Exploring Tallinn with Kids: A Family-Friendly Adventure. Do you like cheap flights, mid-week & mid-winter, city travel with a range of historical architecture, good food, restaurants & cafes & interesting museums? The ancient but tech-friendly city of Tallinn might be a good fit for you. So, read on if you want to know more about visiting Tallinn, Estonia.
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Is Tallinn Worth Visiting?
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is a city that effortlessly blends its rich history with a modern, family-friendly atmosphere. Nestled on the Baltic Sea, this enchanting European destination has a lot to offer for travellers of all ages, including families with kids.
From medieval buildings to interactive museums, lush parks and intriguing maritime attractions, Tallinn promises an unforgettable adventure for the entire family. In this guide, we’ll uncover the best ways to make the most of your visit to Tallinn with kids, ensuring that your trip to this charming Baltic gem is filled with wonder, learning, and treasured memories.
Get ready to explore Tallinn’s captivating blend of the past and present through the eyes of your children.
Tallinn With Wizzair: From Luton To Tallinn, Midweek
We visited during the February half-term school holidays when flights are on alternate days. We flew from Luton to Tallinn with Wizzair, choosing only hand luggage as an option.
There is another option to fly from Stanstead to Tallinn with Easyjet. Both flights leave at 06:20/06:30 AM! Our flight left Tallinn at 11:30 AM & arrived back in Luton at 13:30 PM.
Click here to see how much flights to Tallinn might cost you
Travel Around Tallinn Using Tallinn Cards
We purchased the Tallinn cards prior to arrival. These cards gave us unlimited access to all of the city’s transport (trams, buses and trains) as well as a huge list of museums. Much like the Helsinki Card, we didn’t have to spend any money on museum entry and we got a discount for ice skating.
A mini Tallinn card review: Absolutely worth every penny but we wish we’d had longer than 36 hours in Tallinn because it’s a brilliant city for children and teenagers. I’d describe it as a mini Helsinki but much better for kids.
Google Maps offline worked perfectly however, offline didn’t allow me to see the transport links in realtime, so I paid Vodafone for a 2-day pass (this is only a problem since Brexit). This enabled me to have all of the transport information, such as tram times & tram numbers and allowed me to follow the route in real-time.
Google Maps was fantastic at telling me which bus or tram to get on, where the stop was, if I had to walk or if there were connections. Public transport in Tallinn is amazingly good, modern & super easy to use.
We bought our Tallinn Cards prior to arrival so we could use public transport from the airport. You can buy yours by clicking the image below. IT will take you through to getyourguide where you can see prices.
Tallinn With Kids: Where To Stay?
Tallinn has a great range of luxury hotels & spa hotels but it also has a great range of budget-friendly accommodations and that’s what we decided to do.
We stayed in this hostel right in Tallinn’s Old Town. We booked a private room for 4 and a shared bathroom and it took us about 3 minutes to get to the old KGB prison cells and the Health Museum. The cost for two nights was €86.
That being said, if I’d booked a longer stay, I would have rented an apartment to save costs with eating out and cooking. You can use this interactive map to search across multiple platforms to find accommodation in Tallinn.
In Winter: What To Wear In Tallinn With Kids
It was 2023 when we visited with unprecedented warm weather. Although there were piles of snow on street corners and some of the lakes were still frozen, it was mild, sunny at times and relatively warm. We were expecting -4*c and it didn’t get lower than 1*c. However, there was a chilly wind and once the sun set it felt much colder.
I recommend taking lots of thin layers of clothes as well as a thick coat/jacket and hats and gloves. When you enter museums & galleries, you’re required to take off your coat, wet weather gear and bag and leave it in the locker area (perfectly safe as they often have locks or attendants). We found that the museums and galleries were also really warm & well heated and it made it so much nicer not to have to lug around your bag with you.
We took waterproof shoes andboots, not knowing what to expect, but most of the people in Tallinn were wearing trainers and sneakers. Dressing in black will help you to fit in too. I was wearing cream boots and a cream jacket and I felt a little bit visible.
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Tallinn For Children (Teens): Is Tallinn safe for tourists?
There is just SO MUCH for kids to do in Tallinn and our two had a huge amount of fun. Our three kids have now become two (one left for university) and they were 13 and 14 years old when we visited.
Please don’t judge me for this but I accidentally left my eldest teen at the airport and caught the tram into Tallinn. We were three stops away when we realised he wasn’t with us. This isn’t the first time it’s happened but they’re old enough to know they stay put if they get lost and SMS us. We sent him an SMS and told him to stay put. He was fine!
Very simply, we got off the tram, got another tram back to the airport and collected him! It took about 20 ish minutes. So, is Tallinn safe? I’d say extremely. We never had any problems, anywhere and we had an amazing time. Estonia is a largely affluent country and crime is relatively low.
Our Tallinn Top 13 Things To Visit
Here are some of the things that we loved:
- PROTO Invention Factory
- Estonian Maritime Museum & Lennusadama Muuseumipood (seaplane harbour)
- Townhall Pharmacy
- Energy Discovery Centre/Energia Avastuskeskus
- KGB Prison cells
- Estonian Health Museum
- Kadriorg Palace, Art Museum and Park
- Kiek in de kok Museum and Bastion Tunnels
- Ice skating (we paid extra for this but received a reduction by having the Tallinn Card)
- Tallinn City Museum
- Tallinn Town Hall & Square
- Foto Museum
- Estonian Food Museum
Things we didn’t get to see but that were high up on our list:
- TV Tower
- Botanical garden
- Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom
Top tips: before booking your flight just check that what you want to visit is open. Many museums were closed on Monday and Tuesday.
How Much Did Tallinn Cost Overall?
These were our basic costs:
- €86 hostel
- £171.92 flights
- £138 Tallinn cards
- Total £395
This did not include food which was not as expensive as Helsinki but more expensive than Poland. There is no shortage of places to eat and we especially liked 5Senses Tallinn and Restoran Trofe which serves Nordic cuisine.
Other Things To Do In Tallinn
Looking for guided tours or other things to do in and around Tallinn? Have a look here, click through and see other recommended tours as well.
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