Rossija

Want to really do something unique? Go to Russia. For those New Worlders coming, you are never going to have a better chance.

St. Petersburg is a 5-hour bus ride away from Tallinn, and Moscow is a direct flight. It's a great country with amazing history. You just have to know ... it's Russia, which means you'll have some punches thrown your way in terms of your expectations on how society should work, and you'll have to bob and weave.

But if you go with your expectations set at an appropriate level, are canny, and have a sense of humor, it can be a fantastic time.

Scott went to the British Museum in London a couple months ago, and has been to both the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (several times) and the Kremlin museum. He thinks they both blow away the Brits.

The art galleries and the Czarist-era palaces are amazing in their own right.

The difficulty is that you will have to apply for a VISA. There are local tour operators in Tallinn that can help. What is needed is a Xeroxed copy of your passport, and you have to fill out a form. So if this is something that you would consider, it's something you can't wait on without all sorts of expensive fees.

Eesti keeles:
Julgematele külalistele Ameerikast soovitame minna Venemaad väisama. Viisa on muidugi kulukas, aga tõenäoliselt on see nii mitmelegi külalisele ainulaadne võimalus oma silmaga Ermitaaž ära näha näiteks.

Vacation packages / puhkusereisid

For those coming from the United States, once you are in Tallinn, you might want to consider taking a holiday in the Old World. I mean, if you are flying all this way, why not spend a few hundred dollars to vacation where you have always wanted to go?

In terms of pre-determined packages, the main tour companies operating out of Tallinn's airport this summer are Nova Tours and Horizon Travel.


This summer Nova Tours is flying packages (where you are picked up at an airport, and shuttled to a hotel) to five sites in Turkey, five sites in Bulgaria, and to the islands of Crete, Rhodes, and Santorini.

Horizon Travel hasn't put out its summer catalog yet, but is sure to include the Mediterranean sites already shown on their home page.

If you are willing to take a ferry across the Gulf of Finland to Helsinki, you can catch a pretty short bus ride to the Vantaa Airport. The Finnish company Finnmatkat offers packages to the following countries this summer: Bulgaria, France, Egypt, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, and Albania. Outside of Europe, there are even more.

Estonian Air is the main air carrier out of Tallinn. You can pretty much get from Tallinn to anywhere you want in Europe very cheaply and quickly and make your own accommodations. You can see from the map on their home page that there are many destinations you can fly to direct or make connections to.

There will be other packages and charters announced as we get closer to summer. For example, we have taken charter flights twice to Dubrovnik, Croatia, which is a place many New Worlders don't know anything about. But we liked it so much that we went again a few years later. There is a little fishing village just outside of Dubrovnik called Cavtat which is a slice of heaven. We've also traveled to Montenegro, Bosnia, and Albania, which all have amazing landscapes and histories. So don't think you have to go to Paris to have an interesting adventure.

If you have questions or language problems, or just need plain help getting to a particular location, that's what Kristel and Scott are here for. Contact us, either in the comments or by e-mail.

Lühidalt ka eesti keeles:
Ameerikast tulijail soovitame kõigil kasutada võimalust, et juba nii kaugele tuldud, miks mitte vaadata pisut ka Euroopas ringi. Erinevad reisifirmad pakuvad sobivaid pakette, või siis on võimalik minna omal käel rändama. Meie muidugi soovitame Horvaatiat ja Albaaniat kui kohti, kus oleme käinud, tagasi läinud ja valmis veelgi minema.