Transport in Tallinn
From the airport you can take a bus (number 2) or a tram (number 4) which will take you to the city centre.
For further information, please see https://transport.tallinn.ee/#tallinna-linn/en.
There are various ways to purchase a ticket in Tallinn.
Smartcards, onto which you can load money or e-tickets (1-, 3-, 5- and 30-day travel cards), can be purchased from any of the sales points listed at tallinn.pilet.ee (most commonly from R-Kiosk). You pay a 2€ deposit when purchasing a Smartcard. Tourists can purchase a non-personalised Smartcard. You will need to validate your smartcard when entering a vehicle.
A non-personalised Smartcard and balance up to 20€ can be returned at
- Tallinn airport, R-kiosk
- Passenger port, Terminal A and Terminal D, R-kiosk
- Train station, R-kiosk
- Regional bus station, T-ticket service desk
QR-ticket (1 ride is 1.50€). Purchase online at tallinn.pilet.ee or with the mobile app Pilet.ee. Purchase up to 10 rides onto your QR-ticket. Share them with your friends and family. First, validate your ride, then choose the number of extra rides to be purchased using the arrows, then press OK and swipe your QR-ticket again. Use the front door validator with the QR-scanner.
E-ticket. 1-hour tickets are available for money loaded onto your Smartcard. You have to validate your ticket in public transport vehicles by swiping it at the validator.
Single ride ticket can be bought from the driver (only in cash), with a Smartcard or with a contactless bank card. Or download the app Pilet.ee and buy a ticket on your phone. If you want to buy a ticket from the bus driver or use a bank card, you must enter from the front door of the public transport vehicle. As you board a public transport vehicle, you are required to validate your trip every time by swiping the card at the validator. If you see a green light, your trip has been validated. Passengers are required to keep the one-end ticket until the end of the ride. You do not need to validate a paper ticket that you get from the driver.
Purchasing a ticket with a contactless bank card. You can use all Mastercard, Maestro, Visa and Visa Electron bank cards with contactless interfaces in public transport. You can check whether the card has a contactless interface by looking for the relevant logo on the card. A contactless bank card can be used in all types of public transport where the validator has the logo of contactless payment. The card owner must check that the validator has the logo of their bank card. As a rule, such a validator is located by the front door of the vehicle. A contactless bank card will not work with other validators – either for buying a ticket or for validating an existing one.
You can only use a contactless bank card to buy a Tallinn 1-hour ticket from the public transport validator, discount tickets are not available. 1-hour tickets are recalculated into day tickets the same way as with buying tickets with Ühiskaart – upon buying three or more 1-hour tickets over a day, the 1-hour tickets are automatically replaced with one day ticket.
For further information, please see https://www.tallinn.ee/eng/pilet/Ticket-prices.
There are also other ways to get around the city. Estonians are quite tech-savvy and like convenient solutions. Here are some alternative options for transport in Tallinn:
Bolt taxis, electric scooters and car rental (you need to download an app to your phone and list your credit card information).
Tuul electric scooters (you need to download an app to your phone and list your credit card information).
Citybee car rental (you need to download an app to your phone and list your credit card information and driving licence).