For Foreign Students

One of the most important parts of your stay is the place you will call home for the next period of time. While there are opportunities to rent out apartments or rooms by searching social media, there are many opportunities for student housing as well. There are different opportunities depending on whether you are ere as an exchange student or a degree student, but we recommend familiarising yourself with all of them.

• Tartu Welcome Centre has all the important information
• Information about student dormitories for EXCHANGE students
• Information about student dormitories for DEGREE students

It goes without saying that we wish for a pleasant working and studying environments for all our students & staff. To guarantee this we would like to give you some information. Included here are the emergency contacts used in Estonia as well.

All information regarding health care and safety.

112 - Emergency Services

1220 – Family Doctor’s Advice Line, ENG every day 15.00-17.00. (Calling from abroad +372 634 6630) 

1247 – Crisis hotline 24h free (Calling from abroad +372 600 1247)

6123500 – Migration consultants Mon-Fri 9.00-15.00 

Everyone likes good food and drinks but where should you go?

Restaurants

Tartu does not have any student run places to eat or drink, but the Old Town is filled with restaurants and bars. Almost all of the restaurants in the city have lunch offers, so for sure take advantage of that.

If you want to get cheap daily offers for different places in Tartu, use the Paevapraad Eesti app or their website. Both are in Estonian unfortunately, but it shows you all the offers of the day. Most of the faculties have a microwave, so you can always heat up the food you have taken from home.

Bars

Rüütli Street is the place to be if you want to find students, bars and the nightlife. One of the most visited bars in Tartu is Möku (Magasini 5). Other popular places are Kivi, Trepp, Mülä, Lokaal Pirogov and Blood Milk Water.

Chances are slim that you’re an Olympic athlete or a living Leonardo da Vinci, but that doesn’t mean you can't enjoy some sports or culture.

Museums & culture

• All the University of Tartu museums are free to visit for the students. 
• University of Tartu Library.
• Museums in Tartu.
• Vanemuise theater (biggest one in Tartu).
• Apollo cinema (located in Lõunakeskus, Eeden and Tasku shopping center)
• Smaller, not so mainstream cinema Elektriteater.

If you are in Estonia for a year or longer and are enthusiastic about visiting as many museums as possible, we also recommend buying a museum card (65 euros). With that you can visit 120+ museums and 500+ exhibitions within a year.

Sport

• University of Tartu Sports Centre (has gym with group classes, track & field arena, ballroom).
• Estonian University of Life Sciences sports club (has gym with group classes, ballroom, hobby sports training options).
• City has multiple gyms, popular ones are MyFitness (with group classes), Gym! and Lemon Gym.
• Tartu also has multiple tennis, basketball, badminton and padel arenas. Outdoor gyms are also quite popular and located in multiple places, biggest one is in Tähtvere Spordipark (also place to skate and ski during winter time).

To know the basics of Estonian, here are some important words and sentences:

• Hello: “Tere”
• Good morning: “Tere hommikust!”
• Good afternoon: “Tere päevast”
• Good evening: “Tere õhtust!”  
• Goodbye: “Head aega!” & "Nägemist!" & (more casual) "Tsau!"
• Please: “Palun”
• You are welcome: “Pole tänu väärt!”
• Thank you: “Aitäh!”
• Yes: “Jah”
• No: “Ei”  
• Cheers: “Terviseks!” 

Transportation is always a bit tricky at first. So, we got you covered! Firstly (and lastly), maps apps are lifesavers. Do not hesitate to use them. All the information can be found on the Tartu Welcome Centre website, under the tab "Transportation in Tartu"

Public transportation in the city:

•  Public transportation tickets (bus)
• Timetables

If you wish to have a shortcut to see the timetables on your phone, then download the app(s) Tartu bussiajad and/or ESTRA. Google and Apple maps are also mostly up to date with the bus stops and the timetables.

• The cheapest taxi you could take is from the Bolt app (electrical scooters are also available).
• There is also a possibility to use city bikes.

Transportation in Estonia:

• Bus tickets: Tpilet and Lux Express
• The railway system.

Maps can of course help you out a long way but just in case we got you covered with a local city map!  

• Tartu city map.
• Tartu city itself is a campus. The university of Tartu map.
• The virtual tour of University of Tartu buildings.

All important information under the tab “Getting to Tartu”.

Airports:

• Tartu Airport (fligts only to Helsinki)
• Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (Estonia) 
• RIX Riga Airport (Latvia) 

From Tallinn Airport, the best way to get to Tartu is by bus. It goes from straight from Tallinn Airport to the Tartu Coach Station. You can find tickets in tpilet and LuxExpress. There is also a possibility to take the Elron train from Tallinn (Ülemiste station is ca 800m from the airport) to Tartu. From Riga Airport there is also a LuxExpress bus that goes straight from the Riga Airport to the Tartu Coach Station.