St Petersburg with a 10 and 11 year old

I'm not sure one of the preset tours would work for my kids. While I love the itinerary set up by SPb tours, I feel it may be too many museum visits for my kids. On the other hand, a private tour is so much more expensive!

Any advice? I'd love some ideas from people who visited this port with their kids.

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I had an 11-year-old with me last summer and took him on the SPB Highlights Tour with us, and he very much enjoyed it. Of course, he usually enjoys museums, but there aren't really a lot of museums -- they're more ornate palaces and cathedrals -- and you're kept moving. Kids will get more out of St. Petersburg if they know something of Russian history, even if just from the cartoon Anastasia. Look for tours that include a subway ride and/or a canal tour. The hydrofoil ride to Peterhof was also fun.

Oh, also, look for the cats. Surrounded by Romanov tombs in the Peter and Paul Fortress, what did my kids want to do? Pat the cat hanging out in the cathedral. (To be fair, they'd been away from our cats for 2 weeks by then. And I would've patted the cat if my own kids hadn't been in the way.)

I would definitely do a city tour and also Peterhof or Pushkin (Palace of Yekaterina)

Thanks trosebery. That's the one I was looking at and I wasn't sure if it would work. I also looked into Best Guides but my husband wasn't thrilled with their suggestions. I'm just trying to make everyone happy!!

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While we did not cruise with our kids in the Baltics, they would have LOVED it at that age. (We did a Nile cruise in Egypt when they were 9 and 12, a similar type of experience, and they loved it.)

Looking back on our tour with Alla, I think there would be a lot of enjoyable things for kids the ages of yours--the subway ride, the hydrofoil ride, the waterworks at Peterhof, the gruesome story of the murder of Rasputin at Yusupov Palace, the story behind the Church on Spilled Blood, etc. And, if you go to St. Isaac's Cathedral, be sure to have them look for "Jesus with a Bowling Ball". (At least that's what it looked like to me!)

Here is one place we are trying to squeeze in for our upcoming trip.

If you search youtube you will find more shots of it.

sightcrr

We did a private tour in SPB (there are 8 in our family, including then 10 yo ds.) Our private tour was not much different than a small group tour, with the exception that we stopped at the Cat Museum, a cat rescue place that lets you pet cats, and after we started getting tired, coffee and ice cream in the afternoon. We did the Hermitage, Church of Spilled Blood, lunch at a fast food blini place, hydrofoil to Peterhof and a walk around the gardens/fountains, then rode the van back down to Nevsky Prospect for a quick stroll. Ds did fine for all of it. He lagged a bit at the Hermitage, but he knew it was going to be part of the day.

We finished the day at a local restaurant while our driver waited outside.

So, in summary, your boys would probably do fine on a standard tour. That said, a private or semi-private (set up thru your roll call), might get you more lee way. You may never be in SPB again, so consider how much it's worth it to you to have a bit more control over what you do that day. To save money, assuming you go to Stockholm, that's a very easy port to DIY.

You might want to talk to you custom guides and ask for suggestions. They can plan accordingly.

I'm sorry - I know it's expensive, but for my family a private tour for just our family made all the difference in the world in St. Petersburg for us. My son at 3 was able to handle visiting all of the major attractions in St. Petersburg because we could stop when he was whiny and feed him immediately, and skip through lesser rooms and stay longer when he was interested. Your kids are older, but I wouldn't take the chance if you can afford it. We DIY the entire rest of the trip (skipped Berlin due to our son not being able to handle that at all). My signature line includes a review with a lot of discussion about taking kids on this trip. Back when the ruble's value fell some forum members reported that tour companies were willing to create private tours for their families for less than the stated value on their websites due to the fact that since tours are paid in US dollars, when the ruble falls they still make more money. I have no idea if it would work, but it might be worth emailing the major companies to see if any of them would be willing to charge you less. Good luck.

I'm sorry - I know it's expensive, but for my family a private tour for just our family made all the difference in the world in St. Petersburg for us. My son at 3 was able to handle visiting all of the major attractions in St. Petersburg because we could stop when he was whiny and feed him immediately, and skip through lesser rooms and stay longer when he was interested. Your kids are older, but I wouldn't take the chance if you can afford it. We DIY the entire rest of the trip (skipped Berlin due to our son not being able to handle that at all). My signature line includes a review with a lot of discussion about taking kids on this trip. Back when the ruble's value fell some forum members reported that tour companies were willing to create private tours for their families for less than the stated value on their websites due to the fact that since tours are paid in US dollars, when the ruble falls they still make more money. I have no idea if it would work, but it might be worth emailing the major companies to see if any of them would be willing to charge you less. Good luck.

Kitkat343…I'm wondering which private tour company you used in St. Petersburg. I will also be cursing the Baltic with a 3 year old in June.