16eur - Fat Margaret's

16eur - Fat Margaret's is the hostel every Tallinn backpacker has heard of, and after 4736 reviews that reputation has settled into something predictable: a €16 dorm bed at the edge of the Old Town walls, a big shared kitchen, rentable sauna sessions, and a crowd heavy on Interrail travelers from May to September. The building sits on Põhja puiestee directly opposite Paks Margareeta (Fat Margaret's Tower), a stocky 16th-century cannon bastion that gives the hostel its name.

Dorms are large — eight to twelve beds depending on the room — with curtains between bunks, in-dorm lockers, and shared hallway bathrooms. The shared kitchen runs a non-stop morning-to-evening rhythm: somebody is always boiling pasta and someone else is labeling a Rimi grocery bag. The lobby doubles as a lounge where the pre-pub-crawl crowd gathers. Board games live in a drawer behind reception.

The stand-out is the on-site sauna. Unlike Ring SPA, here you rent the sauna room in 90-minute blocks so it's genuinely private — bring a group of six, bring beers, and have a proper Estonian night without the tourist version. Small plunge pool for the contrast. Location-wise you're three minutes from the Kalamaja Telliskivi-bound direction and five minutes from Raekoja plats in the other, meaning you can literally split your days between hipster breweries and medieval cobblestones without a tram.