Tallinn Old Town

Tallinn's old town survived the twentieth century largely intact, which in this part of Europe is close to a miracle. What is left is a walled medieval trading town split into two levels: the merchants' lower town around the market square, and Toompea hill above it, where the rulers sat and looked down.

What you actually see

• Town Hall Square - the working heart of the lower town, ringed by merchant houses, with the only surviving Gothic town hall in northern Europe on one side.
• The town wall - around two kilometres of it still standing, with roughly twenty towers. Several sections are walkable.
• Toompea - the upper town, reached by two stepped lanes, with the Alexander Nevsky cathedral, the parliament building and the viewing platforms that produce every photograph you have seen of the city.
• Merchant lanes - Pikk, Lai and Katariina käik, where guild houses and workshop courtyards survive at street level.

When to go

Summer for open squares and terraces, but that is also when three cruise ships can dock at once and the main lanes fill up. Late September through November is quiet and atmospheric. December brings the Christmas market to Town Hall Square, which is small, old-fashioned and genuinely good.

Early morning is the trick in any season: the lower town is nearly empty before nine.

Honest expectations

The core is compact - you can cross it in fifteen minutes - and the streets immediately around Town Hall Square are heavily geared to visitors, with the pricing to match. Walk two lanes out in any direction and it becomes an ordinary, lived-in city again.

The cobbles are original and brutal on ankles and wheels alike, and the climb to Toompea is short but steep. Both stepped lanes are historic and not step-free.

Nearby

Kalamaja, just north of the walls, is the wooden-house district where the city's newer cafés and the Seaplane Harbour maritime museum sit - fifteen minutes on foot and a completely different Tallinn.