Tallinn & its Guitar Festival: a guitarist's travel guide
Tallinn Guitar Festival & International Competition · Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn wears one of the best-preserved medieval old towns in Europe, a UNESCO-listed maze of spires and cobbles above the Baltic, and its guitar festival makes a fine reason to discover it. Running since 2006 and part of the EuroStrings network, it brings an international competition together with recitals by some of the instrument's great names.
Getting there
Tallinn is easiest to reach by air, its airport (TLL) just a few kilometres from the centre, or by the fast ferry from Helsinki in about two hours, a lovely approach across the Gulf of Finland. Buses link it south to Riga.
Compare trains, buses & flights to Tallinn on Omio →
Where to stay
Stay in or beside the old town and you can walk everywhere the festival goes, through gates and along the medieval walls. Tallinn is compact and atmospheric, especially in the long light of the northern summer.
An interactive map of hotels, apartments and B&Bs across Booking, Expedia, Airbnb and more, centred on Tallinn.
See stays in Tallinn →What you'll hear
The competition is aimed at advanced players up to thirty-five and runs during the festival week, alongside a recital series that has brought figures like Oscar Ghiglia and Carlo Domeniconi to the city. Programmes range from the classical core to Latin and Brazilian music. It is an intimate festival in an unforgettable setting.
If you play as well as listen, explore Arvo Pärt, Estonia's most celebrated composer on Sheet Music Plus →
Where to eat
Estonian food is rooted and seasonal: verivorst, the blood sausage served with sauerkraut and lingonberry, mulgipuder, a potato and barley mash, and black rye bread with almost everything. The old town's cellars serve it in medieval style.
While you're there
Lahemaa National Park, an hour east, offers bog boardwalks, a rugged coast and old manor houses, and the seaside village of Käsmu is a gentle day out. The old town itself, with its walls and towers, rewards slow exploration. A rental car makes the day trips simple, and GetYourGuide lists guided tours and tickets across the region.
Enter the pieces you play, and GuitarComp shows how your programme maps to this competition's rounds and which other events you qualify for.
See full competition details →Competition dates, deadlines and the current compulsory work change each edition, so always confirm at the official site: kitarrifestival.ee.