Hilton Tallinn Park = Great New Modern Hotel Not Far from Old Town

I hesitated between booking at Hotel Telegraaf (Marriott) or Hilton for our visit in Tallinn.  The location of Telegraaf is one of the best in the city but it comes at a price premium.  I had a preference for a hotel with better odds of a suite upgrade and with a lounge, rather than pay extra for the location, a smaller room, and no lounge, so I picked Hilton given the numerous other reports about Diamond suite upgrades. I did not regret my choice.

Hilton Tallinn is located about a 15-minute walk from the old town so it’s not so far away as to be terribly inconvenient, at least not during summer months when the weather is nice.  There is also a large department store including a grocery store only 5 minutes away so I found the location to be fine even if not the best. The Hilton hotel was built from the ground up three years ago right in front of a park rather than being a renovation of an old hotel.

I booked the entry level room for less than 100 EUR per night and we were pleased to get upgraded as Diamond to a deluxe suite which is a proper suite with a sliding door separating the bedroom from the living room. Our room was in the corner of the building so we did not hear any noise from outside our room and because of the positioning in the corner, the room had floor to ceiling windows on two walls in both the bedroom and living room.  The hotel being fairly new, everything looks sharp and in good condition. The pillar in the living room gives some flair to the room and the bedroom was large enough to have a chair and small table at the end.  The little details in the room are eye appealing for example the art work and the little stones right below the lights on each side of the bed.  The main bathroom has a large sliding tinted glass door at the entrance which allows natural light in the bathroom which is good design.  That is in addition to the half bathroom off the entrance which is convenient if not travelling alone. 

Breakfast in the lounge only has a few offerings but the advantage was a very peaceful environment.  One morning we wanted a quiet time so we stayed in the lounge given that the choices although slim, are good enough for example a few fruits, scrambled eggs, pastries, etc.  

The restaurant looks very nice design-wise and the table arrangement was such that it did not feel overly crowded however clearly not as quiet as the lounge.  Food choices were better than the lounge as can be expected, but nothing stood out in a major way except perhaps that there were a few choices of fish available.  The rest of the buffet was fairly standard for example the hot options like bacon and sausages, there were raw veggies, pastries, pressed juices, an omelet station, etc.; no glaring weakness but just nothing which impressed me particularly.  In some hotels, everything on the buffet is mediocre but they will have a couple of items which I will notice as being much better than similar competing hotels, either special fruits or a creative hot dish, etc.  But not here, so breakfast was not the highlight of our stay.

Happy hour in the lounge is 6-8pm and we had to arrive before 5:30pm to have a decent table.  By 6:30pm the lounge was almost entirely full, but depending where you sit you could still have some privacy because the lounge is not crammed with tables and chairs.  I would also note that if you have a table by the windows you have very nice views of the old town in the distance.  For alcohol you have the choice of one white and one red wine in addition to spirits and beer.  They had a rotation of three hot dishes per day, not the healthiest stuff such as spring rolls, sweet potato fries, sausages, fried shrimps, samosas, cheese balls, etc.  The exception was one evening there was a dish of beef and steamed veggies which was a change from the fried stuff.  As noted in previous reviews, this hotel provides subpar food on weekends and better during the week – it was my observation as well.  The cold salads were a bit better, and one evening they had sushis which I was pleased with at the beginning but later disappointed when I realized they contained some kind of salmon mousse rather than real fish. There were desserts as well to make it happy hour a complete offering.  Overall I would say happy hour was above average for European standards although not fantastic especially not on weekends.  

Tallinn being a high-tech city I expected wifi to work without issues and it was the case.  I measured speeds of around 20 Mbps.

Service in the hotel was mixed.  We received a nice pre-arrival e-mail from staff in the lounge and upon arrival they were clearly prepared to welcome us.  Service in the lounge was good during happy hour despite the lounge being busy, but in the morning one request went unanswered and also when calling reception from the room sometimes it would just ring non-stop and nobody to pick up for several minutes so we had to go to the lounge to talk to someone face to face to get service.  Housekeeping was well done exactly at the time we requested which was great.  We also received a welcome gift in the room with two small bottles of Estonian rum, strawberries, and chocolates.

Overall I thought Hilton was not perfect but solid value and a very nice new hotel with a modest price tag.  Hotel Telegraaf and other luxury hotels in the old town are quite popular during the summer and they seemed to be 50-100% more expensive than Hilton depending the exact dates, at least when I checked.  By the time we arrived in Estonia I saw Telegraaf was fully booked because it’s a smaller hotel so I probably would not have received an upgrade, and even if I did the junior suites there are 35 square meters there compared to the deluxe suite we got at Hilton which was almost double the size at 65 square meters.  If someone values extra space then Hilton is a no brainer with the hotel offering generous Diamond treatment, plus the lounge.  Outside of the old town there is also an aging Swissotel which I discarded given subpar reviews and no lounge.  If going to Tallinn in the winter I think the price differential is not significant between Hilton and hotels in the old town, and with cold weather perhaps the location of Hilton becomes a bit more of an issue so that could be the time of year where I might be willing to try Telegraaf or Hotel St.Petersbourg (Small Luxury Hotels / Hyatt) in order to compare with Hilton, but in any event we cannot go wrong by picking Hilton.