City Transportation - Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia capital, has a good and integrated public transportation system, composed of city Bus, Tram (electrical train on tracks) and Trolley (electrical bus).

A travel ticket can be used in any of those systems, costing 13 eek (beforehand from kiosks or shops) or 20 EEK (from the driver). You can also by a 10 ticket package for 90 EEK. Students with valid identification pay less (6 eek beforehand, 12 eek from driver).

If you will use the public transportation a lot, you can have better prices if you buy a daily pass, 10, 30, or 90 days pass. This can be bought in paper at the kiosks, or if you have an Estonian-ID, online from pilet.ee.

Please, buy tickets before using public transportation. Every now and then, some private security personal enter checking if you have a valid ticket. If you use your ID-card, just handle them, they check in a small machine in front of you. Support Estonian economy, and don't get Tased, bro!

You can get the timetables, stops, and travel directions in the Sõiduplan site of Tallinn City Portal. More info in the Tallinn Tourism site (also a great page, full of useful info in English).

Now, for informative fun, you can check a little of the History of Public Transportation in Tallinn at Tallinna Ühistransport. Did you know that Trams in Tallinn are celebrating 120 years of operation in 2008?

City Busses in Tartu - Estonia

If you live in Tartu, or is going to stay for a while, then you will be happy to know that this city has a good network of buses and microbuses. Check the bus lines map (bussiliinid) to see where is the closer bus stop, and then check the Bus Timetables at the BussiInfo site.

So, how can I use the buses? If you pick the yellow microbus (Automen Ekspressbussid), then you pay 15 eek to the driver when you enter and that's all. But if you are taking the city GO buses, it gets a little bit more interesting! Randomly red cars from private security enters the bus checking if you have a valid ticket. If you don't, you will be eligible for a 600 eek fine!

So see below how you can buy your ticket and don't travel like a rabbit (Jänes, like the estonians say for the one who travels without paying).

You can buy your tickets in the bus with the bus driver (16 eek in cash for 1h trip), or by little one-trip punchable bus tickets (13 eek, 8 for students) in advance at the R-kiosks (just remember to punch them when you enter the bus. You can also buy a 10 bus tickets pack, with great discount (100 eek, 10 eek each, way cheaper)!

If you need to use more than one bus trip, then you can get the paper one-day ticket, 30-days ticket, or even a 90-days ticket. You don't need to punch them, they are dated in the R-kiosk when you buy it. More info about the prices (in estonian) at the nice City of Tartu website .

But of course, in Estonia, an electronic solution is also available: Id Pilet . With your Estonian ID, you can buy your hour ticket, day ticket, 30 days ticket or 90 days ticket from Internet or mobile phone, and its cheaper than the paper version! I've been told that some people try to buy them when they see the ticket fiscals car in the bus stop, but I haven't seen that yet :)

Just be careful because every season the bus time tables changes, and sometimes some roads are in repair, making some bus lines changes as well.

Well, for a city where you can get from the city center to the city limits in half an hour walking, maybe its better to walk. What do you say?