Baltic Cruise - St. Petersburg with kids

I believe you have to be on an escorted tour, either private or through the cruise line, unless you have Russian visas. The last time I knew, they were about $100 each. You could probably get a lot of opinions about the various options offered by the cruise line at www.cruisecritic.com.

Thanks for your help!

Yes, do go to Cruisecritic.com. There, you can read more about the port, can learn about tour options besides the ones from the cruise line, and can sign up for a "roll call" of your ship's sailing, so you can meet other people and arrange to share tours with them to lower the cost. You do not have to take the ship's tours. For St. Petersburg, if you book a tour through certain companies, they get you the visa. But if you just go on your own, you have to get visas for each person. Since the visa itself costs $140 per person, and you have to add FedEx fees, visa service fees, etc, a tour is a much better option. You can join one of the set tours the companies offer, or get a private tour just for your family. Split among you and your kids, the cost per person of a private tour is probably not that high. I'd recommend this, because the regular tours of St. Petersburg are pretty "adult" in interests (palaces, museums, more palaces, and more museums). Here are 4 companies that come up often on Cruise Critic as being good. I have no personal experience with any of them, but in your situation, I'd e-mail them and see what they can put together for your family. http://www.alla-tour.com/ http://www.denrus.ru/ http://www.redoctober.us/ http://www.spb-tours.com/st-petersburg/en/ And, if you're searching for other threads on this Helpline on this subject, Russia is officially in the "To The East" section.

Thanks a lot!

Nick, we were there this past July and used Alla tours. Our kids are a little older, 16,18 30 and 32 plus a fiancee. With the 7 of us a private tour through Alla was awesome. We had a whole 16 passenger van to ourselves. We opted for the busiest tour and included a ballet in the evening. It was definetly cheaper than through the cruise line and we were a smaller and private group which allowed to change our itenary if we wanted to. On the rest of the cruise I also booked tours on my own, many times using private guides found in the Rick Steves books. Again, these were all cheaper and more flexible than any cruise tour. Have a great time.

We did this cruise 2 summers ago. We loved it! I don't remember seeing many young children on the cruise. Mainly caters to adult crowd. All the ports were fascinating. The only organized tour we did was into St Petersburg -a 2 day bus tour. I don't think it would have held 10 yr old's attention. I'd visit with a tour company to get their feedback on kid friendly tours. My husband and I easily toured the other ports by ourselves. No need for a guided tour. We are walkers and had no problems walking from most of the ports to the town centers. In Poland we took the train in to Gdansk. If your kids are in to history, they'll do great on the excursions. Have fun!

We went on an Alla "strenuous" two-day tour. Two of us joined 8 others from our ship (arranged by Alla) in a 12 passenger van with a driver and guide. The price was $260 each, not dirt cheap but reasonable overall - IMO a much better deal than taking the cruise ship's tours. I'd recommend something like that as the big bus tours can be slow and often cater to less ambulatory cruise passengers. The people on Cruisecritic.com tend more toward ship sponsored excursions but otherwise there is plenty of good information there.

Take them to the Peterhof, the summer palace. If you get there early (I think around 10 am), you will be in time to watch the fountains turn on. The water flows slowly at first, then more powerfully. Then wander the gardens - lots of room for the kids to run and look for the "trick" fountains. The tzar had a sense of humor and there are some small, fun fountains. One I remember had a dog chasing some ducks around, with barking and quacking noises.