1 destination · 10 things to do

Estonia

Tallinn is the most complete medieval city in northern Europe and one of its most surprising capitals. Inside nearly two kilometres of towered walls, the Lower Town of merchants and guilds still gathers around a Gothic town hall and its square, while the Upper Town of Toompea looks down from its limestone cliff with onion domes, a Lutheran cathedral and viewing platforms over a sea of red roofs. Step outside and the story jumps forward: a submarine and an icebreaker in the vast concrete hangars of the Seaplane Harbour, the Soviet decades told honestly at Vabamu and in the KGB cells on Pagari Street, a tsar’s Baroque palace and a national art museum in Kadriorg Park, and the converted railway works of Telliskivi, where the city now eats, drinks and shops. This guide books the timed tickets worth booking, points you to the free views that beat the paid ones, and matches you to the right hotel, from a five-star in the old telegraph office to a waterpark hotel the kids will remember and a good-value base beside the railway station.