Living in Ülemiste, Tallinn

Ülemiste is the south-east corner of Tallinn, and more than a classic neighbourhood it is the city's hub of work and transit. Three things sit here together: Tallinn's Lennart Meri airport, Ülemiste City - the largest business and technology campus in the Baltic states, built on the site of the former Dvigatel factory - and Lake Ülemiste, which supplies the city's drinking water. Next to it, Tallinn's largest shopping centre and the Ülemiste station. It is a planned and modern area, increasingly residential too.

Who lives here

Historically it is not a neighbourhood of residents: it grew as an industrial and then business area. Today, alongside the thousands of people who work here - Ülemiste City alone counts over eighteen thousand between work and study - the first real residents are starting to appear, in the apartments of the new buildings designed for those who want to live a stone's throw from the office. The profile is international and tied to tech and services.

What it's like during the day

During the day Ülemiste is in full swing: the offices of Ülemiste City, which hosts hundreds of companies from startups to the big names in tech, the flow of the airport, the Ülemiste Keskus shopping centre always busy. It is a weekday made of work, meetings, quick lunches and journeys. The lake and the green areas around it give some breathing room to an otherwise heavily built-up setting.

What it's like in the evening

In the evening everything changes: the offices empty and the area falls silent. It is not a nightlife area - what remains is the shopping centre's hours and a few venues tied to the campus. To go out you head into the centre, about ten minutes away. It is a neighbourhood that sleeps in the evening.

Getting around

The airport is here, so connections matter. Bus 2 links the airport to the city centre in about a quarter of an hour, with frequent services. The Ülemiste station serves the Elron regional trains towards Tartu, Pärnu and the rest of the country. The centre of Tallinn is about ten minutes away. It is a hub designed for arriving and leaving rather than for getting around on foot.

Eating and shopping

For shopping and meals the answer is above all Ülemiste Keskus, the large shopping centre, with supermarkets, shops and dining of every kind, plus the venues inside the Ülemiste City campus. For a neighbourhood experience - markets, cafés with character, street life - you need to head into the centre: here the shopping-centre scale dominates.

When NOT to pick it

If you are after a neighbourhood with a soul, historic streets and life in the evening, Ülemiste is not the place: it is a work campus, an airport and a large shopping centre, efficient but without the fabric of a district. The evenings are dead and the closeness to the airport is not to everyone's taste. It makes sense for those who work here and want to cut out the commute, or for those who put efficiency and connections ahead of atmosphere.