Tallinn : Sleep
The last decade has seen explosive growth in Tallinn’s hotel sector – gone are the days when only a few grand old institutions or monolithic Intourist hotels dominated the market. Today there are nearly five thousand rooms available in the city – a thousand of them created during 2004 in response to the heavy increase in demand from tourists. There is already a broad range of hotels serving visitors of every type, with new sites appearing every spring. In winter many of these businesses lie empty, but in summer it can be impossible to find a room.At the top of the spectrum, Estonia’s hoteliers have taken advantage of Tallinn’s unparalleled medieval setting to create a handful of beautiful boutique hotels, which compete at the top end of the international market and do not come cheap; these include the city’s only five-star hotel and a historic renovated merchant’s house. The other way to enjoy the ancient city is to rent an apartment in the Old Town, available for either short or long stays from a range of providers. We mention a couple here. You will find that good quality hotels in the old part of Tallinn are more expensive than you might imagine, although prices remain reasonable – a decade of tourism from Helsinki has done its bit to level the market.
The gap in the middle market has been filled by a whole run of modern, high-quality developments just outside the Old Town – many of them opening in the last year or two. Because old Tallinn is small, nothing is very far on foot – and most of these new hotels are situated less than 5 or 10 minutes’ walk from the action. Estonia’s hotel decorators tend to favour the Scandinavian style, fashioning interiors in pine and neutral colours to create a simple, restrained elegance. Generally speaking, the cheaper you go, the more kitsch they come.
Estonia’s wealthier Finnish visitors and business people tend to favour Tallinn’s mega hotels, such as the SAS and Reval Olümpia – a little further from the Old Town. The gargantuan VIRU hotel, a Soviet rectangle that looms over the gates of the Old Town, is still a famous and popular destination for many Scandinavian tourists. For better deals you may need to look further afield in suburbs – try the pretty Kadriorg district, or dramatic Pirita on the coastal road. Most low-budget hotels have not been included in this guide.
The hotels have been rated according to their style, location and atmosphere. Style ratings take into account the furnishings and the appearance of the hotel from inside and out. Location ratings are based on how central and convenient they are for shops, restaurants and tourist attractions. Atmosphere ratings are based on the feel of the place: it might be fantastically furnished and stylish but feel like a morgue, or it might be done up like a 1970s service station motel but still manage to create a great ambience.
Prices quoted here are per room per night, and range from a double room in low season to a suite in high season. High season runs effectively from the beginning of May through to the end of September, and includes New Year, which is regarded as the top season.
