Seaplane Harbour (Lennusadam) in Tallinn: Tickets, Submarine Lembit, Icebreaker Suur Tõll and Opening Hours

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Seaplane Harbour (Lennusadam) is the Estonian Maritime Museum’s second exhibition space, in the concrete seaplane hangars of Peter the Great’s Naval Fortress. An adult ticket is €22 and covers the hangar, the submarine Lembit, the temporary exhibition and the museum ships Suur Tõll and Valvas. It is free with the Tallinn Card. The museum is closed on Mondays from October to April. A combined ticket for Seaplane Harbour and Fat Margaret is €30, valid for one visit to each within a week. Or book a tour: a private half-day city tourad for up to four people drives Kadriorg, Pirita and the Song Festival Grounds before an Old Town walk; the museum ticket is the way into Seaplane Harbour itself.

⚠️ Closed Mondays from October to April. From May to September the museum is open daily, 10:00 to 19:00. Ticket sales end 30 minutes before closing, and you can board Suur Tõll until 15 minutes before closing.

Tickets and admission

Tickets are sold at the circular desk in the hangar and in the museum’s web shop. A ticket covers the hangar, the temporary exhibition and the museum ships Suur Tõll and Valvas. The whole exhibition is in Estonian and English.

• Concession: children aged 9 to 18, pupils, and holders of ISIC or ITIC cards. Show a student card.
• Family ticket: up to two adults and their children aged 18 or under.
• Combined ticket: one entry to each museum within one week of purchase.
• Free: children aged 8 and under. Children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.
• Audio tour: €5, with headphones of your own or the museum’s.

Tours worth paying for

The museum ticket is the way into Seaplane Harbour. A tour adds the rest of the city.

Private half-day Tallinn highlights tour

From €240 for the group · 4.9 stars from 22 reviews · 4 hours · private, up to 4 people

The Tallinn: Private Half-Day City Tour for Up to 4 Guestsad is a panoramic drive followed by a walk through the Old Town. It stops at Kadriorg Palace and Kumu, the Song Festival Grounds and the Pirita seafront, and its list of Old Town sights includes Fat Margaret. It does not include a ticket for Seaplane Harbour, so buy that at the museum.

The seaplane hangars

The museum is in a building put up as a hangar for seaplanes in the area of Peter the Great’s Naval Fortress. It is 48 metres wide, 121 metres long and 25 metres high, with three flat domes in the roof and a tower at each corner. After a long period out of use in the Soviet era it was restored, and the museum opened in 2012.

The exhibition is arranged on three levels: underwater on the hangar floor, above the water on the bridge on the second floor, and in the air in the roof space. The hangar floor holds marine archaeology, sea rescue, the marine environment, mines and torpedoes, and submarines. It also has a children’s area and the two temporary exhibition spaces.

Lembit in the Seaplane Harbour hangar. Photo: MKFI, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Submarine Lembit

The centrepiece of the hangar is the submarine Lembit, built by Vickers-Armstrongs in England for the Republic of Estonia and launched in 1936. She was taken over by the Soviet Baltic Fleet in 1940 and made seven patrols in the Second World War. She was lifted out of the water in 2011 and now stands in the hangar, where you can go aboard.

Diesel engine, submarine Lembit. Photo: MKFI, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Wheelchairs and pushchairs cannot be used inside Lembit. The way in involves narrow hatches, so it may be tight if you are claustrophobic.

Steam icebreaker Suur Tõll

Moored on the quay outside the hangar is Suur Tõll, the oldest and most valuable of the museum’s ships. She was completed in 1914 for the Russian Empire to break ice in Tallinn Bay and has changed name five times, sailing under the flags of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, Finland and Estonia:

• 1914: built as Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich and renamed Volynets in 1917.
• 1918: captured by Finland and renamed Wäinämöinen.
• 1922: handed to Estonia under the Treaty of Tartu, and renamed Suur Tõll.
• 1940: taken into the Soviet fleet, and in service until 1985.
• 1987: bought by the Estonian Maritime Museum and restored.

You can board her during the museum’s opening hours. Wheelchairs and pushchairs cannot be used on board.

Suur Tõll at the quay. Photo: Pjotr Mahhonin, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Other exhibits

1. Short 184 seaplane: a full-scale replica of the World War I British Short Type 184 seaplane.
2. Maasilinn wreck: a wooden ship from the 16th century, the oldest wreck found in Estonian waters.
3. Mines and torpedoes: a collection of sea mines and torpedoes.
4. Simulators and a yellow submarine: submarine and flight simulators, and a pool where you can sail miniature ships.
5. Museum ships on the pier: Valvas (a former US Coast Guard vessel), the patrol boats Grif and Maru, the minesweeper Kalev and the research vessel Mare, among others.

Opening hours and visiting logistics

• Closed: 24 December 2026 and 1 January 2027.
• Shorter hours, 10:00 to 17:00: 23, 25, 26 and 31 December, and on 20 August.
• Last admission: ticket sales end 30 minutes before closing. The boarding ramp for Suur Tõll closes 15 minutes before closing.

Allow two to three hours to see the hangar and the ships.

Amenities

• Café and shop: a Reval Café and a museum shop are in the hangar.
• Lockers: the cloakroom is unattended and the lockers are next to it. Large bags and suitcases are not allowed in the exhibition.
• Accessibility: two lifts connect the floors, and about 90 per cent of the museum is accessible by wheelchair and pram. There is an accessible toilet. The hangar is dimly lit and echoey.
• Pets: not allowed in the museum, but allowed in the outdoor area of the harbour.

Getting to Seaplane Harbour

Seaplane Harbour is at Vesilennuki 6 in Kalamaja, about 1.5 kilometres from the Balti Jaam railway station:

• By bus: line 73 stops at Lennusadam on Kalaranna street, about 150 metres from the museum. Bus 3 and trams 1 and 2 stop at Põhja puiestee, from where you walk about 1 kilometre along Kalasadam and Kalaranna.
• On foot or by bike: follow Kalaranna street along the waterfront north of the Old Town.
• By car: free parking is across Vesilennuki street and beside the hangar. Register your car on the screen inside the museum.

Connecting sights nearby

• Noblessner seafront: the former shipyard quarter on the shoreline beside the museum.
• Telliskivi Creative City: a walk south through Kalamaja’s wooden streets.
• Fat Margaret and the Town Wall: the Maritime Museum’s other exhibition space, at the northern gate of the Old Town and part of the €30 combined ticket.
• Tallinn Card: free entry to Seaplane Harbour and Fat Margaret.

Common questions

How much are tickets to Seaplane Harbour?

An adult ticket is €22 and covers the hangar, the temporary exhibition and the museum ships Suur Tõll and Valvas. A ticket for children aged 9 to 18, pupils and ISIC or ITIC holders is €11, and a family ticket for up to two adults and children aged 18 or under is €40. Children aged 8 and under and Tallinn Card holders enter free.

When is Seaplane Harbour open?

From October to April the museum is open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00 and closed on Mondays. From May to September it is open daily 10:00 to 19:00. Ticket sales end 30 minutes before closing, and you can board the Suur Tõll until 15 minutes before closing.

Can you go inside the submarine Lembit?

Yes, the submarine is part of the exhibition. Wheelchairs and pushchairs cannot enter it or the icebreaker Suur Tõll.

Is there a combined ticket with Fat Margaret?

Yes. A Maritime Museum combined ticket for Seaplane Harbour and Fat Margaret (Paks Margareeta) is €30 for adults, €15 for concessions and €60 for a family. It allows one entry to each within a week of purchase.

How do you reach Seaplane Harbour from Tallinn Old Town?

Take bus 73 to the Lennusadam stop on Kalaranna street, about 150 metres from the museum. You can also walk north from the Old Town along Kalaranna, which is roughly 1 kilometre from the Kalasadam stop.