St. Petersburg tours - How strenuous?

My mom and I are thinking about doing a 2-day tour in St. Petersburg. She is 75-years-old and has average health and walking speed for her age. She can go for the whole day but would need short rests on long walks. Ideally, a 5 minute rest for every 30 minutes of walking.

My worry is that the amount of walking might be too tiresome for her, and I wouldn't want her to slow down the group. If anyone has experience touring in St. Petersburg, I would love to hear your feedback on how strenuous the walks are. Thanks!

You aren't going to encounter any 30-minute continuous walks, but you are going to encounter a lot of standing. You'll be on your feet (walking and standing) for up to 2.5-3 hours on the tour of the Hermitage and for 1-2 hours for the tours of the other sites. The tour guides can find places for people to go sit, but they miss out on the tour.

The major tour companies (e.g. Alla, TJ and SPB) have descriptions of their tours and how long you spend at each site on their websites. Expect to be on your feet the entire time for everything except hydrofoil or canal boat rides.

Thank you, GradUT for sharing your experience. I appreciate getting your take.

When I compare different levels of tours offered by a tour company, it seems that the main difference between the more "active" tour versus the more "relaxed" tour tends to be the number of places visited and that the durations at each place tend to be similar. Since I'm less concerned with how long each day lasts and more concerned with how long my mom has to be on her feet before getting a rest, I'm not sure if a relaxed tour will end up being much more relaxing than an active one.

I did email one tour company, and they said if you get tired you can stay in the car while others go touring.

If you can afford it, please consider a private tour for just your family. We did this 3 years ago, because we traveled with our 3.5 year old son. The ability to take breaks whenever he needed, plus the ability to skip through the lesser attractions such as just seeing the first few rooms and the Amber room in Catherine's palace made all the difference in the world. You can skip all souvenir shopping (or do more if that's what you like). Thanks to the private tour, we were able to see all the major highlights in St. Petersburg over two days. We were also in a small van, and they dropped us off right in front of all the attractions so we didn't have to walk any more than necessary.

We just returned from Norway, and the cab drivers won't pick up families because the car seat laws are very strict there (which on the one hand is great since very few children have died in automobile accidents there). The Norwegian towns are very small, but even a mile walk with small kids in the rain and cold is tiring, and we weren't able to do everything we wanted to because of the transportation issues, which makes me look fondly back on the Baltic cruise where thanks to the excellent public transportation everywhere and private tour in St. Petersburg we were able to see everything we wanted.

If you can afford it, I'd strongly recommend the private tour for just your family since it will maximize your chances of seeing whatever is most important to you in St. Petersburg and it truly is a spectacular destination. Also, my baltic review has some info on accessibility on this trip and you can find it in my signature line below.

Investigate Alla Tours' Comfort tour for St. Petersburg. They have an itinerary for you to compare with what your mother needs.

send same enquiry to several companies recommended on these boards asking about recommendations re mobility

you will quickly get a feel for which is the right company prepared to accommodate your needs

it may not be the same company for everyone as they all have their individual strengths

Thank you everybody for commenting. All appreciated!

I just did a St Petersburg 2 day tour with my mother who is 84. She is also in good health & can keep up with walking but likes to rest throughout the day. We did a small group tour with Lentina Travel & I can't recommend them enough. Everyone in our group loved our guide & the flexibility we had. If my mom had gotten tired she would've been able to sit in the van but she never did. The guide was very accommodating with any of our requests so if you tell them what you need I'm sure they can help you. Other people we have talked to have said their guides were not so accommodating. We even went back for a show that night & I thought my mom might be too tired but she wasn't. I will say we started a little bit later than other groups but really only missed Catherine's Palace (which we chose to do so that we could go at a more relaxed pace.) We also didn't have to wait in long lines because we were only 6 people so that allowed us to skip the lines. We all really loved it & I'm sure your mom would do great!

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Thanks again, everyone, for your advice and especially for sharing your experiences.

Also, my baltic review has some info on accessibility on this trip and you can find it in my signature line below.

Wow. You wrote a novel there. I read it and learned a lot. Thanks.

I just did a St Petersburg 2 day tour with my mother who is 84. She is also in good health & can keep up with walking but likes to rest throughout the day.

...

We even went back for a show that night & I thought my mom might be too tired but she wasn't.

84 and going strong - that's rad. I hope I'll be the same.

I di the Alla 2 day tour last year, I'm somewhat younger than your mum (was 63 at the time), but have arthritis in my hips that can be problematic. I contacted them before booking, they were very quick in responding to all my questions & trying to allay my worries, after their reply about the differences between the 2 tours, I decided to go for the usual tour, as opposed to the relaxed, as it is unlikely I will get there again & wanted to see as much as possible. I'm pretty sure that our guide had been informed of my worries, nothing was actually said but she kept checking to see if I was OK, tho this may have been as I was probably one of the oldest on the tour & travelling solo.

I did find the long days tiring (I did the ballet on the 1st eve as well) & by the end of the 2nd was ready for an early night, but the actual walking parts weren't too arduous. We did the trip in a mini bus, rather than the large coaches that the cruise lines use, which helped us with getting around & in & out of places relatively quickly with virtually no queuing, plus there was a far bit of between site travel in the bus, plus a hydrofoil journey & canal trip. All in all I was very happy with my visit & if I do ever manage to get to Russia would definitely use them again

Our experience with Alla (comfort tour, not regular) was about the same as above (lee). My husband opted to stay in the mini bus with the driver rather than go into the famous art gallery (ouch, drawing a blank on title; senior moment) - mostly due to too much walking, and partly because he's not really into art galleries. .

A couple of people in our minibus were sorry they signed up for a ballet that evening, as they were really tired at the end of the day. Then again, maybe they got a short nap and dinner and pepped up. We didn't speak to them afterwards, so I don't know!

Thanks, lee and roothy, for sharing.

I think the obvious answer is that it depends on your tour itinerary. But some places do require a lot of walking...if you want to keep up with the tour group (which is required). For example, Peterhof involves lots of walking in the extensive gardens. The Hermitage is a massive building and the tours more quickly, from place to place...to get their charges to the highlights (which can be far apart.....not to mention on various floors. The best solution is to arrange for your own private guide/tour which allows you to dictate the pace. But that does get somewhat expensive. The private tour companies such as TJ Tours will do small groups (or even 2 people) if you want to pay the price. Or course private tours must be booked (online) in advance since the companies will e-mail you the appropriate Visa document you need to get through the Russian immigration/Passport control check.

Hank

Donkeh - I traveled 3 years ago so please note that the info about the Stockholm hoho boats is no longer true - they start at 10 am and no longer run shuttles directly to vasa early in the morning and eliminated the one ride ticket. It's a wonderful trip and I hope you have a great time.