Baltic with an 11 year old

Looking for some recommendations for tours that will peak our 11 year old daughters interests. Ports include St Petersburg, Berlin, Tallin, Helsinki and Stockholm.

She is usually content sitting in the pool or on a beach. Museums can become a bore for her if we spend 3-4 hours so multipole stops or places to visit are better for us.

Thanks for any advice.

It really depends on the child, but I can say that our 11 year old son really enjoyed the Baltics this year. He does like visiting different places though, so may not be typical.

The one thing I would recommend is considering booking a tour in St Petersburg just for yourselves. We knew that our son would bore quickly in the Hermitage (as would we), so we arranged a private tour for just the three of us for one day. Leaving out the Hermitage meant that we could do pretty well everything else that a normal 2 day tour does.

It was quite pricey, but still cost us a bit less than a standard two day tour would have. It meant that we had the second day to relax onboard rather than risk him getting finding that two days in St Petersburg was too much. It also meant that we were in a better position to enjoy the following ports.

Looking for some recommendations for tours that will peak our 11 year old daughters interests. Ports include St Petersburg, Berlin, Tallin, Helsinki and Stockholm.

She is usually content sitting in the pool or on a beach. Museums can become a bore for her if we spend 3-4 hours so multipole stops or places to visit are better for us.

Thanks for any advice.

In St Petersburg, I'm going to begin with a night time recommendation and work backwards. Consider getting tickets for a ballet or folkloric performance.

For a private guide, posters with children have been particularly complimentary about Best Guides. I think this company emphasizes the life of ordinary Russians with a more limited focus on museums. Ordinary life might include a subway ride to visit some of the more beautiful subway stops or a visit to a grocery store. I know someone -- also a parent -- has mentioned an activity painting matryoshka dolls. The fountains at Peterhof, especially the lesser fountains which allow people to run through them, would be a great experience for an 11-year old.

You've listed Berlin as a port call, but I truly would NOT visit there with an 11-year old. I assume your ship will really dock at Warnemunde which requires a 3-hour train ride each way to Berlin. I can't believe an 11-year old -- or too many adults -- would be satisfied to be on a train for six hours to spend a mere four-five hours in the city itself. Warnemunde is a beach town with a popular boardwalk. Since this is what your daughter enjoys, spending a beach day might bank you some good will against the somewhat more museum/history oriented stops.

Stockholm has two destinations that I think would appeal: the ABBA museum and the VASA Museum. The ABBA museum includes lots of hand-on exhibits about this pop group. Here's a link to an article on the Home Page written by reporters for a children's magazine.

http://www.abbathemuseum.com/sites/default/files/kids_patrol_eng.pdf

The very popular VASA museum allows people to walk around a preserved 17th war ship.

We did the Baltic with our 10yo ds (and his 13 and 16yo sisters.) He is NOT into museums. He did enjoy the Vasa museum. The Hermitage, not so much. :)

Part of the family did a speedboat ride in Helsinki, which he loved. Not much culture, but they had a great time. A few of us did a ship excursion to a reindeer preserve, which was 13yo dd's highlight.

In SPB, there is a cat refuge called The Cat Museum. You can find it on TripAdvisor. It's not at all cultural, but if you are a cat family, your dd may love it. Mine did. It was a nice break in-between the museums, etc.

My kids love to try new foods, so we did a food walking tour of Tallinn, which everyone enjoyed. Our guide was delightful and the food ranged from great to interesting - which 13yo dd judged her favorite part of the cruise. We also enjoyed the Ostermallen (sp?) food market in Stockholm, which had the absolute nicest people I've ever met working the various counters. So patient with the kids, who all tried out several traditional pastries and shared dishes. In SPB, we ate lunch at a fast food blini chain, and dinner at Teplo - a home cooking type of restaurant. Did I mention my kids like to try new food? :)

Definitely look for small group or private tours. You'll be able to pick and choose what you do. We try for a balance. I knew ds would hate the Hermitage, but it was my vacation too, so he was good about it. Our private tour also allowed us to all take a coffee and ice cream break when we were lagging in SPB. Just what the kids needed!

For St. Petersburg...

I think that kids would absolutely love the Grand Market Rossiya (there were many kids there when I visited in October). The museum is interactive and the kids seemed enthralled.

The details in this huge model are incredible. Day turns into night every 15 minutes & as night falls, lights turn on in miniature houses, cars headlights are on, etc. Miniature trains whisk you all over Russia & the model of St. Petersburg is quite extensive and very detailed. Below is the link to the website:

https://grandmaket.ru/en/

In Stockholm, I think she would appreciate the Vasa musem despite that it is a museum.

This museum is not about watching thing placed behind glass but rather to consume the atmosphere

of the ship and (for kids) also try some things themslelves.

Our son was 3.5 when we visited the Baltics, and he really loved it. I would agree with the previous poster about booking a private tour for just your family if your finances would allow it. It was the only reason we were able to see all of St. Petersburg - whenever my son got whiny or tired, we stopped to feed him, and we skipped through the lesser rooms (Catherine's Palace has great rooms at the start and the Amber room at the end, but there are a few in the middle you won't mind flying through if you are on a private tour,)

What are her interests? Our son loved the Vasa Museum, and he lasted a half hour at the Hermitage (early admission was thankfully dead empty and we saw all the paintings I wanted to see first and then I took him to the internet cafe and fed him cake while my husband saw the paintings he wanted to see.) I think Best Guides has a family tour where everyone spends some time looking at the museum and then they take all the kids to the internet cafe and supervise them so the parents get more time in the museum.

I think she might like running through the fountains at Peterhof, and taking the hydrofoil there. She might like the canal cruises in Copenhagen, Stockholm or St. Petersburg.

In St. Petersburg, Stolle has really good meat and fruit pies http://spb.stolle.ru/en/menu/saint-petersburg . They're located all over the city, inexpensive and fast and tasty.

My son also greatly enjoyed our visit to the Lennusadam SeaPlane Harbor Museum in Tallinn.

( http://www.lennusadam.eu/et/ ) . The sea plane name is a bit of a misnomer, since it is more of a general military museum with a lot of fascinating hands on exhibits, including a submarine you can explore and a flight simulator inside of a plane (my 3 year old really loved making the plane crash into the trees). Kids also love the simulated weapons and radio controlled boats at the museum. There is also an icebreaker ship outside that you can explore. It was a really interesting museum, and a highly enjoyable way to conclude your day in Tallinn for both adults and children.

My son loved the animals at Skansen. If your daughter likes animals, there is a nice open air lemur exhibit where you get to walk among the lemurs and you can get really close to all the animals in their small zoo that is housed in what they call their aquarium.

My son also loved the temporary hands on Viking exhibit at Historiska (the history museum). During the summer we visited they ran a Viking experience for children, in which children can dress up in armor, bake Viking bread in a coal fire, participate in Viking games and crafts and shoot arrows. Their website is (http://www.historiska.se/home/ ) and you may want to contact them to see if they will continue this exhibition next summer. We were very fortunate to visit Stockholm on the last day the exhibit was open, and my son really liked playing with weapons and baking Viking bread. Cruisers on tight time constraints should arrive later than when this exhibit is scheduled to start since some of the exhibits take awhile to set up and not everything was open until 12:30 (the exhibit was scheduled to start at 12, and the main museum opens at 10).

My son didn't love it, but you can look at the pictures of the royal armory in Stockholm to see if your daughter would like looking at the costumes and armory there.

One other possibility is maybe to leave her on the ship for one of the days in St. Petersburg, but obviously that is up to you. At 11, I'd get her a guidebook or ask her to look on trip advisor to see if there is anything she'd like to do and give her control of some of the itinerary.

the signature line of my profile has a review of our experiences in the Baltics, but my son was much younger than your daughter so it is a different set of challenges.

I forgot to mention that with the exception of St. Petersburg, and possibly Berlin due to the distance, all of these cities are extremely easy to tour by yourselves. The public transportation systems are very easy to navigate, and people at the information desk of each attraction will be able to direct you to your next one.

A new Viking museum will open in Stockholm in late April next year. http://www.vikingaliv.se/

Thanks for all these ideas, I'm going to be traveling on a Baltic cruise with my 11 yr old DD and can't wait to share these ideas with her.

We did a Baltic cruise when our DD was 9. We all loved it, but it was the most tiring cruise we have done - port intensive and amazing things to see in each place!

Here is what we did - we had a lot of OBC to spend and were with my less than mobile parents, so did more ships tours than we ordinarily would:

St Petersburg - private tour with TJ Tours - highlights included subway ride, grocery store visit, fountains at Peterhof, nightime cultural show and canal cruise. We did the matroshkya doll painting which was very fun! We only spent about an hour at the Hermitage - it was so crowded, we were all happy to leave. We also wandered Nevsky Prospekt. We omitted some common sights including St Isaacs and Yusupov, just to give more time for wandering (with a guide of course).

If I had it to do over, I would definitely do Faberge and the Grand Maket Rossiya - and maybe use Best Guides.

Berlin - we stayed in Warnemunde, wandering the town and beach. We did the Molli steam train in the afternoon which was fun.

Tallin - did a chocolate making workshop (not particularly Estonian, but fun!) and wandered the old town a little

Helsinki - tour to Unique Lapland which was indoor dogsledding on fake ice - it was fun

Stockholm - we were burned out on touring so had no plans. We wandered Gamla Stan and saw the changing of the guard. I wish we had done Vasa or Abba or Skansen.....

Have a great cruise! I think I want to do it again!

All the tour operators in St Petersburg are excellent, but as per a previous post Best Guides have an exceptional reputation for tours involving kids.

Yes, junior will quickly be bored by the Hermitage- but do put in some time there, an hour or 90 minutes, for your own benefit.

To Peterhof and its fountains by hydrofoil, and a trip on the metro - though these are usually included in standard tours.

A boy would be interested in touring the battleship Aurora (which signalled the start of the Revolution), though I'm not sure about a girl.

But hey, none of us are experts - be guided what to see by the tour operators.

In Stockholm, the sail-in and out through the archipelago (islands you feel you can reach out and touch as you sail through), yes the Vasa - access it via the hop-on boats.

We were very disappointed with Skansen, and rated its children's petting farm poor too.

I'll respectfully disagree with kitkats mention of the ease of public transport in Berlin.Yes it's very good, but a cruisers time is too valuable on a port of call visit, especially with the long journey-time. From Warnemunde. Some of the St Petersburg tour operators also offer tours to Berlin and in other Baltic ports - probably not worth the cost elsewhere but well worth considering for Berlin.

The House on Checkpoint Charlie is well worth a visit. And mebbe a short cruise on the River Spree.

JB :)

A boy would be interested in touring the battleship Aurora (which signalled the start of the Revolution), though I'm not sure about a girl.

Only if the ship is pink. ;)

Seriously, girls can like battleships too. And some boys could care less.

I do agree that the OP should include a bit of touring geared for the adults as well. Part of traveling with our kids is that that know we'll include stops for all of us, adults included.

a boy would be interested in touring the battleship aurora (which signalled the start of the revolution), though i'm not sure about a girl.

 

Jb :)

only if the ship is pink. ;)

 

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:d:d:d:d

jb :)