Anyone been to St. Petersburg with young children?

[Bobbyjean]

We need some advice as we are not sure what to do in St. Petersburg on our upcoming cruise.

 

We wanted to book a tour with a Russian company as these are better value and in smaller groups ... but they will only offer us a two-day tour of 8 hours per day. We are a bit worried that the long days and many museums will be a bit too much for our four-year-old.

 

So the other option would be a one-day trip with the cruise ship, which is of course a slight rip-off and does not include a boat ride, visit to the metro and other things we would quite like to see.

 

Does anyone have any experience with taking a young child on these types of excursions? Should we opt for a simple 3-hour boat tour with the cruise ship?

[Essiesmom]

Have you visited the Ports of Call boards here at CC? There are lots of different tour companies for SPB and I'm sure you could find one that suits. Have you joined the roll call for your cruise? there may be others with small children who would be interested in joining you for a custom tour. EM

[Kerry's Girls]

I'll echo Essiesmom - the ports of call board will be enormous help. I was looking at a Batics cruise at one point and there was lots of info on the ports of call board on private tours with kids. There are lots to choose from. I would not do a ship tour. And good advice to post on your roll call to share a tour with another family or two.

 

Best,

Mia

[kitkat343]

I am planning on taking a Baltic cruise next spring, so my advice is not nearly as useful as the advice you are likely to find if you repost this on the Baltic Board. My family did quite well booking private tours for our cruise to the Panama Canal (my son was 2 at the time), and are planning on booking private tours for St Petersburg so we will be able to return to the ship if my son gets overwhelmed. On the previous cruise, my son was able to do one morning activity easily (touring the Old city in Cartagena, visiting a rain forest in Costa Rica, visiting the beaches and animal sanctuary in Aruba and meeting a dolphin in Jamaica). Then the private driver would drop my son and I off at the boat, and I put him down for a nap while my husband and mom went for a second activity in the afternoon at the longer port stops.

 

The only place our tours didn't work was in Panama, where government regulations do not allow people to disembark in Gatun unless they are on an official cruiseline tour. This was a disaster, as the ecocruise was too boring for my son (and on this particular day wasn't too exciting for anyone else, since we didn't see any animals but on another day guests might be luckier.) The ship did not allow us to reboard for 2 hours after the tour ended in Colon, and it was a very long two hours with a screaming toddler at the port who needed to go back to his room. The reason why I am sharing this story with you is that if your child gets overwhelmed in St. Petersburg, it might not be the best city to try to find and hail a cab to take your child back to the ship immediately, especially if you don't speak Russian. I understand that your finances might not allow a private tour, but the alternative could be a bit disconcerting if your child becomes overwhelmed while you are traveling.

 

If you are taking the same cruise I am, then the attractions I think would be most exciting for a child would be the Peterhof fountain (and the hydrofoil to get there) in St. Petersburg, the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, and the Tivoli gardens in Copenhagen but since my trip is a year away, I haven't finished researching everything so the Baltic board might be your best bet for information. Best of luck and have a great trip!

[Bobbyjean]

Thanks for the replies - I tried the roll call but there is no one else around with young children it seems!

 

We decided to go for a one-day tour to St. Peterhof to see the fountains, a hydrofoil ride and Catherine's Palace. The second day in SPB we will relax on the ship :)

 

We are also looking forward to Tivoli!

 

If you are interested we can let you know how it went with our 4 year old!