BIKE TO SPA: City Bike brings you to enjoy the spa by bicycle

Have you thought that the way to the spa could be just as healthy as the pleasant spa treatments? In cooperation with the bicycle rental Citybike offers Elamus SPA from now on the chance to travel by bicycle from the picturesque Old Town to Mustamäe to enjoy the spa.

Cycling culture is developing in Estonia too

Silja Hurskainen, marketing project manager at Tallinn’s tourism department, tried out the discovery-filled route herself and revealed that interest in getting around by bicycle is on the rise among tourists. „In the tourism department we have experience, for example, from this year’s tourism fair in Finland, where more and more people asked specifically about cycling and about being out in nature. We do sense that there is interest among tourists,” she says, adding that as a representative of Tallinn she is extremely supportive of everything that develops cycling culture.

Silja reveals that cycling culture is developing in Estonia too, and that this is positive from a tourism point of view, because tourists need to see ordinary people cycling in order to dare to do it themselves. „If there start to be more cycle paths here, that is an extremely good thing. They must be safe and marked, a map of cycle paths is coming, and slowly this thing keeps getting better,” she says, praising Tallinn’s many faces, which give a cyclist many different emotions and experiences.

Tourists are travelling further from Tallinn’s centre

Toomas Lelov, CEO of City Bike, explains that Tallinn is more varied than is often thought, and tourists have realised this too, increasingly going to explore areas further from the centre. „From the seaside you can cycle very well all the way to Viimsi, and on the other side to Rocca Al Mare and Tabasalu. Tourists increasingly do travel outwards. In the Old Town it is of course best to walk, but going elsewhere – Kadriorg, Pirita, all directions, and to the other side all the way to Mustamäe – it is very well cyclable,” he describes the possible routes, and debunks the myth that outside the centre there are only identical buildings all around and nothing to see.

Tallinn is more varied than is often thought, and tourists have realised this too, increasingly going to explore areas further from the centre.

Toomas says that Tallinn is exactly the right size and it is possible to reach everywhere. „A foreign tourist, generally the kind who rents a bike or comes on a bike tour, is already used to cycling. They have no obstacles, no boredom, and they know what to look at. Moving around they always ask for information: what is this, there is a beautiful lake here, can I go swimming there, and then I have to explain that this is Lake Ülemiste, unfortunately you cannot, but look, you can go there, and so on,” the man describes the tourists visiting the city.

Tallinn can surprise locals too

Margit Kurn, manager of Elamus SPA, explains that the idea of bringing foreign tourists and also local residents by bicycle from the harbour or the Old Town directly to the spa came about in cooperation with City Bike and at the EAS service design master class. „As foreign guests are an ever-growing trend among Elamus SPA’s visitors, the idea arose that the two companies could join forces, and City Bike then developed its own tour of how it is possible to cycle from the Old Town to Elamus SPA,” she explains the background of the idea.

Margit stresses that Elamus SPA values healthy lifestyles and being active, and that is why it is worth showing tourists visiting the city, and why not the local resident of Tallinn too, that in addition to public transport and the car you can also come to the spa by bicycle. „Riding this route myself today, there were a great many aha moments. Even though I am a Tallinner myself, there are places here where I have never actually been, and what can I say – Tallinn is very, very green. I was surprised by how much forest there was and how many great forest trails,” the woman says, and recommends that local people too rent City Bike bicycles and, instead of sitting at home in front of the television, cycle to the spa, enjoying nature along the way.

Elamus SPA values healthy lifestyles and being active, and that is why it is worth showing that in addition to public transport and the car you can also come to the spa by bicycle.

There are several bike routes to Mustamäe to choose from; for example, cycling from the Old Town to Elamus SPA in Mustamäe makes 17 kilometres in total, and time-wise, with photo stops and a pleasant café break, you could reckon on about 2–2.5 hours depending on your pace.

Once you have reached Elamus SPA by bicycle, you can conveniently park the bikes by the spa and recover from the ride in the spa’s water features and saunas with a 20% cheaper ticket price.

The longer bike rides are 30 km and 38 km, the latter route being best covered on a mountain bike.

FIND MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE BIKE ROUTE AND BOOKING HERE!