Tallinn · Views
Patkuli viewpoint
Toompea hill has two viewing platforms.
All year
Tallinn · Culture
Raeapteek, the 600-year-old pharmacy
Raeapteek on Town Hall Square has been open since 1422, the oldest pharmacy in Europe still trading.
All year, Monday to Saturday
Tallinn · Culture
St Catherine's Passage
St Catherine's Passage (Katariina käik) runs between Vene and Müürivahe streets under the old arches.
All year
Tallinn · Views
Walking the Old Town wall
The Hellemann Tower ticket lets you walk a stretch of the wall between towers, and Kiek in de Kök has the big tower plus the bastion tunnels.
Hellemann tower and the wall walk open daily, shorter hours November to March
Tallinn · Culture
The bastion tunnels under Toompea
Kiek in de Kök museum runs guided walks through the 17th-century bastion tunnels under Toompea, used as shelters in the war and by punks in the 80s.
Tunnel tours run all year
Tallinn · Food
Tallinn's beef tartare habit
Beef tartare is on half the Old Town menus and locals have opinions.
Tallinn · Shops
Oma Asi design shop
Oma Asi is an Estonian design shop in the Old Town: ceramics, textiles, wood, all local makers.
Tallinn · Views
Fotografiska rooftop
Fotografiska in Telliskivi has a rooftop restaurant and bar you can go up to without a museum ticket.
The rooftop terrace opens roughly May to September
Tallinn · Food
Sanga sandwiches
Sanga is a tiny sandwich bar near Telliskivi doing big focaccia sandwiches, and there is a lunch queue.
All year, lunch hours
Tallinn · Food
Karjase Sai bakery
Karjase Sai is a small bakery in Kalamaja famous for sourdough and cardamom and cinnamon buns.
All year, mornings
Tallinn · Shops
Second-hand at Balti jaam
Balti Jaama Turg has a whole second-hand floor upstairs, and Telliskivi has Humana and vintage shops along the street.
All year
Tallinn · Shops
Balti Jaama Turg
Some stalls at Balti Jaama Turg take payment only through a phone app or a QR code.
All year, daily
Tallinn · Nights
Telliskivi on a Friday night
Sveta Baar is the alternative club in Telliskivi with gigs most weekends; F-hoone is the big restaurant and bar next door with a terrace.
All year
Tallinn · Culture
Kalma saun, the 1928 public sauna
Kalma saun opened in 1928 and is the last old public sauna in town: cheap, separate men's and women's sides, a wood-fired steam room, and regulars who have gone for fifty years.
All year
Tallinn · Outdoors
Iglupark saunas at Noblessner
Iglupark is a row of igloo-shaped saunas on the pier at Noblessner.
All year
Tallinn · Nights
Põhjala taproom
Põhjala is the Estonian craft brewery; the taproom is in the old Noblessner shipyard by the sea.
All year
Tallinn · Culture
Lennusadam and the Lembit submarine
Lennusadam is the maritime museum in a 1917 seaplane hangar at Noblessner.
All year, closed Mondays in winterTallinn · Outdoors
Kalarand, the city beach
Kalarand is a small sandy pocket by the old Patarei sea fortress where locals swim off a boardwalk.
Swimming June to August
Tallinn · Views
Linnahall at sunset
Linnahall was built for the 1980 Olympic sailing events and has been shut since 2010.
All year, but sunset is at 19:30 in mid-September and before 16:00 in December
Tallinn · Culture
Kadriorg Palace
Kadriorg Palace, Peter the Great's baroque palace, is closed Mondays and Tuesdays; the park and the Japanese garden are always open.
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays all year
Tallinn · Culture
Kumu art museum
Kumu is the Estonian art museum built into the limestone bank of Kadriorg park.
Closed Mondays all year, and Tuesdays too from October to April
Tallinn · Outdoors
Pirita beach in September
Pirita is the city's long sand beach, 15 minutes from the centre.
Swimming is June to August, about 18 degrees at best
Tallinn · Outdoors
Aegna island
Aegna is a forest island in the bay, 30 minutes by ferry from Kalasadam by Linnahall, summer only.
Summer only: the Aegna ferry runs from about mid-May to the end of September, a few sailings a day
Tallinn · Outdoors
Riisa bog boardwalk
Riisa bog is in Soomaa National Park, about two hours south.
Any seasonTallinn · Habits
The letter õ
õ is the Estonian letter.
Tallinn · Habits
Tere and tsau
Tere is hello, tsau is the casual hi/bye between friends.
Tallinn · Food
Kohuke
Kohuke is a sweet curd bar in chocolate, a childhood thing here.
Tallinn · Food
Vana Tallinn liqueur
Vana Tallinn is the rum-based liqueur made here since 1960.
Tallinn · Food
Kalev chocolate
Kalev is the Estonian chocolate maker since 1806.
Tallinn · Habits
Tallinn tram tickets
Visitors buy a QR ticket in the Pilet.ee app and only show it to an inspector; the validators on board are for the green Ühiskaart.
Tallinn · Habits
Smart-ID
Smart-ID is Estonia's phone login for banks and state services.
Warsaw · Views
Highline Warsaw on Varso Tower
Highline Warsaw is the viewing terrace at 230 m on Varso Tower by the central station, the tallest in the EU, opened 2025.
All year
Warsaw · Views
The BUW library roof garden
The BUW roof garden in Powiśle is free: two hectares of paths and pergolas on the library roof with the river and the skyline.
Open April to October, till dusk
Warsaw · Views
The skyline from Siekierki
From the Siekierki side of the Vistula the whole skyline lines up in one frame with the river in front.
All year
Warsaw · Culture
The palace they turned in 1970
It is real.
All year
Warsaw · Views
Sunrise skyline from the Praga bank
The classic skyline shot is from the Praga side: the Świętokrzyski (Holy Cross) bridge and the beach below the stadium, at sunrise with the towers lit.
All year
Warsaw · Culture
Warsaw Gallery Weekend
Warsaw Gallery Weekend is late September: galleries across the city open late and free.
Late September only, four days
Warsaw · Nights
Nocny Market
Nocny Market is the night food market on the old platforms of Warszawa Główna station, weekends from May to September.
May to September, weekends only
Warsaw · Nights
The Vistula boulevards
The river boulevards below the Old Town fill with bars every summer; Cud nad Wisłą and Hocki Klocki are the two that come up for Friday.
May to September
Warsaw · Nights
Plac Zbawiciela
Plac Zbawiciela is the square with the ring of bars; Plan B is the one people mean for a weeknight.
All year
Warsaw · Views
Elektrownia Powiśle
Elektrownia Powiśle is the old power station turned food hall and shops by the river; the rooftop bar is walk-up in summer.
The rooftop bar is summer only, roughly May to September
Warsaw · Food
Hala Koszyki
Hala Koszyki is the 1909 market hall turned food hall on Koszykowa.
All year, late opening
Warsaw · Culture
Chopin Sundays in Łazienki
Free Chopin concerts under the monument in Łazienki park every Sunday from May to September, at 12:00 and 16:00.
Sundays only, mid-May to the end of September, at 12:00 and 16:00
Warsaw · Culture
Koneser and the vodka museum
Koneser is the old vodka distillery in Praga turned into a square of restaurants, offices and the Polish Vodka Museum with a tasting at the end.
All year
Warsaw · Culture
The Neon Museum
The Neon Museum in Soho Factory keeps the rescued neon signs of communist-era Warsaw, all lit.
All year
Warsaw · Culture
The Japan alley off Chmielna
A Japanese-styled passage with lanterns and ramen off Chmielna street in the centre; it went viral this spring.
All year
Warsaw · Nights
Pawilony
Pawilony is the hidden courtyard of tiny bars behind Nowy Świat 22.
All year
Warsaw · Food
La Petite café
La Petite is a small café on Noakowskiego 8 known for cherry tea and home-made cake; people post it for autumn evenings.
Warsaw · Shops
Warsaw's best lumpeks
Lumpeks is Polish for a second-hand clothes shop.
Warsaw · Food
Restaurants that cook at your table
A round of Warsaw restaurants finish dishes at the table, flambé and carving.
Warsaw · Food
The giant-slice cake cafés
The big-slice cake cafés go round every autumn; ask which she rates.
Warsaw · Habits
The letter ż
ż is the Polish letter.
Warsaw · Habits
BLIK
BLIK is the Polish phone payment.
Warsaw · Habits
E-recepta
An e-prescription arrives as a four-digit code by SMS or in the mObywatel app, and the pharmacy needs the code plus your PESEL.
Warsaw · Habits
Żabka Nano
Żabka Nano is the staff-less shop: you open the door with the app or a card and it charges what you take.
Madrid · Culture
Andén 0, the ghost station at Chamberí
Chamberí station on line 1 was shut in 1966 because the platforms were too short for the new trains.
All year
Madrid · Culture
Kilómetro Cero at Puerta del Sol
Puerta del Sol has a stone plaque in front of the old post office, the Casa de Correos, marking kilometre zero of Spain's six radial roads.
All year
Madrid · Food
Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world
Sobrino de Botín on Calle Cuchilleros 17 holds the Guinness record as the world's oldest restaurant, open since 1725.
All year
Madrid · Food
The bocadillo de calamares
The calamari sandwich is Madrid's street food even though the sea is 300 km away: squid rings fried in a plain roll, lemon if you like, never sauce if you ask a purist.
All year, any hour
Madrid · Food
Chocolatería San Ginés
Chocolatería San Ginés is in the Pasadizo de San Ginés, an alley off Calle Arenal, serving churros and porras with thick hot chocolate since 1894, open 24 hours.
All year, 24 hours
Madrid · Food
Casa Labra
Casa Labra on Calle Tetuán 12, one minute from Sol, has served tajadas de bacalao, battered cod, and cod croquettes since 1860.
All year
Madrid · Habits
The Sunday vermú in La Latina
La hora del vermú is the Sunday aperitif: vermouth from the tap, de grifo, with soda, an olive and a slice of orange, taken standing in a bar between the Rastro and lunch.
Sundays 12:30 to 15:00, all year
Madrid · Shops
El Rastro
El Rastro is the Sunday morning flea market down Ribera de Curtidores and the streets off it, running since the 1700s.
Sundays and public holidays, 09:00 to 15:00
Madrid · Nights
The cave mesones on Cava de San Miguel
Cava de San Miguel runs along the west wall of Plaza Mayor and its mesones are built into the old cellars: Mesón de la Tortilla, open since 1960, Mesón del Champiñón with the mushrooms and a keyboard player, Mesón del Boquerón.
All year, evenings
Madrid · Culture
The Fallen Angel at 666 metres
The Fuente del Ángel Caído in the south of the Retiro is one of the few public statues of Lucifer anywhere, by Ricardo Bellver, 1877, and the plinth sits at 666 m above sea level, which the city insists is a coincidence.
All year
Madrid · Views
The Azotea of the Círculo de Bellas Artes
The Círculo de Bellas Artes at Calle Alcalá 42 has a rooftop, the Azotea, with the Minerva statue and a full view over Gran Vía, Alcalá and the Metropolis dome next door, the most photographed building in the city.
All year
Madrid · Views
Templo de Debod at sunset
The Templo de Debod is a 2nd-century-BC Egyptian temple that Egypt gave Spain in 1968 for helping save the Abu Simbel temples from the Aswan dam.
All year
Madrid · Views
Las Siete Tetas, the Vallecas view
The Parque del Cerro del Tío Pío in Vallecas is a set of grassy mounds built over old shanty-town rubble, and everyone calls it Las Siete Tetas.
All year
Madrid · Views
De Madrid al cielo, the RIU rooftop
'De Madrid al cielo' is the old saying that after Madrid the only place left is heaven.
All year
Madrid · Culture
The free hours at the Prado
The Museo del Prado is free Monday to Saturday 18:00 to 20:00 and Sundays 17:00 to 19:00; the queue forms half an hour before.
All year
Madrid · Views
Faro de Moncloa
The Faro de Moncloa is a 1992 transmission tower with a viewing ring at 92 m, next to the Arco de la Victoria at Moncloa.
All year, closed Mondays
Madrid · Food
Bar Alfonsillo, 1927
In Madrid a caña, a small beer, usually comes with a free tapa: olives, crisps, a slice of tortilla.
All year
Madrid · Nights
The centenarian bars
Madrid's Restaurantes Centenarios association lists the bars and restaurants over a hundred years old.
All year
Madrid · Food
Mercado de Antón Martín and the Cine Doré
Mercado de San Miguel is a pretty iron-and-glass tapas hall with tourist prices.
Market Monday to Saturday, mornings to about 21:00
Madrid · Habits
Getting in from Barajas
Barajas has T1 to T3 in one building and T4 three kilometres away with its own metro and train station.
All year
Madrid · Habits
The Tarjeta Multi
Metro de Madrid sells no paper tickets: you buy a Tarjeta Multi, a red contactless card, for €2.50 at any machine and load single trips or a 10-trip ticket onto it.
All year
Madrid · Habits
How madrileños talk
Madrid slang: mazo means a lot ('mola mazo'), Madriz is how they say the city's name, 'ir a por' is the local way to say go and get something, and a caña is the small beer.
Madrid · Culture
Plaza del Dos de Mayo in Malasaña
Malasaña takes its name from Manuela Malasaña, a 17-year-old seamstress killed in the 2 May 1808 uprising against Napoleon's troops.
All year
Madrid · Culture
12 October, the Hispanidad parade
12 October, the Fiesta Nacional or Día de la Hispanidad, is a public holiday: the armed forces parade down the Paseo de la Castellana past the King and the government, with a flypast that trails red and yellow smoke over the city.
12 October only, parade about 11:00 to 13:00 on the Castellana
Madrid · Culture
Matadero and Madrid Río
Matadero Madrid is the 1920s municipal slaughterhouse in Legazpi turned into free galleries, a cinema and a design market.
All year
Estonia · Food
Kama
Kama is a flour of roasted barley, rye, oat and pea that Estonians stir into kefir or buttermilk.
Estonia · Food
Kiluvõileib, the sprat sandwich
Kiluvõileib is dark rye bread with butter, spiced Baltic sprats and usually a slice of boiled egg and some green onion.
Estonia · Food
Must leib, the black bread
Must leib, dark rye bread, is close to a national symbol.
Estonia · Culture
Jaanipäev, Midsummer
Midsummer Eve is 23 June and Jaanipäev 24 June, and both are public holidays.
All year, but it lands best from May to July
Estonia · Culture
Laulupidu, the song festival
The Song Festival puts tens of thousands of singers on one stage at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds every five years; the last was in July 2025.
Estonia · Habits
The vihta, the sauna birch whisk
A vihta is a bundle of leafy birch branches you soak and then pat yourself with in the heat; people say it spreads the steam and wakes up the skin.
Estonia · Outdoors
Mushroom season and the secret spot
Mushroom picking is close to a national sport: from August to October cars line forest roads at dawn, and markets fill with chanterelles (kukeseened) and ceps (puravikud).
Best August to October, in mushroom season
Estonia · Habits
Tallinn versus Tartu
Tartu, about 180 km south, has the country's oldest university (1632) and calls itself the town of good thoughts and the intellectual capital.
Estonia · Food
Kodukohvikute päev, home café day
On kodukohvikute päev, home café day, villages and islands open one-day cafés in gardens, barns and living rooms, and people drive from house to house eating cake and soup.
Late May to August
Tallinn · Culture
The first Christmas tree, 1441
Tallinn says the Brotherhood of Blackheads put up a tree on Town Hall Square in 1441; Riga says its merchants did it in 1510.
All year
Tallinn · Culture
PÖFF, the Black Nights Film Festival
PÖFF, the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, runs every November, and 2026 is the 30th edition, 6 to 22 November.
October and November
Tallinn · Food
Päevapraad, the lunch of the day
Päevapraad, the dish of the day, is the weekday lunch deal nearly every café in Tallinn runs, roughly 11:00 to 15:00: a soup or a main, often with bread and a drink.
Weekdays, about 11:00 to 15:00
Tallinn · Habits
Do locals go to the Old Town?
The Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the postcard, but plenty of residents say they only go in for visitors, the Christmas market or one favourite place.
Tallinn · Habits
The Tallinn seagulls
Tallinn is a port city and its gulls are big, loud and bold around anyone eating outdoors.
Best in spring and summer, when people eat outside
Tallinn · Food
Olde Hansa
Olde Hansa is the medieval restaurant just off Town Hall Square: candlelight, staff in costume and dishes built from 15th-century recipes.
Every day, lunch to late evening
Tallinn · Habits
The Viru gate flower stalls
The row of flower stalls along the wall by the Viru gates sells all day, and at least one stall is open around the clock.
Every day
Tallinn · Shops
Telliskivi Saturday flea market
Every Saturday from 11:00 to 15:00, Telliskivi Creative City holds a flea market: in the courtyard from May to September, in the Green Hall from October to April.
Saturdays 11:00 to 15:00, all year
Tallinn · Views
Tallinn TV Tower
The TV tower in Kloostrimetsa is 314 m tall, with a viewing floor at 170 m that has glass panels underfoot.
Every day
Tallinn · Outdoors
Nõmme, the forest town
Nõmme was laid out as a garden town in the 1880s by Nikolai von Glehn, whose castle still stands in the park above it.
Tallinn · Culture
Estonian Open Air Museum
The Estonian Open Air Museum is a village of real farmhouses, windmills and the old Kolu inn, 74 buildings moved from across the country to the seashore at Rocca al Mare.
All year: 10:00 to 20:00 until 28 September, then 10:00 to 17:00
Poland · Food
Wedel's ptasie mleczko
Ptasie mleczko is Wedel's soft marshmallow soufflé in chocolate, first sold in 1936 after Jan Wedel came back from a trip abroad.
Poland · Food
Pierogi the next day
Pierogi are boiled first, and plenty of Poles say they are better the next day, fried in butter or with onion until the edges go crisp.
Poland · Food
Żurek in a bread bowl
Żurek is the sour rye soup with white sausage and a boiled egg, the classic Easter soup.
Poland · Food
Real oscypek
Oscypek is the smoked, spindle-shaped Tatra cheese, EU-protected and made from at least 60% sheep's milk.
Any time
Poland · Habits
Imieniny, name days
Imieniny, name days, are the day of your first name in the calendar, and in Poland they were long a bigger deal than birthdays.
Poland · Habits
The carp in the bathtub
Carp is the main dish of the Christmas Eve supper, and for decades families bought it alive and kept it swimming in the bath, a habit from the years when few homes had a fridge.
December, in the run-up to Christmas Eve
Poland · Habits
Na dworze or na polu
Most of Poland says 'na dworze' for outside, but Kraków and Małopolska say 'na polu', literally 'in the field'.
Poland · Outdoors
Mushroom season
Grzybobranie, mushroom picking, is Poland's autumn sport: families head into the forest at dawn for prawdziwki (porcini), podgrzybki and kurki.
Late August to October
Warsaw · Food
Warsaw's milk bars
Bary mleczne are the old cheap canteens for pierogi, soups and lunch, and a few classics are still going: Prasowy on Marszałkowska since 1954, Bambino on Hoża since 1959, Familijny on Nowy Świat.
Daytime
Warsaw · Culture
Which syrenka is the real one
The mermaid is Warsaw's symbol, and two statues compete: Konstanty Hegel's 1855 syrenka on the Old Town Market Square, whose original moved into the Museum of Warsaw in 2008 with a copy outside, and Ludwika Nitschowa's 1939 one on the Vistula bank.
Warsaw · Food
Wuzetka, Warsaw's cake
Wuzetka is Warsaw's own cake: chocolate sponge, a thick layer of whipped cream and a chocolate top, from the late 1940s.
Warsaw · Food
Warsaw's pączki rivalry
Pączki are Poland's jam doughnuts, rose jam being the classic, and on Tłusty Czwartek the whole country eats them.
All year
Warsaw · Habits
Słoiki
Słoiki, jars, is Warsaw's teasing word for people who moved to the capital from elsewhere in Poland and come back from weekends at home with jars of their mum's cooking.
Warsaw · Outdoors
Warsaw's wild boars
Warsaw's city forests got over 5,000 wild boar reports in 2024, from Bielany to Białołęka and Wawer.
Warsaw · Food
Wedel's first pijalnia on Szpitalna
The Wedel chocolate lounge at Szpitalna 8 is the original, in the 1893 Wedel tenement where Sienkiewicz and Prus drank chocolate.
All year
Warsaw · Food
Pyzy, Flaki Gorące! on Brzeska
Pyzy are Warsaw potato dumplings, often stuffed with meat, and for decades women sold them from jars at Bazar Różyckiego.
Open daily, 11:00 to 22:00
Warsaw · Culture
The palm on Rondo de Gaulle'a
The palm is an artwork, Joanna Rajkowska's 'Greetings from Aleje Jerozolimskie', meant to stay one year from December 2002.
Warsaw · Culture
The Golden Duck on Tamka
The Golden Duck is a Warsaw legend: a princess turned into a golden duck in the cellars of the Ostrogski palace offers a fortune to whoever can spend it all on himself in one day.
Warsaw · Culture
Żoliborz, the pretty shore
Żoliborz really does come from 'joli bord', the name the Piarist fathers gave their 18th-century estate on the Vistula escarpment.
Warsaw · Outdoors
The Łazienki peacocks
About forty peacocks live free in Łazienki, a few of them white, and they stroll the paths and pools around the Palace on the Isle.
Daytime