In November 2004 Easyjet added another new route to its existing destinations when it began flying to Tallinn for £42 return – and life in the capital of Estonia has never been quite the same since.
The reason why is simple. Thanks to all the cheap new flights (Estonian Air was forced to respond by cutting its prices) the British stag party circuit "discovered" Tallinn, bringing in thousands of young men, who spend most of their time drinking beer, visiting strip clubs (which have proliferated with all the new customers), ogling local women (Estonia is a big recent source of supermodel talent including, most famously, Carmen Kass), drinking some more beer, and generally making a high profile spectacle of themselves.
On my flight from Stansted to Tallinn – which departed at 6.45am, but was still virtually full – there was a group of a dozen men in kilts and football tops, another group with a groom dressed in a woman's swimsuit, and another in which all 20 or so of them were wearing 1980s-style tennis clothing – headbands, Fila shirts, cat-gut rackets, the lot – with the groom dressed in a red and black, tight-fitting rubber outfit. They had been drinking pints of lager in the airport. They were loud and conspicuous both on board and at the airport. But they were also, on the whole, fairly well behaved.
Many reports have covered the British stag phenomenon in Tallinn, portraying the city to have become an almost impossible place to visit, what with all the rowdiness. And there may have been a phase when young British men were running riot in the small, pretty city centre with its cobbled streets, churches and medieval buildings. But Tallinn has sensibly adapted to its newcomers. Most bars and clubs catering for stag parties are in a small area, many upmarket hotels refuse to take bookings from large groups of British men, and specialist companies advertising on the internet have set up activities and guided tours of nightlife, which means groups are more focused, less continually drunken and not as rowdy as they once were.
Nigel Haywood, Britain's ambassador in Tallinn, is keen to play down the effect stag groups have. "Tallinn has a strong reputation as a party venue," he says. "Quite often the media likes to make a meal of it, and look for things that are going wrong. But very little does. Yes, most groups are noisy – but they are boisterous rather than damaging. I was talking to a senior director at the foreign ministry the other day. He adds: 'We regard them [stag groups] with affection. We laugh at them rather than feel threatened.'" According to Haywood, only 10 passports were lost last year and there was only one arrest (for possession of drugs).
Tallinn is a small capital city with a population of over 400,000 – Estonia's population is 1.3 million. Since breaking free from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joining the United Nations, the country has gone from strength to strength. Its economy is said to have grown by about a quarter last year, mainly on the back of developments in financial services and the IT sector – a recent Guardian article described the country as trying to become "the Hong Kong of Eastern Europe": one of the "Baltic Tigers", along with Riga and Vilnius, that is beginning "to roar".
When it comes to internet-related technology, Estonia (sometimes nicknamed E-Stonia) is one of the most advanced countries in the world. It is believed that 90 per cent of people have mobile phones, and a similar percentage also has access to the internet. Virtually everyone uses online banking (traditional walk-in banking is almost consigned to the history books); there have been internet elections (with online voting allowed for recent local elections); and people even pay for parking using text messages, rather than parking meters.
Marti Rillo, head of trade and investment for the British Embassy, says: "IT is incredibly well developed in Tallinn. There is an e-government and an e-tax system. You can do your returns in five minutes, and they come back in a few days: 85 per cent of people do their returns this way." He explains that forward-thinking, economically liberal politicians had a clean-slate approach to change from the 1990s. Rather than wallowing in post-Soviet Union self-pity, the country leapt forward. It has helped, says Rillo, that Estonia has a relatively small population, compared to bigger EU entrants like Poland and the Czech Republic.
"Buzzy, busy and happening" is Rillo's description of Tallinn – and that was about right on my visit. There is plenty to see and do, starting with a walk to the Old Town ramparts on the hill. From here there are terrific views across the city, but the must-see sight is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. This Russian Orthodox place of prayer was built in the early 1900s and has several onion-shaped domes, with exterior walls painted a rusty red. Inside there are glittering gold icons and racks full of small orange candles. Opposite the cathedral is Toompea Castle, a large, bright pink building which looks like it might be a museum but is, rather surprisingly, home to Estonia's Parliament.
The Town Hall square is a good place for lunch in one of many lively (but civilised) outdoor cafés. I visited on a June weekend, when Tallinn might expect to be at its busiest, but there was still a sense of peace and quiet, especially along the labyrinthine streets connected to the square. A short walk away is the Occupation Museum, where you can learn about the years under Soviet rule – a particularly good display describes the events of 1990-1991.
On the advice of Neil Taylor, co-author of Baltic Capitals, a (very useful) guide book published by Bradt that covers Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Kaliningrad, I visited Tallinn's latest attraction: the Kumu Art Museum. This is a stunning world-class structure next to the Kadriorg Palace, which was built after Peter the Great's first visit to Tallinn in 1718, and has been described by some as a "mini-Versailles". Kumu is a modern, grey stone and tinted glass building, just opened, jutting up four storeys like a slice of lemon. Inside there is a vast, but narrow, atrium curving through the centre. Walkways slope up to rooms full of well-displayed Estonian art – some with Soviet influence, although this is a tiny minority of the work on show. I particularly enjoyed the impressionist paintings, but the building itself is a work of art – created by Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori.
Tiina Randviir, who works at the Estonian Institute, an Estonian version of the British Council, is responsible for promoting her country abroad. She says that Estonians are immensely proud of Kumu – "There is nothing else like it in the Baltics" – and also believes that reports on stag parties in Tallinn seem overdone.
At a café on Pikk Street, not far from the Three Sisters Hotel, part of the Design Hotels group and one of the swankiest hotels in the Baltics, I met Andrus Purde, media marketing manager at Skype, the internet communications website. Skype was created in Tallinn, with its two Swedish and Danish founders coming to the Estonian capital to meet like-minded local internet entrepreneurs. The company now has 100 million registered users and there are, according to Purde, as many as seven million logged on at any one time. Purde says that Skype now employs 200 people at its Tallinn office, which is at the heart of its development department, and is currently working on a system of free phone calls from wifi zones that is sending shivers down the spines of big telecommunications companies.
Purde says: "Estonia had nothing 15 years ago. And because we had nothing, we had to do something, and some of these things have worked. Online and technological advancements have happened for us because we had nothing to start with. In the UK you had a banking system going back hundreds of years. Here we have started from scratch. So we tried online banking and it worked. Maybe it also helped that we have a northern mentality. It's easier to talk to each other when we are apart, if you like. People in Tallinn are reserved. The internet suits us."
Steve Roman, editor of Tallinn In Your Pocket, an excellent local listings guide, agrees: "There was a massive difference between life here in the early and the late 1990s," he says. "The Soviet Union fell apart and the Estonians started from zero. People here now prefer the internet to the phone. That's quite a transformation."
Yes, it is – so don't let anyone tell you that stag groups have "ruined" Tallinn. I stayed in the city on the first weekend of the World Cup, with England playing a match on the Saturday, yet it was quiet and interesting – not in the slightest bit loutish (if you ignored a few of the people who were on the plane). I was at the Radisson SAS, which has a fantastic 24th-floor restaurant and bar, with a terrace and good views across the city. Stag groups are not allowed at the Radisson (Kersti Vaino, the director of sales, told me so). So you have heard it here: Tallinn is a civilised place to stay for a fun weekend away.
Be up-to-date
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below