Which tour company for children/families?

I posted this on Tripadvisior and didn't have any responses, so I am hoping that I will have some here.

We are planning a cruise with a stop in St. Petersburg for two days, and our children will be 11 and 2. They are use to traveling, and I don't think they would have any trouble with the long days, and we will have a carrier for the 2 yr old. When I look at several of the companies, I see that they have specific tours for families with children or decreased mobility. Am I crazy to book a standard tour with the kids? What companies have you used and would you recommend using them?

Hi! We been to St. Peter a year ago. We traveled with a child of 3, so we had the same problems. Initially I planned to book a mini group tour, than I decided a private tour would worth the money. We found special children friendly tours organized by the Best Guides. The problem was that such tours are intended for kids of 5 and more. I guess it will be a perfect choice for a kid of 11. Any way I wasn’t able to find any tours for a 3 year old kid so we book a normal itinerary for grown-ups which was just adopted for the needs of our family. To tell the truth I was quite nervous, it was Nic’s first real trip and the first cruse for both of us. The itinerary we chose was really good – we been to Peterhoff and Nic just loved it! It’s fantastic, I’m sure your kids will love it. We been to the Hermitage, Nic got a “magic mirror” as a present from Russian empress. She was really happy!:) The second part of the Hermitage tour she peacefully slept in the carrier. I also remember St. Peter Fortress with the underground pass where Nic found a small treasure – a toy key, which was a real fun!:):) We had a very good guide Svetlana who used to work with children. She was really great - extremely knowledgeable and very nice to communicate with. Nic just loved her. I can recommend Svetlana to everyone who travels with kids. She also provides regular tours for grown-ups and I’m sure she does it in the best way possible.

Have a great trip!

Jess :)

If you can lug the 2 year old, I don't think there will be much difference in terms of which group you use. If you have a stroller/pushchair, you will definitely want to talk to the operator first, in the hope that they will put you together with others in the same situation. There are a lot of stairs involved in a St. Petersburg tour. You might not want a tour, for example, with a metro visit. Or at Peterhof, having a tour guide who knows in advance to use the ramp down to the fountains instead of the stairs, would probably be helpful. Otherwise, just be prepared for lots of lifting and carrying, and you should be fine. It's not going to change much depending on what tour guide you use.

For the 11 year old, I might look for a tour that takes slightly less time at various places -- 4 hours in the Hermitage would be rough. Most of the itineraries are the same, but if you can find a tour that breaks it up into one and two-hour visits to various places, the 11 year old might be happier. We just did a 2-day tour with a 13 and 8 year old, and it was grueling. They elected to skip the second day, and much as I wanted them to push on through, I couldn't really say no. Coming on the heels of a pretty exhausting day in Tallinn, the second day in St. Petersburg was just too much for them, so they stayed behind with mom and I did the second day of the tour myself.

I hadn't seen the Best Guides company before our trip, and I sort of wish I had. That looks pretty good.

Hi! We been to St. Peter a year ago. We traveled with a child of 3, so we had the same problems. Initially I planned to book a mini group tour, than I decided a private tour would worth the money. We found special children friendly tours organized by the Best Guides. The problem was that such tours are intended for kids of 5 and more. I guess it will be a perfect choice for a kid of 11. Any way I wasn’t able to find any tours for a 3 year old kid so we book a normal itinerary for grown-ups which was just adopted for the needs of our family. To tell the truth I was quite nervous, it was Nic’s first real trip and the first cruse for both of us. The itinerary we chose was really good – we been to Peterhoff and Nic just loved it! It’s fantastic, I’m sure your kids will love it. We been to the Hermitage, Nic got a “magic mirror” as a present from Russian empress. She was really happy!:) The second part of the Hermitage tour she peacefully slept in the carrier. I also remember St. Peter Fortress with the underground pass where Nic found a small treasure – a toy key, which was a real fun!:):) We had a very good guide Svetlana who used to work with children. She was really great - extremely knowledgeable and very nice to communicate with. Nic just loved her. I can recommend Svetlana to everyone who travels with kids. She also provides regular tours for grown-ups and I’m sure she does it in the best way possible.

Have a great trip!

Jess :)

We will look into Best Tours, it sounds like they did a great job with your kids.

If you can lug the 2 year old, I don't think there will be much difference in terms of which group you use. If you have a stroller/pushchair, you will definitely want to talk to the operator first, in the hope that they will put you together with others in the same situation. There are a lot of stairs involved in a St. Petersburg tour. You might not want a tour, for example, with a metro visit. Or at Peterhof, having a tour guide who knows in advance to use the ramp down to the fountains instead of the stairs, would probably be helpful. Otherwise, just be prepared for lots of lifting and carrying, and you should be fine. It's not going to change much depending on what tour guide you use.

 

For the 11 year old, I might look for a tour that takes slightly less time at various places -- 4 hours in the Hermitage would be rough. Most of the itineraries are the same, but if you can find a tour that breaks it up into one and two-hour visits to various places, the 11 year old might be happier. We just did a 2-day tour with a 13 and 8 year old, and it was grueling. They elected to skip the second day, and much as I wanted them to push on through, I couldn't really say no. Coming on the heels of a pretty exhausting day in Tallinn, the second day in St. Petersburg was just too much for them, so they stayed behind with mom and I did the second day of the tour myself.

 

I hadn't seen the Best Guides company before our trip, and I sort of wish I had. That looks pretty good.

We plan on using a carrier for the time off the boat for DD. We are all too familiar with using a stroller on cobblestone, since we live in Europe, I can't imagine pushing a stroller on cobblestone for more than 15-30 minutes before my head would fall off from bouncing so much.

Thanks for all of the great ideas.:)

We will look into Best Tours, it sounds like they did a great job with your kids.

 

 

 

We plan on using a carrier for the time off the boat for DD. We are all too familiar with using a stroller on cobblestone, since we live in Europe, I can't imagine pushing a stroller on cobblestone for more than 15-30 minutes before my head would fall off from bouncing so much.

 

Thanks for all of the great ideas.:)

ST. Petersburg is fairly stroller friendly (minus the Subway system) with generally smooth sidewalks. If your toddler is a "stroller" kid I wouldn't be afraid to take it. Inside some of the sights you will need to lug it up some stairs, but otherwise even there it could be preferable to a carrier, especially given the general lack of air conditioning.

We've booked a one day private tour with spb for mid-August. They've been accommodating so far - I'll let you know how it goes if it won't be too late? We have an almost 6 yoand almost 2yo.

ST. Petersburg is fairly stroller friendly (minus the Subway system) with generally smooth sidewalks. If your toddler is a "stroller" kid I wouldn't be afraid to take it. Inside some of the sights you will need to lug it up some stairs, but otherwise even there it could be preferable to a carrier, especially given the general lack of air conditioning.

Thanks for the info on the strollers, we still haven't decided which one we will take, but thanks for the heads up about the A/C. I don't know why I didn't think of that.

We've booked a one day private tour with spb for mid-August. They've been accommodating so far - I'll let you know how it goes if it won't be too late? We have an almost 6 yoand almost 2yo.

No, it won't be too late, I look forward to hearing about your tour with spb.

Just back from our trip and we booked TJ Tours in St. Petersburg. While our children are 18 and 24, we were a bit surprised to have a carseat added to our van. We were matched with a couple with a 21 month old daughter. She did great on the regular Highlights tour. They used the carrier (front or backpack depending on parent) with her. Most palaces and Hermitage would not allow a stroller inside the building so stroller would not help a lot. (These places even limit the size of backpack that you have.) Our guide kept us moving. There were times the other couple had to take a few moments to quiet their little one, but I think they enjoyed their time as much as we did. I think if TJ tours knew you had a toddler, they would be prepared to help you have a great time.

Hi, dce85

Not sure it’s a good idea to match teens with a 21 month old baby. If you book regular tours it could be OK, but if you book special children friendly tours all the children should be more or less of the same age. We booked with the Best Guides, they have tours for kids 5 to 14 years old and they adopt the tours to the particular age of your kids.

Jess:)

Hi

If you go private, I suggest specifically requesting a guide who likes children.

We spent 3 days on a private tour in St P with TJ tours. Our daughter is 9. Our first guide was fairly young, and not interested in kids. The next days we had a guide who has an 8 year old daughter - much better experience! Highlight for us was a Matroshkya doll painting session.

I had contacted Best Tours but they did not follow up - part of me wishes we had pursued that harder.

Our pace was pretty light, but we loved all we saw.

Michele

We took a three year old to St. Petersburg last summer, and although my son has usually outgrown his stroller it was extremely useful in the Hermitage (we were lucky and it was nearly empty during the early admission time we visited; others have reported on this forum that the Hermitage was so crowded it was hard to use a stroller there) and in the fountains/gardens at Peterhof. Please also note that the trick fountains aren't that close to the entrance of Peterhof so if your kids want to run in them, you might want to bring a change of clothes if it is chilly out. The guide was able to tell us which attractions to bring the stroller, and where we could leave it behind.

If you can afford it, a private tour just limited to your family is a wonderful thing in St. Petersburg, since we were able to stop whenever my 3 year old started to get fussy and feed him immediately. We also didn't need to make any extra bathroom or souvenir stops, which helped a lot. My son actually made it the whole two days, and lists St. Petersburg as one of his three favorite cities, along with NY and Stockholm.

I wanted to update this thread. We just returned and ended up using SPB tours and they were wonderful. We ended up doing the "comfort" tour, which was still exhausting. Our DD did great on tour and we ended up with 3 other families that all had children. They also provided us with a car seat which was a lifesaver for us. DD was able to nap while traveling, and slept the entire 3 hours while we were in the Hermitage for early admission.

Glad you had a good time CTnurse!

In response to the previous question (sorry didn't see it until now) we did not visit Junibacken. My 3 year old son really liked the lemurs at Skansen, the Vasa museum and the Viking experience at the history museum in Stockholm.

If you are interested in more details, my signature line has our review, which describes what we did in each city (we DIY everywhere except for St. Petersburg)

Glad you had a good time CTnurse!

 

In response to the previous question (sorry didn't see it until now) we did not visit Junibacken. My 3 year old son really liked the lemurs at Skansen, the Vasa museum and the Viking experience at the history museum in Stockholm.

 

If you are interested in more details, my signature line has our review, which describes what we did in each city (we DIY everywhere except for St. Petersburg)

kitkat343 - I would love to chat with you about your cruise. We are doing the same one next July and I have been close to canceling several times b/c I'm worried about it not being kid-friendly enough. I'm fairly new to Cruise Critic..but is there a way to private message people?

We've booked a one day private tour with spb for mid-August. They've been accommodating so far - I'll let you know how it goes if it won't be too late? We have an almost 6 yoand almost 2yo.

My daughter is planning a cruise to St. Petersburg in June of 2016 with children your children's ages. It would be so helpful if you could comment on how your trip unfolded and how your children enjoyed or didn't enjoy it.

I'm fairly new to Cruise Critic..but is there a way to private message people?

Unfortunately there is no pm facility on Cruise Critic.

My daughter is planning a cruise to St. Petersburg in June of 2016 with children your children's ages. It would be so helpful if you could comment on how your trip unfolded and how your children enjoyed or didn't enjoy it.

I would also love to read your thoughts on this

Hey all!

We had a great time with SPB. The approx itinerary agreed on ahead of time is pasted below. Tho they adjusted in the field depending upon how busy stuff was - I think we did the canal tour and subway ride earlier in the day. We brought the maclaren stroller with us, but usually left it in the van, opting to use our backpack carrier instead, which worked wonderfully. I would double and triple check about car seats, as there was some confusion on that front. We only did one day and our kids (and the inlaws) were fairly exhausted.

The lunch place was amazing! The canal ride you could prob skip - we did a lot of canal tours on that cruise. It was a good break to sit and listen (and they poured sparkling wine, which was great ;), but you could prob do something else. We were rushed - at the end we had to do a very quick trip through church of the spilled blood. We did this on the first day docked.

Sunday   8.00 AM-5.00 PM

08.00 am Meet at the ship

08.30-09.30 am Drive to Peterhof

09.30-12.30 pm Walk in the Peterhof Lower fountain park and the Upper gardens + visit to smaller palace Monplaisir or Catherine's Block

12.30-01.00 pm Hydrofoil back to the city

01.00-02.00 pm Optional lunch break at Stolle or Blinis place

02.00-02.30 pm A visit to the Church on the Spilled Blood

03.00-04.00 pm Canal boat ride

04.00-05.00 pm Some shopping opportunities / subway ride before returning to the ship

Thanks so much for your comments. I will pass on to daughter. Her husband prefers to carry kids in backpack carrier -- hates stroller and don't use one at home because of the gravel road they live on. Did you use stroller on the cruiseship? It is a long way around those ships. JR is a small girl at 7 months (less than 15 pounds) but who knows in 8 months. Did you NEED or REQUIRED car seat for transportation in St. Petersburg and also Sweden, Denmark, Estonia? Like on bus or taxi? Thanks. MeMe is just asking questions but Mom will be making the decisions.

Hi all!

I want to update this thread. This summer we did our second Baltic cruise and I want to share the experience. Our daughter was 5 at the moment of the cruise (first cruise we did when she was only 3). We were on the Serenade of the Sears and had 3 days in St. Petersburg. We booked with Best Guides again. This time we booked so called Baltic Package, so we had tours in St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Berlin. Other cities (Stockholm, Helsinki, Riga, Copenhagen) we did on our own. It was a wonderful experience. After my first cruise to Baltic which I liked so much I expected to have a great cruise but it obviously exceeded all the expectations.

We booked private tours in St. Petersburg and Kira who was in correspondence with us did great job to develop an EXELENT itinerary. I have to say that It was a real challenge for her. I didn’t want to visit the same sights as two years ago so she had to find something new. I also wanted all the tours to be children friendly. I wanted Nic to enjoy the tours not just to accompany us. We did this cruise first of all for her to have a great experience not for us. After all it was a fantastic experience for all three of us. We all enjoyed every minute of our tours. Our guide Inna was unbelivable. I have no words to say how good she was. She speaks better English than many Americans. She was extremely friendly, very flexible and so charming! It was so nice to communicate with! Nic just loved her.

Bellow is our itinerary which I think was great. Hope it will be useful.

Day1

8.00 meeting at the ship, first drive around the city

9.30 hydrofoil to Peterhoff – it was the only sight which we decided to visit second time. Believe me it was worth it.

10.00-12.30 children friendly tour “Paradise of Fountains.( We walked around the park and visited Monplasir)

12.30 -13.30 lunch (we chose a restaurant in the park, it was nice, not cheap but taking in consideration $ rate it was OK)

13.30-14.30 drive back to the city

14.30-16.30 Matroshka doll master class and Russian style tea party in a Russian family – IT WAS A HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY! (the family has a daughter of the same age which made the visit even more exiting)

16.30-18.00 drive back to the ship with some shopping possibilities on the way (we decided to spend more time with the family and skip shopping)

18.00 my DH with Nic returned back to the ship and I join a mini group for an evening tour (Faberge museum + White Night Tour which comes complementary with the Faberge)

Day II Moscow

Day III

10.00 meeting at the ship

10.00-13.00 “Secrets of St. Petersburg” part II (part I we did on the first visit)

We climbed St. Isaac’s colonnade to see the city from a bird’s eye view. Unbelievable! It was an exciting game to recognize palaces and Cathedrals which we have seen but from a different point of view. We had a ride around the very center with several stops. Inna manage to make it so exiting for a 5 year old kid. Among other sights we saw a huge frog from a Russian fairy tale which lives at the top of a staircase and visited a secret mosaic court yard where Nic got colored chalks to draw. Great idea! This court yard became another highlight of the trip.

13.00-14.00 lunch in a pie-shop DELICIOUS!!!

14.00-15.00 Petrovskay Aquatoria, Scale Model of 18th century St. Petersburg

15.00-16.00 boat tour

16.00-17.00 drive back to the ship

Jess :)

Hi ,

I'm sorry - someone mentioned wanting to pm me to discuss my experiences (we took our son on the Baltic cruise when he was 3.5) and I just saw that thread. I'd be happy to help if possible. You can reach me at jaclyn343@ yahoo . com . (sorry - didn't want bots to spam me so left the email with spaces)

Hi NiaGara-Buff

Who was your guide? We’ve been to St. Pete twice and both times we booked with Best Guides. Any way I know quite a few guide from the company.

Jess :)

Hi NiaGara-Buff,

I know four guides from Best Guides. One of them Elena is from Moscow. Others (Svetlana, Inna and another Elena) work in St. Petersburg. All of them were excellent. All were different but we liked all of them. It looks like this company really has the best guides. I don’t want to say anything wrong about guides from other companies but Best Guides were excellent. I know tour guides are not always tied to one particular company but still they are the face of a company.

Glad you liked your guide so much!

Jess :)

I will pass on to daughter. Her husband prefers to carry kids in backpack carrier -- hates stroller.

We were on children-tailored tours with Best Guides 2 years ago when our little-one was 6. She was thrilled. You may try it.

As for the backpack carrier - what a husband!!!:)

But the tour of the Hermitage is about two hours, anyone would get a backache.

Hi, Jess!

I'm curious how have you managed to have THREE guides in St.P.?:) You changed them every half-day?:)

Hi cansas.piligrim,

Yes , it sounds a little bit strange:D. First of all we’ve been to St. Petersburg twice and both times we booked with Best Guides. On our first trip we had Svetlana and we asked for her again but she was not available, I guess she was on vocations. So, our guide was Inna who was fantastic. We have children of the same age so we had a lot of things to discuss. On our first day at about 6PM my DH and Nic, our daughter of 5, returned back to the ship and I joined a mini group tour for the Evening in the Faberge. This group had a guide named Elena. Elena is a very elegant and charming lady, with fantastic sense of humor. Her English was perfect. Sometimes she sounded almost as the Queen and it made me smile.

Jess:)