Tours and excursions for families with children
Families with children
I do not believe that having children should stop you from traveling, but a tour with children needs to be organized differently.
St. Petersburg is a somewhat unorthodox choice for a vacation with children, as it doesn't offer the sandy beaches and children's clubs that are the hallmarks of a typical family vacation, yet despite this it is certainly possible with careful planning to organize a great vacation for both adults and children.
Reaching a compromise between the interests of adults and children is the secret of such vacation. For younger children Russian history and art are of little interest.. But what they do like and enjoy are the impressive fairy-tale style palaces, parks with fountains and picturesque churches.
It is quite possible to create a tour with visits to historical sights and with visits to more child orientated venues, such as a playground, fun-fair or water park.
Families with teenagers
I do appreciate how hard it is to captivate modern young people with such things as culture, art and history. But we are not going to lose this battle to smart phones and other gadgets, are we?
For a start we will refuse from the style of guiding which reminds us of school - no boring lectures! A flexible program plus non-standard list of places to visit lets us involve teenagers into planning our time. Maybe they are interested in meeting somebody their own age in Russia? Motivating teenagers is something I am seriously interested in, that is why working with them is so appealing for me.
Tour programs for families with children
A 'standard' program for a family with children is hardly possible. Not only does the program depend on the duration and time of the visit, but more importantly the quantity, age, sex, and interests of the children - not forgetting of course the interests and wishes of the adults in the group too. However given this information I can devise a tour program especially for you that will be suitable for all members, young and old, of the family.
Speaking generally about making a personalized program:
We can certainly cover the main famous sights of St. Petersburg - The Hermitage, Catherine Palace, Peterhoff, St. Issac's cathedral etc.
Indeed some of these, such as Peterhoff fountain park are of interest to adults and children alike. The trick fountain at Peterhoff is a particular favourite with children.
But one needs to consider that with a family we will need more time than usual to visit everywhere.
One way to make a tour more exciting for kids is to include special activities particularly for them, such as amusement parks, zoo visit, military museum, water park, dolphinarium, aquarium, picnics and boat rides.
Another approach is to arrange to have, for the duration of our tour, a very nice child minder. She will stay with us all day: she can take the children to a playground or other children's activity while the adult members of the group visit a museum for example. We will stay in touch with her via mobile phone all the time - if your presence will be really needed she will give us a call. So you will stay with your child most of the day, but will get an opportunity to leave from time to time for 1 or 1½ hours.
Professional Photo Session
I can also offer a professional photo session with your children. This would make an interesting and unique memento of your vacation and provide high quality portraits of you with your family. Here are a couple of pictures from a photo session that one of my clients had with their children.
