and as such in regular guidebooks, you have seen only the half aspect of the city, or maybe you missed 80% of it. What you should really see is its startup scene, which has been the most leading tech community in the world. George, the tour guide, was very informative and helpful, that made my experience profound. Highly recommended!

Booked a surprise dinner for my husband's birthday, he truly enjoyed the experience and the warmth of the captain and his family.

The captain asked for him to come up and was really nice of him, he was thrilled beyond words!

Thank you for making it super special since he was working in Talinn and we were apart.

Keep the good work up, memories am sure he will cherish! Thank you so much

The staff were helpful, the games were fun. I think it was probably our favourite part of the trip to Tallinn.
Can't wait to come back and do it again.
The last club we went to had an issue with us going in and out for some reason, which i remember was a slight problem but i can't really recall the details because, well, alcohol ;)
Anyway thank you so much! see you next time! :)

Myself and 3 friends had a great day with Kurt and especially enjoyed visiting the abandoned town. It's a long day, for sure, but you get to see so much of the country, so it's totally worth it. Standing across the river from Russia was another highlight.

The vehicle was modern and comfortable and Kurt was an excellent guide, taking us to a nice spot for a delicious lunch too!

The staff and tour guides were all extremely helpful, easy-going, charismatic, and freely shared their knowledge and cool facts with the group. Everything about the day was memorable, and I would say the highlight of my trip. I will definitely be going back to some of the places we visited, such as Käsmu and Sagadi, the next time I'm over in the beautiful land of Estonia.