Telegraaf Hotel

The historic center of Tallinn is rich with architectural history, even as the city has emerged as a modern European capital. And something similar can be said for the Telegraaf Hotel — though it’s housed in a 19th-century building that was once the city’s telegraph exchange, it’s a thoroughly modern luxury boutique hotel of the type that’s by now familiar to travelers the world over.

A modern wing has been added to the original structure, but the differences in interior design between the two are less pronounced than you might imagine — the rooms in the historic wing may be marked by a touch more Art Deco ornament, but all of them are a confident mix of retro elegance and contemporary cool. And the most unique touch is a low-tech one; a service door connects the bedroom closets to the corridors so that laundry and shoes can be collected without interruption.

The Telegraaf Spa cements the hotel’s status in the top tier of Tallinn’s lodgings, and the Restaurant Tchaikovsky, beneath the arched ceiling of the hotel’s atrium, is a fixture on the Estonian capital’s fine dining scene, combining French and Russian techniques with homegrown flavors and produce.