St. Petersburg is frequently referred to as the best cities to visit with kids. If your younger ones prefer museums and education, you’re definitely in the right place, as the city has over 200 museums. You can also enjoy the boat rides under St. Peterburg’s multiple bridges and visit palace parks, as recommended by guidebooks. However, if you want to explore the city to the fullest, here are some ideas on how you can make your trip to St. Petersburg with kids unforgettable.
01All in one: Grand Maket
The best place to start acquaintance with the city is to visit Grand Maket, an outstanding private museum that represents Russia’s most noticeable landmarks. A giant model layout with a scale of 1:87 covers an area of 800 square meters. The world’s second-largest model layout after the Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, the museum is of particular interest for kids. Most of its small details are constantly moving and producing sounds. Small visitors are able to run trains, launch cable cars and spot animals in the vast Russian forests. There are both day and night modes in the museum, so the kids are able to observe the nightlife of railroads, factories, and small towns. While walking down the hallways, the visitors can see the employees making new small models and repairing the broken ones.
02Shopping and fun: New Holland Island
Hidden in the quiet area of St. Petersburg’s city center, New Holland Island is a nice and cozy place to rest with kids. Once the lumber for ship-building established by Russia’s crucial emperor Peter the Great, the island was abandoned by the late XX century. Recent major reconstruction has converted it into a cultural center with cozy cafes, small shops, and a futuristic playground that recalls a giant frame of a ship. In the main building of New Holland, a former naval prison called Bottle House, the visitors can find a market with designer goods for the smallest ones called Ptenci.
03Experience space: Planetarium 1
Few people know that St. Petersburg hosts the planetarium with the world’s largest projection dome with 37 meters in diameter. Its building previously served as a gas holder and was partially destroyed during the siege of Leningrad, one of the most catastrophic events of World War II. However, nowadays the gas storage serves as a giant museum with exhibitions dedicated to space exploration, interactive rooms, and 40 powerful projectors able to reproduce the detailed picture of the night sky on the dome. To get the most of your visit, make sure to visit the 1.5-hour show in the Planetarium.
04Roller coaster: Divo Ostrov
Located in the beautiful green area of the city, Krestovsky Island, the amusement park Divo Ostrov is one of the best places in Russia to enjoy roller coasters and merry-go-rounds. As the queues are pretty rare in this place, your kids will be able to try all the rides. Some of them offer greats views of the city, but only if you won’t be scared enough to enjoy them. When you get enough of fun rides and cotton candy, take a walk to the left side of the park towards Novokrestovskaya metro station to see the brand new soccer stadium built for World Cup 2018. The promenade of Krestovsky Island is a nice place to admire the Finnish gulf, multiple sailing boats, and the only skyscraper in the city, Lakhta Center.
05Outdoor activities at Okhta Park
If you’re a fan of the outdoors, you should devote time to a one-day trip to Okhta Park, an all-season resort in the northern suburbs of St. Petersburg. The list of activities includes an outdoor pool complex, rope park, ice skating, and ski slopes, depending on the season you visit the city. In winter, it is worth staying to spend the night at the resort to enjoy skating between pines under neon lights or skiing. In summer, the kids will definitely enjoy a huge rope park with multiple routes of different difficulty levels and an outdoor pool, while the adults could spend time in the Finnish sauna.
