St. Petersburg with a 14yo ? what to see

[dstreefrog]

Hi, We are on the RCCL Jewel of the seas this coming July 14 and will be traveling with a 14yo. I've reviewed most of the review and post on this particular

 

Thinking of using Denrus for our tours but would really like to get some suggestions for something different that a 14yo boy would also like. We'll of course do Hermitage & Peterhof and probably the Catherdral - but what else, something special for an active teen - loves sports, motorcross, fishing, ect...

 

Also, any not to miss in the Scandinavia ports?

 

thanks for any suggestions!

treefrog

[cruisemom42]

I'm sure Den Rus will be happy to offer some suggestions -- they are very easy to work with. I'm travelling there with my 13 year old son in a couple of weeks (granted, he's not that into sports), and the things he was most interested in seeing/doing in St Petersburg were the hydrofoil from Peterhof/St Petersburg, the fountains at Peterhof (which run completely on gravity), going to a Russian food emporium, and seeing where Rasputin was killed. (We watched the movie "Nicholas and Alexandra" together recently). He's also hoping to see some "cool stuff" at the Hermitage such as arms and armor, prehistoric items, etc.

 

If you look further down on this board, there was an earlier post about things to do in St Petersburg w/kids and I believe Stan posted some other possibilities.

 

If you're going to Stockholm, I've heard the Vasa Museum is a must-see. We're planning to do that also.

[dstreefrog]

Hi Cruisemom42 - thanks for the infomation! I found the other post and they were very helpful!

[Brandis]

Visited St. Petersburg a couple of years ago, the ship stayed there overnight, so we could do 2 tours. As we didn't want to get visas, we just opted for the ship tours, which had group visas. We did one tour to the Katherines Palace with the amber room. The second tour went to the Ermitage, boat tour on the canals, Yusopov Palace (where Rasputin was murdered) and lunch at the "Last Palace".

 

Katherines Palace was nice, especially the amber room and the gardens. But the tour was a bit rushed as there are lots of tourists and transfer from the city takes quite a long time as well. Didn't care too much for the Ermitage, as the tour was also a bit rushed and of course the museum is huge, so you could never see all the things.

 

My favorite was Yusopov palace. Not too many tourists and for some reason I found it more luxurious and beautiful than Katherines Palace or the Ermitage.

 

Lunch at last palace was quite good, but the guards at the entrance wearing bullet proof vests and machine guns were a bit disturbing...

 

Marc