Getting to Marguse (Otepää)
Marguse Holiday Center is located in the Southern part of Estonia. Here is a link to the map. There will be a coach in conjunction with the ESSCaSS-NODES summer school from Tallinn to Marguse via Tartu on August 24 16:30 and on August 29 from Marguse to Tallinn via Tartu. For those attending only the NODES Workshop, there will be a bus from Tallinn to Marguse on Thursday, August 28, leaving Tallinn Airport at 18:00. If you arrive from abroad, please let the organisers know which plane/ferry you arrive with and where you plan to join the bus.
Bus from Tallinn to Marguse on Sunday, August 24, 2008:
15:45 Institute of Cybernetics at TUT (Akadeemia tee 21)
16:05 Mere st. (Center of Tallinn, bus stop next to Kanuti aed)
16:20 Bus Terminal (Autobussijaam)
16:30 Airport
19:00 Tartu (Vanemuise parking lot)
20:00 Marguse
Bus from Tallinn to Marguse on Thursday, August 28, 2008 has been cancelled. Please contact esscass08@ut.ee for instructions how to get to the venue.
Preliminary bus schedule from Marguse to Tallinn on Friday, August 29, 2008:
14:00 Marguse
15:00 Tartu
17:30 Tallinn
If you arrive at a time where there is no scheduled bus to the venue, there are buses from Tallinn to Otepää via Tartu. The schedule is available at http://www.bussireisid.ee. The Tallinn bus station is located at Lastekodu 46. It is reached from the airport by bus No. 2, the travel time is 8 min (timetable). You are travelling from "Lennujaam" to "Autobussijaam". It can also be reached by taxi and the taxi should not cost more than 100 EEK.
Getting to Tallinn
There exist direct flights to Tallinn from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin Schönefeld, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kiev, London Gatwick and Stansted, Milan Malpensa, Minsk, Moscow, Oslo, Prague, Riga, Stockholm Arlanda, Vienna, Vilnius, and Warsaw. For information on the connections, see the web page of the Tallinn Airport.
Tallinn is mostly served by traditional airlines whose flights are sold by any reasonable travel agent (Estonian Air, Aero Airlines, Air Baltic, CSA, Finnair, KLM, LOT, Lufthansa, SAS). This said, the flights of Estonian Air are often considerably cheaper if bought online from the airline.
Tickets to the flights of EasyJet from London Stansted and Berlin Schönefeld are only sold online by the airline.
The city is 2 kms from the airport and you reach it either by taxi or bus No. 2 (timetable). You are travelling from "Lennujaam". The most centrally located stop in the city center is "A. Laikmaa" in front of Hotel Tallink, the travel time there is 13 min.
For ferry connections from/to Stockholm and Helsinki, see the web pages of Tallinn, Viking Line and Eckerö Line. Fast boats are also operated by Nordic Jet Line and Linda Line.
A helicopter line between the centres of Tallinn and Helsinki is operated by Copterline.
From Vilnius and Riga the coach services of Eurolines are the most practical travel option.
There is a daily train connection from Tallinn to Moscow and Saint Petersburg operated by GoRail. The railway station is not far from the Old Town and harbour. From the railway station to the city take tram No 1 or 2 or just walk 10 minutes to the Old Town.
Interactive Maps of Tallinn
http://kaart.tallinn.ee:8080/Tallinn/Show?REQUEST=Main http://www.tourism.tallinn.ee/map http://www.regio.ee/?op=bodyid=24
Time Estonia (just as Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania, ...) uses East-European Time, EET, which is one hour ahead of Central European Time, CET, in other words GMT+2 in winter and GMT+3 in summer.
Electricity The electricity supply is 220 volts AC, 50 Hz. European-style 2-pin plugs are in use.
Money and banks The currency in Estonia is the Estonian crown (EEK). The EEK is pegged to the EUR at the rate of 1 EUR = 15.64664 EEK.
ATMs abound in the city although they are not always well visible. Beware that an Estonian ATM first gives you your money and only then returns the card. Worse, you have to ask the machine to give your card back. Luckily for you, these machines speak English. Almost all businesses (but not newsstands, bus drivers, taxi drivers) accept bank cards (even for the smallest payments) and the local people carry very little cash.
Postal services Postage on letters and postcards (up to 50 g) within Estonia is 5.50 EEK, to the Baltic and Nordic countries (up to 20 g) 6.00 EEK by air mail and 5.50 EEK by surface mail, to the rest of Europe and the former USSR 6.50 (only air mail is possible), to the rest of the world 8.00 EEK (only air mail is possible). Air mail post has to be marked with blue "Prioritaire / Par avion" stickers.
Post offices are open during the normal shopping hours. Stamps are also sold in newsstands. More information from [[http://www.post.ee|Eesti Post]].
Phones Area codes are not in use in Estonia and there is no initial zero.
For international calls to Estonia: dial the prefix for intl. calls (00 in most countries), then the country code 372, and then the subscriber's number.
For international calls from Estonia: dial the prefix 00 for intl. calls, then your country code, etc. Calls within Estonia: just dial the full 7- or 8-digit subscriber's number.
The emergency number (fire brigade, ambulance) is 112. For police only, dial 110.
The fixed network is owned by Elion and used by several operators. The GSM networks are owned and operated by EMT, Elisa (RLE) and Tele2.
Payphones exist in Tallinn but they accept Elion phonecards only (there are no coin-operated payphones). The different cards cost 50 and 100 EEK and can be bought from newsstands and supermarkets.
Internet Tallinn is packed with public WiFi hotspots (some 350 in all Tallinn, whereof some 200 are in the center). In particular, you can connect yourself in any decent cafeteria or pub. More than a half of these hotspots are free (look out, e.g., for Reval Cafes), in others (those run by Elisa) you have to get a ticket by SMSing "wifi pilet" to 19131. The ticket (consisting in the username and password you receive in an instant reply) costs 10 EEK (charged to your mobile calls bill) and is valid for 24 hrs throughout the entire Elisa network. Check out this index of public WiFi hotspots in the country.
Internet terminals/Internet access in some form are offered also by most hotels.
Getting around in Tallinn The public city transportation system of Tallinn, consisting of bus, tram and trolleybus traffic, is quite efficient. The services are many and they run frequently. Most stops have timetables (affixed to the stop signpost) and many also have a map of the transport system on display (in the waiting booth). Tickets are available from the drivers and from newsstands of certain chains (e.g., R-Kiosk). A ticket is validated with a ticket punch located in the vehicle. Buses, trams and trolleybuses all operate under one ticket system. A ticket is valid for a single journey and costs 20 EEK when bought from the driver and 13 EEK when bought from a stand; a pre-purchased set of 10 tickets costs 90 EEK. A special express bus ticket or a completion ticket in addition to an ordinary ticket is required in an express bus.
A interactive public transportation map is available http://kaart.tallinn.ee:8080/Tallinn/Show?REQUEST=Main. The timetables are here. The taxi situation in Tallinn is terrible. It is always preferable to order a taxi by phone. In the city you should never ever take a taxi from the street. You could consider a phone order even at the airport. Some of the recommendable taxi companies are Reval Takso (phone 621 2111), Marabu (phone 650 0006). The reasonable rates are 35..45 EEK initial fare + 7..8 EEK per km charge, but some companies / private adventurers charge much much more. Check the tariffs on the window of the taxi vehicle (there must be a yellow A4 size tariffs sticker).
Always request a printed receipt. All taxi cars are required to have printers.
Tourist information For tourist information on Estonia in the Web, check the web pages of the Estonian Tourist Board. For tourist information specifically on Tallinn, check the web pages of the Tallinn Tourist Board. InYourPocket.Com's unofficial Estonia and Tallinn pages make an even more useful reading.
For in-depth background info on Estonia, we recommend the Estonian Institute's www.estonica.org.
The Tallinn Tourist Information Center has two offices. One is located at Niguliste 2/Kullasepa 4 in the middle of the Old Town. March opening hours: Mon-Fri 9-17, Sat 10-15, closed. The other is in Viru Center, open 9-21 daily.
This travel information is compiled from the information available at the web pages of the Institute of Cybernetics.