SilentFog Arriving at the Tallinn airport at 12:15 local time, I figured I should give a big buffer of time between then and getting the coach to St Petersburg.
no need. Very small and compact city. You could walk from airport to bus terminal, half hour.
Bus 2 is a bit more than 5 mn to bus terminal, 3rd stop, with 15mn between every bus.
SilentFog there can be very unpredictable delays at the Ivangorod border. So on my return trip, I figured I should get the coach from St Petersburg to Tallinn so that I arrive long before my flight, just in case. So if my return flight is at 12:45 local, I should really be getting the coach to the airport just after midnight (12 Hours before flight, 6-7 hour coach journey) to account for border delays.
probably better after summer holidays and before Christmas holidays.
Narva border point works 07:00-23:00 Estonian time.
Regular bus arriving at Ivangorod around 07:00 is the SKSAvto/Baltic Shuttle departing by shopping center Galeriya (after Moscow railway station on Ligovsky av.) 04:10, next 05:45 from bus terminal. These are the earliest possible.
The 04:10 is expected at Tallin bus terminal around 10:30 (10:20 at per schedule).
there is a night bus from SPb, but via Pskov, to the southern border of Estonia, ~ 12hrs, it's a lot
if Ivangorod-Narva border is experiencing long queues, then it may be better to take the express regional train (Lastochka) to Pskov, then catch there the night bus. Pskov is a pleasant little city.
But then also, depart from Riga may be better, as there are busses Pskov-Tallinn and Pskov-Riga.
In May and in June I did the Tallinn-Narva route but return Pskov-Riga, and in June from a flight Moskow-Pskov, as I saw Azimuth airlines has very convenient cheap route Vnukovo-Pskov. Perfect timing with night bus Pskov-Riga.
It all depends where you travel from/to inside EU, and from/to inside Russia.
also the Kaliningrad route, flights from SPb or Moskow, bus to/from Gdansk.