It's always a little tricky to book accommodation in a city you don't know. In Tallinn, the big question for us was whether we should live inside the ring wall or whether we should live outside. There were several interesting hotels inside the ring walls, but the hotels we found and wanted to stay in did not have access to extra beds. There really is a difference traveling with children over 12 compared to children under 12! Suddenly, the daughter is considered an adult and is no longer allowed to sleep in an extra bed, but the booking sites think she should have her own room. So we started looking for hotels outside the ring wall instead, in the new city center east of the old city. The choice fell on Nordic Hotel Forum, an affordable and fresh hotel right at the entrance to the old town.
Location
The hotel is only a few minutes' walk outside Viru Väravad – the finest gateway into the city. The large shopping center is located around the hotel Viru Keskus and Forum. Perfect location I would say! Taxi to the hotel from the airport takes 10-15 minutes and costs around 10 euros.
The room
The hotel was quite fully booked (there was a horse show in Tallinn that weekend) and we got a room on the 6th floor. However, the first impression when we opened the hotel room door was one of laughter. In the middle of the room was a large folding cot... You can safely say that our booking on Hotels.com with our daughter's age had not made it all the way into the computer systems :)
We had been given vouchers for free drinks at the bar upon check-in, so we went down to the bar and waited for the bed to be changed to a larger version. A quarter of an hour later, a new bed was in place with towels and hygiene products.
The room was relatively large, with a large and soft double bed and an armchair and a desk. The floor in our room was carpeted, but we saw that some rooms had wooden floors. Not sure which of the rooms were newly renovated, our room felt very new. The bathroom was impeccably clean and even the trails in the shower were well polished. The shower was a hand shower, so it wasn't exactly easy to get the perfect overhead shower, but it worked. The hygiene products were Nordic Hotel's own, there was shampoo and shower cream. Conditioner was missing. Everything in our room was very fresh and clean. I thought the bed was perfectly soft, while my husband thought it was a little too soft. It's simply not possible to make everyone happy with the beds in a hotel :) There was a minibar as expected, but in this minibar there was even a bottle of champagne from Veuve Clicquot. Unexpectedly! A kettle, iron and ironing board were also available in the room.
The breakfast
Breakfast was served in the Monaco restaurant, complete with a signed picture of the Prince of Monaco. If you are wondering about this unexpected detail, it is because the Monaco consulate is located in the hotel.
High pressure in the breakfast dining room and an unexpectedly extensive breakfast! In addition to the usual bread, cold cuts, juice, coffee, there was also a large section with pâtés, pickled vegetables, herring, salmon and meat pickled in jelly. The hot section consisted of scrambled eggs, machine fried eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, sausages, porridge and thin pancakes. The sweet part consisted of various pies and puff pastry and also some chocolate. There was no egg station and the waffles and pancakes were pre-made.
So, what was the overall family rating?
I would sum up our weekend on Nordic Hotel Forum as affordable, fresh and with a very good location! We paid approx 1000 kronor the night including breakfast for the three of us, which must be said to be really good! The service was excellent and the location of the hotel was very quiet. The hotel also had an indoor pool and a spa, but we didn't have time to try these out this time. We would definitely stay here again!
Read more about the hotel on the hotel's own page Nordic Hotel Forum or read more about Tallinn at my Estonia page.
