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Lennart Meri

Tallinn to London weekend travel experience October 2023

This blog post is about my experience of travelling from Tallinn to London for a weekend to be part of the family celebrations. So we planned the weekend trip to London from Tallinn, the last week of September. And I wish we had more time. Knowing my wife and I are full-time working, it was tricky to spare more time out and spend in London with family. My mom, brother and his family all coming to London to celebrate my niece’s first birthday as she turned 1 year old on 30th September.

Tallinn to London Flights

My brother-in-law visited us from Manchester recently and he flew from London to Tallinn via Wizz Air. And he bought tickets dirt cheap. We were like how is this possible? we were a little scandalised and wanted to book Tallinn to London flights for ourselves to see if we were lucky enough to get cheap flights. No wonder, we got super cheap flights from Tallinn to London via Wizz Air. Of course, there are hidden charges for literally everything like seat selection, meals, and small trolley baggage. But still, it turned out to be cheaper than booking flights from Ryanair and Air Baltic.

There are many other airlines as well which can help you travel without any hassle to London depending on the latest deals and offers running by the airline when you are booking your Tallinn to London Flight. There are frequent flights from Air Baltic, Sas, KLM, Finnair, LOT, and Norwegian Airlines. All outbound flights from Tallinn take off from Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL). London has various airports where inbound flights from Tallinn land like London Heathrow Airport (LHR), London Gatwick Airport (LGW), Luton Airport (LTN)

We suggest you book your flights in advance and search for the best flights we have partnered with Skyscanner. You can search for Tallinn to London flights below:

Wizz Air Tallinn to London Journey

So we bought the ticket and I also bought check-in baggage for myself, as we had to get a lot of shopping done from London and wanted to take extra luggage for both sides. Our flight was at 9.55 pm on Friday. We reached Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport TLL in time and did our check-in for the luggage we bought. The check-in was smooth as there were hardly any queues or crowds buying luggage on a budget airline. Another reason was that not many flights were taking off during that time of the night on Friday.

Tallinn to London Wizz Air aircraft
Tallinn to London Wizz Air aircraft

The aircraft Airbus A320 was pretty small still it had about 32 rows of seats. Each row had 6 seats, 3 seats on each side. The airline was almost full few seats here and there were empty. The take-off was pretty smooth, and snacks and service were pretty good onboard as well. The journey in total was around 3 hours.

Luton Airport Experience

We landed at Luton Airport on time and had no hassles as such in the immigration queue. Rather we were surprised that the queue for the non-British passport and European passport holders was very small. So it took us like 10-15 minutes to get the UK Border immigration done. The baggage collection process was relatively smooth as well. The airport for some reason was very untidy we were not sure why it was so unclean all around.

Luton Airport
Luton Airport

Train Strikes at Luton Airport

We went to the train ticket counter to book our tickets to Central London, as my family lives in East Ham. There was no one at the ticket counter and everyone was buying the tickets from the ticket vending machine. So we booked the one-way ticket for £ 22 each Victoria Station, Central London. After buying the tickets, we walked to the train station which was outside the main gate of the airport. By the time we came out to take a train to Central London, it was midnight past. We came to know that train strikes are starting at midnight. And we were shell-shocked to know.

There was no one to guide us on what to do and what transport to take. After asking some travellers outside who were stuck like us they shared that National Express Coach buses are running from the airport to the city centre. they are the only options we have now. So we immediately ran back inside the airport to get a refund for the ticket but there was no one to assist us. We then went back to the same vending machines, there we saw the machines for the coach buses as well. We booked our tickets yet again and went out to the bus stand which was right out of the airport gates on the right-hand side.

National Express Bus Coach Experience

We finally got the bus and boarded. The bus was full of travellers who had been stuck due to train strikes. The driver started moving at the right time stating the tickets we bought. As it was way too late 2 am or so, the driver was stopping at many places which were not part of the route, just as a gesture for the people who were stuck due to public transport strikes all across London City. We were supposed to reach London Victoria in 1 hour and 15 minutes, however it took almost 1 hour 40 minutes to reach London Victoria.

national express
National Express
To summarise, While I have been to London many times, the travel experience since the time I Landed at Luton airport has been not great, especially since the country is fighting salary hikes and transport strikes demanded by the public transport workers. The government may be doing all that it can to improve the situation, but London has changed a lot, ever since I first went to London in 2006.

I would suggest planning and booking your travel in advance, I missed it myself this time a reminder to myself as well to all the London tour package customers and readers. To know more about Tallinn to London Tours and packaged click here to know more.

Tallinn to London Travel Experience July 2022

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Finally, I went to London in July 2022 after a good 2 years gap. This time I travelled from Tallinn to London. In this post, I will share my travel experience of what it’s like to travel from Tallinn to London.

Staying in Tallinn, Estonia for almost 3 months now. I had to go to London. Knowing my Dad lives there, and I have not seen him for some time. We all decided that as the flights are open (Post Corona Virus Panedimic) from Estonia and India. We all can gather in London to celebrate my father’s birthday.

Tallinn to London Air Baltic Flight

Post-pandemic the flight cost has shot up and this was evident when we booked our Tallinn to London flights. We searched for our flights from Skyscanner. However, doing detailed research we found that if we book individual tickets from Tallinn (Lennart Meri) to London (Gatwick) one way and London to Tallinn one way. This way we can get the timing of the flight we want. This is not a recommended approach however, we were able to save some money by doing this. Air Baltic flight from Tallinn to London for 2 people cost us 393 Euros. This one was not even direct, we first had to take a flight BT362 From Tallinn to Riga and then flight BT651 from Riga to London Gatwick.

The whole duration of the journey was 5 hours or so. Flight from Tallinn to Riga was for 50 mins and Riga to London was 3 hours or so. In total, if you are travelling from Tallinn to London the shortest time duration is 5 hours.

You can search for Air Baltic flights by clicking on the banner below:

Air Baltic
Air Baltic

I searched for the best deal for my Flight from Tallinn to London on Skyscanner. Check out the flights from Skyscanner below to get the best deals and offers:

London Gatwick Airport

Landed at the Third busiest airport in the UK. Gatwick airport and then I had to book a train to reach Central London. As we were hungry we took a quick bite from the Marks and Spencer Food store at the airport. I had my old University-time Oyster Card. However, for some reason, I was not able to top it up, even though I had GBP currency with me. Nevertheless, The fastest way to reach Central London that I figured out there was via the Gatwick Express. We bought a ticket one way from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria Station for £20 each. This was a little expensive but anyway, we had to buy one. The train came in at platform 2 and we hopped onto the train. There were about 2 stops before we reached Victoria Station, East Croydon and Clapham Junction.

London Victoria to East Ham Station

We reached London Victoria in about 30 minutes. From there we continued our journey to East Ham. We took the district line towards Upton Park. This journey involved 19 stops. I mean this was the fastest we could travel to reach our destination at reasonable expenses. You may take a private cab but then they will be charging a lot more than a good old London tube.

You can plan your journey by visiting the TFL website, as there are a lot of disruptions due to construction and repair work done on the tube line.

Visa For London, UK

Thankfully I had a UK tourist visa before I moved to Estonia. I applied for a UK visa when I was in Delhi, India. As I have been a frequent traveller to the UK. I applied for a 5-year tourist visa from the New Delhi VFS Global Centre. In case you are Estonian and want to travel to the UK, You need not apply for a visa. Estonians can travel to the UK and stay up to 6 months without a visa. You also need to make sure that you meet the standard visitor eligibility requirements. To know more about the UK visa types and fees you can check out our Visa for London UK page.

Overall I had been missing London and finally got a chance to visit this beautiful city again. My Tallinn to London travel Experience has been good, and I will be travelling more frequently now. Knowing COVID-19 has taken more than 2 years of our life. Another reason is that I have shifted to Tallinn, So Tallinn to London travel will be much more frequent than Delhi to London travel.

London Weather

However must say, summers here are getting unbearable. Climate change is playing havoc. All the underground trains are too old to cope with the heat. Especially the Central line does not have air conditioning. A lot is going to change in this big city. And the climate is going to play a pivotal role.

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