I’m only in Tallinn for two nights. When I was planning this trip I was expecting to stay longer, but I’ve been here before and the thing I still most want to see¹ is currently closed. So I’m bouncing. I’ve got a bus leaving for Riga in a couple hours.

There was a time when I might have just caught the bus after one night or even, God forbid, tried to catch the ferry and then the bus the same day.² Maybe I’m learning. I do have to live somewhere in between all the travel, and I really value the times when I can get up and do nothing all day and go to bed without worrying about anything.³

So I’ve been thinking about hotels. I stay in a lot of hotels, and I’m always torn between cheaper ones and nicer ones. The nicer ones have thicker walls and better mattresses and solid water pressure and when you wake up you don’t have an immediate hit of regret over your life choices. The cheaper ones are just cheaper.⁴ It’s always a struggle.⁵

Which is why finding a place which manages to hit both is so exciting for me. In Tallinn I booked someplace called the Hektor Container Hotel. It wasn’t dirt cheap but it was cheapish⁶ and I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s made of converted shipping containers, which could mean just about anything. The description assured me the rooms all had separate climate controls and showers and proper electrical outlets, which sounded great, although the fact they felt they needed to clarify those details was a little worrisome.⁷

It turns out it’s right next to the main train station, in a tzarist rail depot. The inside of the depot has been filled with all the containers, about 100 of them, stacked on two levels and encased in an open industrial chic shell that provides stairs and a second floor. The decor isn’t luxe, but despite being done on a budget it manages to feel sleek rather than cheap. There are small trees in planters throughout the space to soften it a little, and they’re plastic but not obviously so. And there’s common spaces scattered throughout with couches and tables for working.

And the containers turn out to be actually quite nice. They aren’t large, but a shipping container isn’t all that small, either. There’s a comfy double bed with lots of pillows.⁸ The doors of the shipping container have been removed⁹ and there’s been a window the full height and width of the container installed, which really helps avoid feeling claustrophobic.

The walls are a thin wood veneer, but because they’re screwed into a shipping container the space has a really pleasantly solid feel to it. The door to the room, cut opposite the window, shuts with a pleasing thunk. That’s maybe the nicest part of using converted shipping containers; most budget hotels I’ve been in rely on walls that feel like particleboard and you often feel like you’re a risk of knocking a hole in them if you stumble. This room has a weight to it. It’s been incredibly hushed and silent the whole time I’ve been here.

It’s definitely a budget option. There’s no minifridge or coffee machine in the room, and reception is non-existent.¹⁰ But at the same time there’s a large-screen TV in the room and free washer/driers in the building, and the checkout time is noon. Plus it’s not located on the outskirts of town but right in the middle, near a food market with ramen stalls and burger counters and next to a BBQ joint¹¹ and a retro diner.¹²

The way I travel, this kind of place is just about perfect. It’s incredibly well-thought out. It’s designed overwhelmingly in metal and wood and fabric, rather than plastic. It’s quiet and relaxing. Sometimes I want an overstuffed feather bed, or a pool, or a superb breakfast and a swanky cocktail lounge. But mostly I just want this.

Next: Riga (RIX) to Prague (PRG)
Prev: Helsinki to Tallinn

Footnotes

¹ The Patarei Sea Fortress, a Communist-era prison now a museum and a memorial, undergoing renovations and closed until 2026.

² A direct one-way flight from Helsinki to Riga seems like it’s about 50€, which was another option, but I’m trying to avoid flights where reasonable.

³ “Do nothing all day” is more accurately “Have nothing on deck which requires being done today.” I’ve got a ton of stuff to do … eventually. I just like when they’re far enough in the future I can pretend they don’t exist.

⁴ Paying an extra 10€ per night for a hotel room for a three-day weekend is only 30€, but if you’re booking for a month it’s an extra 300€. Minor differences become significant over the long term. So it pays to be a little ruthless over what you’re spending, if you’re in it for the long haul.

⁵ The last hotel I stayed at, in Finland, was on the cheaper side and nice enough but didn’t have carpeting on the floor and it did have IKEA furniture and the bed — a single — was essentially a thin mattress pad over a bedframe. Worse, it wasn’t attached to the bedframe, which meant the sheets weren’t secure either. I always woke up with the mattress pad hanging off the frame and the sheets hanging off the bed with it.

Three nights there wasn’t that bad, and it had a good breakfast buffet, but I was ready to leave when I did.

⁶ Same as the last hotel in Finland.

⁷ I’ve been resistant to booking in to any capsule hotels having stayed in ones in Singapore that didn’t have any of that.

⁸ I really need two pillows to be comfortable, and three to four is my sweet spot.

⁹ Except in a few cases, when they’ve been left on and hanging open as an industrial variant of a cathedral grotesque

¹⁰ You check in online and they give you a keycode which will get you in to both the building and your room.

¹¹ A BBQ joint that inexcusably ran out of mac and cheese, but a BBQ joint none-the-less. I’m not bitter.

¹² It’s in Telliskivi, which is a former industrial area that’s turned into a technological and creative hub for Tallinn. So it’s filled with boutique shops and galleries and coffee shops. So yes, hipster and bougie.