What is the Tallinn outdoor escape game?
The Tallinn outdoor escape game is an escape room taken outside: the puzzles sit in the gates, squares and merchant houses of the medieval Old Town, and you work through them on your smartphone. Each of the 10 stops holds one puzzle, cracked by reading the surroundings and reasoning it out. Allow about 2 hours, of which 32 minutes are spent walking 2.6 km.
Puzzles wait at the twin towers of Viru Gate, at the Gothic Town Hall with its dragon-head gargoyles, at Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Toompea hill and at the painted doors of the House of the Blackheads. The walled Old Town suits this format: the stops lie only a few minutes apart, so you spend your time looking rather than travelling.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 32 min · 2.6 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch
What you do on the escape game
Solve
Work out the puzzle at each landmark from what stands in front of you. Logic and attention are enough; no prior knowledge is needed.
Read the details
Answers hide in gargoyles, weathervanes, carved portals and old façades, so slow down and study each building.
Walk
Google Maps links the stops: 32 minutes of walking over 2.6 km through the lanes of the Old Town.
Set your own pace
Nothing counts down. Call up to three levels of hints, stop for a coffee and resume later or on another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
The puzzles are independent, so everyone can take a turn at cracking one, and nobody needs to know Tallinn in advance.
Couples
A shared puzzle at every corner keeps the conversation going, with no timer pushing you along.
Team building
Teams of up to 5 play on their own phones, so colleagues can split into several groups on the same route.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from Viru Gate to Fat Margaret
10 stops · about 32 min walking · start: Viru Gate · finish: Estonian Maritime Museum (Fat Margaret)
The first puzzle stands at Viru Gate, the medieval entrance to the Old Town, and the route turns from there to St Catherine's Dominican Monastery and Tallinn Town Hall. By way of the Eduard Vilde Memorial and Freedom Square you climb Toompea to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, come back down to the Great Guild Hall and the House of the Blackheads, and follow Pikk Street to the last puzzle at the Estonian Maritime Museum in the Fat Margaret tower. Start in daylight, since everything is solved outdoors. The app lets you reorder the stops, and no entry tickets are needed.
Open the route map ↗
1Viru GateStart
The two round towers at the end of Viru Street are what remains of the Viru Gate, part of Tallinn's medieval city wall. A first gatehouse stood here around 1370, and most of the gate complex was demolished in 1888 to make room for a horse tramway.
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2St Catherine's Dominican Monastery
Dominican friars had a monastery here, between Vene Street and the city wall, by 1246 at the latest. It was destroyed in 1524 during the Reformation, but parts of the cloister survive, and St Catherine's Passage beside it leads past a finely carved portal of the former church.
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3Tallinn Town Hall
Tallinn Town Hall on Town Hall Square was completed in 1404 and is described as the last surviving Gothic town hall in Northern Europe. Look for the dragon-head gargoyles on the façade and for Old Thomas, the city guard weathervane on the tower; the first one was put up in 1530.
4Eduard Vilde Memorial
Eduard Vilde (1865–1933) was one of Estonia's leading writers, known for historical novels such as The War in Mahtra. His memorial on Harju Street, beside St Nicholas' Church, is made of two large white stone tablets, one carved with figures of people and the other with a relief of the writer's head.
5Freedom Square
Freedom Square lies just outside the Old Town, on the site of a bastion in front of the former Harju Gate. On its western side stands the War of Independence Victory Column with the Cross of Liberty, unveiled on 23 June 2009 for those who died in the war of 1918–1920, and opposite is St John's Church, built in 1862–1867.
6Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
This Russian Orthodox cathedral on Toompea hill was built in 1894–1900 to designs by Mikhail Preobrazhensky, when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire. In 1924 an architect even proposed demolishing it, and its eleven bells, cast in Saint Petersburg, include one that weighs about 16 tonnes.
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7Great Guild Hall – Estonian History Museum
The Great Guild, Tallinn's association of rich merchants, built this Gothic hall on Pikk Street in 1407–1410. Its façade has tall blind arches and a large portal, and the building now houses the Estonian History Museum.
8House of the Blackheads
The House of the Blackheads on Pikk Street belonged to the Brotherhood of Blackheads, an association of merchants, ship owners and foreigners founded in the 14th century. Its Renaissance façade was rebuilt in 1597, and above the painted doors of the 1640s you can spot a Moor, the symbol of the brotherhood's patron, Saint Maurice.
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9Pikk Street
Pikk, whose name means Long Street, runs north through Tallinn's medieval Lower Town to the Great Coast Gate and was the old main route between the harbour and the town. It is lined with merchant houses and guild halls, and near its northern end stand the Three Sisters, three medieval merchant houses side by side.
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10Estonian Maritime Museum (Fat Margaret)Finish
The Estonian Maritime Museum is housed in Fat Margaret, a cannon tower built in 1511–1530 beside the Great Coastal Gate to guard the harbour. The tower is about 25 metres across with walls up to 5 metres thick, and it later served as a gunpowder store and a prison.
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Germany –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Netherlands –
Collected on GetYourGuide
Was leuk om te doen maar het is niet wat er in de beschrijving staat. Het is een interactieve rondleiding door de stad met informatie.
Finland –
Collected on GetYourGuide
S?hk?postissa tulleiden ohjeiden ymm?rt?minen tuotti vaikeuksia. Kesti, ett? p??stiin alkuun. Sen j?lkeen sujui hyvin. Oli hauska tapa tutustua Tallinnaan.