Tallinn- Tour or Not?

I agree. Do Tallin on your own. Do the free walking tour, get a great local beer at Karja Kelder, and buy some of the best chocolate you have ever had at the Kalev factory store. Walk the streets after your tour and get lost and explore. This is an amazing city. And the only truly affordable port In the Baltic.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Do the free walking tours take you inside the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and Toompea Castle? We're planning on taking a taxi there first, unless the walking tours take us inside as well.

We went into the Cathedral, i don’t remember going into the castle

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

My husband has some difficulty walking for long distances.

How far from the ship is the "little train" that was mentioned?

Is it possible to get a taxi that will take us from the ship to the Old Town?

How difficult is it to find a taxi that will go from the Old Town back to the ship?

Do the free walking tours take you inside the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and Toompea Castle? We're planning on taking a taxi there first, unless the walking tours take us inside as well.

There is not «castle» as an attraction on its own and as being a complete medieval fortress building. Like in Edinburgh, the Akershus in Oslo or in many other cities/towns in Europe. In front of the medieval part in Tallinn is the barock stile Parlament building from 17th century which probably has strict visting rules and you cannot just walk in. This is the building called Toompea castle («loss» in Estonian language). But people always think there is a medieval castle somewhere there because of some angles of the photos taken of the city wall. There are the tower Pikk Herman and maybe another medieval Tower and the wall with it’s viewing platforms. The tour visits the platforms.

Our walking tour didn’t go into the parlament building or any of the medieval towers. Nevsky cathedral was closed for renovation that day, so couldn’t get inside. Please, hold your expectations low, the inside of the cathedral is not as «grand» as the exterior. If taking the tour the guide will probably mention the very controversial nature of this Cathedral and where it’s situated. If your cruise goes to St Petersburg (probably does) then you’re most likely going to see significantly better Russian orthodox architecture than the Toompea one.

My husband has some difficulty walking for long distances.

How far from the ship is the "little train" that was mentioned?

Is it possible to get a taxi that will take us from the ship to the Old Town?

How difficult is it to find a taxi that will go from the Old Town back to the ship?

It’s easy to take taxi from the ship to the old town (the lower part) and a little longer trip if you need to take to the beginning of the upper part. You can also ask taxi to take you all the way around the old town to the upper part Toompea and start your touring there. Let the driver take you next to a park Hirvepark (Deer’s park) in the Toompea street. Then you tour Toompea (the upper) part first, get the views and get to the lower part of Old Town from there.

It should be easy to find a taxi from the outside parts of the Old Town. In the outer end of Viru street there is a taxy stand and definitely some waiting.

LillOslo,

Thank you so much for your suggestions! I really appreciate your help!

I took a TJ Tour of Tallinn and was glad I did. We had a small group of 10 people and our wonderful guide, Maria was able to maneuver us around the crowds while relating the history of Tallinn and also telling us many of folk stories of the area. There were 3 large cruise ships and 4 river cruises ships there that day making the small walled city extremely crowded. With Maria leading the way we were able to see everything and beat the larger groups in most spots. We also had time to spend on our own. I used TJ throughout our Baltic cruise and they were wonderful to work with and all the tours were exceptional.

We also did a tour of Talinn. It was not expensive, because the town is small, but worth every penny. In fact because of the tour, it was one of our favorite stops. The woman who led the tour gave us her family's personal experience of the **** occupation. History really came alive for my family speaking with this tour guide.

Nevsky cathedral did not allow photos inside. It was grand on the outside, except for some scaffolding. We went there first by ourselves via taxi; then met up with Marco for the free walking tour of Tallinn. He took us back to the cathedral, which by then was much more crowded. The parliament building is right there by the cathedral.

Here is a link to some pictures from our DIY.

 

https://msknortherneurope.shutterfly.com/pictures/382

Wonderful photos!

We also did a tour of Talinn. It was not expensive, because the town is small, but worth every penny. In fact because of the tour, it was one of our favorite stops. The woman who led the tour gave us her family's personal experience of the **** occupation. History really came alive for my family speaking with this tour guide.

Can you share the tour company you used and the name of the guide? Sounds wonderful. Thank you!