Helsinki and Tallinn in July

Tallin is a great city and much, much, much cheaper than Helsinki. The Old Town area of Tallin is the most spectacular I've ever seen but the problem in July is it will be over run with tourists. There are all sorts of cafes w/ outdoor seating where you can grab a beer or food and people watch. Right outside the gates of Old Town, near the train station, is a more locals, artsy, young people area. Go to Burger Box for a burger and you'll be in that area. I think they have weird hours so they might be closed but around there are food trucks and an area with restaurants in containers. There are some craft beer places over there and check out Karbes kitchen bar for some good food. There are also some night clubs around there but we didn't go to any. We stayed in an airbnb about 5 years ago in this area for about $40/night that was really nice. Walk around the residential area especially the street Valgavese, its full of cool old wood houses that reminded me of the houses in New Orleans. It was an area Russian laborers used to live. There are some beautiful coastal areas with big white cliffs and an old USSR submarine base but you need a car to get to those. And I think the sub base has been turned into a retail development, I went to it my first time in Estonia in 2000 when we had a local guide, whose apt we rented. We found a hole in the chainlink fence and went in. It was abandoned at that time but I sill have an old russian electrical blueprint I found laying in one of the offices, maybe state secrets! We went from Tallin to Riga, Latvia and Vilnus, Lithuania and I highly recommend those places too.

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Not sure what to do in Tallinn

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Take a tour of the old KGB headquarters that's now a museum. Very humbling.