Tour estone di cibo, bevande e storia

Thank you for your booking and for taking the time to leave your feedback. We did our best to give you the opportunity to try a variety of local dishes, and your tour was led by a professional local guide. When booking this experience, it is important to understand that you are not simply purchasing a meal in a restaurant — you are also paying for the knowledge and insight of a local expert. All of the restaurants you visited are located in Tallinn’s Old Town. During a food tour of this length, it would not be practical to travel outside the Old Town, as this would require transportation, considerably more guide time, and would make the tour significantly more expensive. I understand that you may have had the impression that we took you only to touristy places. However, you visited Tallinn in August, at the very peak of the tourist season, on a day when cruise ships were in port. For much of the year, there are far fewer tourists in Tallinn, while these same restaurants continue operating and serving local customers. It is also worth mentioning that restaurants in the Old Town generally have higher prices, but they also tend to have better kitchens, more experienced chefs and better service. Of course, it would be possible to arrange a several-hour trip into the Estonian countryside to visit rural restaurants, but very few guests would be willing to spend considerably more time and money simply to eat outside Tallinn. The food itself would not necessarily be very different. What you tasted in the Old Town represents dishes and culinary traditions found throughout Estonia. In fact, some of the dishes served on the tour are no longer commonly eaten by Estonians in everyday life. They are prepared in the Old Town specifically because they represent traditional Estonian cuisine and allow visitors to experience what people here used to eat in the past. Regarding a market visit, this is not included in our food tour because the market does not operate every day, while we run this tour daily. There are other food tours available online that include a market visit, but they are generally around twice the price of ours. We deliberately try to keep our tour more affordable. In your particular case, the experience was also effectively private, as we operated the tour for just three guests. We do not impose a minimum of, for example, five participants and then cancel the tour and refund everyone if that minimum is not reached. We value our guests’ time and travel plans, and we are prepared to go the extra mile to make sure they receive the experience they came to Estonia for. I hope this explains the reasoning behind the format of the tour and answers the points you raised. We would be very happy to welcome you back to Estonia in the future. There is still a great deal more to see — and to taste! Kind regards Discover Estonia

Thank you for your feedback. We were surprised to see a one-star review posted before even half of the tour had taken place. Our food tour is not simply a restaurant meal. It is an experience combining carefully selected examples of Estonian cuisine with visits to different venues and commentary from a professional local guide about the food, its history, and Tallinn itself. The marzipan you received is one of Estonia’s traditional sweets and is individually wrapped. Guests are welcome to taste a small piece immediately or simply keep it for later if they do not want something sweet before the next tasting. There is no expectation that everything must be eaten the moment it is handed to you. Since the review was written at such an early stage of the tour, before most of the tastings, locations and guide’s stories had even been experienced, we feel it cannot really reflect the tour as a whole. We are pleased that the vast majority of our guests understand the concept and enjoy the combination of local food, history and personal guidance. We hope that by the end of the tour you were also able to enjoy more of what the experience was designed to offer.