Moscow/ St Petersburg- with teenagers

[glitterbiscuits]

We are considering a trip to Russia in October.
Children are older teenagers and all vegetarian.

Has anyone been and have any top tips to share please?

Well I hope they like cabbage! Actually I ate reasonable well when I went (long time ago).

The overnight train from Moscow to stP is an experience. I will rattle my brain and see what I can remember.

The sleeper train between Moscow and St. Petersburg is a must! I ate a lot of cabbage and mushrooms when I went (I’m a vegetarian too), but it was worth it to see Russia!

Drank a lot of vodka too! I was a teenager then...

That sounds wonderful. Off to investigate.

Loved Moscow, not been to St P.

Moscow was much more accessible than I expected. Potter round the Kremlin and Red Sq. bonkers to anyone who grew up in the '80s. GUM is fun too. I was stunned by the Art Deco architecture- some bits felt like Paris!

We went with tween and teen to St P last August. We had a private guide who was a vegetarian and took us to a delicious restaurant - so sorry can’t temember the name of it.

We loved it there. Peterhof gardens were amazing, Church on Spilled Blood, Nevsky Prospekt and an absolute highlight for DD & I was the Faberge museum.

St Petersburg (it was Leningrad when I was there) has the most beautiful holdings and museums. I seem to remember a prison?

We did both last April with a 14 year old and 11 year old. We took the overnight train between the two- DD was just saying today how much she enjoyed it!

I enjoyed Moscow more than St Petersburg but both were great! Don’t miss the Diamond Fund in the Kremlin. If the sign at the main ticket office says it’s sold out, don’t worry, that’s just for Russians. Foreigners can buy the tickets at the entrance to the Fund. Book general Kremlin/Armoury tickets online in advance- much shorted queue for collecting the tickets.

DS(14) also loved the Cold War bunker in Moscow. He got to flick the actual switch to drop a nuclear bomb on the US.

In St Petersburg we went to Catherine’s Palace via public transport which made it much less expensive than using a tour. We also used St Petersburg greeters on our first day. It’s a free tour guide service- we brought a small gift for our guide and you pay for their meals/drinks/entrance fees. Our guide emailed us a few weeks before to see what we migh be interested in doing.

I loved Russia! DS and I are going to do the trans Mongolian express in a couple of years- I can’t wait.

We also did both and got the train between the two. It's just disconcerting not being able to understand the language (the conductor was asking us for something for about 10 minutes - thought he was asking for tickets or passports etc, turns out he was offering us a beer!!!). Much preferred Moscow to St P, parts of St P felt very tatty once you were away from the touristy parts and a little unsafe. Didn't feel like that at all in Moscow.

The train between was fun, but I preferred St Petersburg to Moscow. I found it to be on a more human scale, but Moscow has some powerful architecture.

I thought St Petersburg was very faded crumbling grandeur while Moscow felt like a city for giants.

We ate at Khachapuri one evening in Moscow. It’s a chain sort of along the lines of Cafe Rouge - the mains are all meat/chicken I think, but they have really good mushrooms with a salty cheese on top plus great Khachapuri bread, soups and dumplings.

Bushe in St Petersburg is a great little cafe close to the Hermitage for sandwiches, cakes etc and DH/DD loved this place for cake and coffee/hot chocolate

www.facebook.com/bizespb/

In Moscow we also went to the Space Museum out by VDHKh which was good and then on the way back into the city, stopped by the Gulag Museum which is a bit off the beaten track but worth it if you have time.

I also really liked the Yusupov Palace- book for an evening when you can get access to the Rasputin rooms. DS really liked the big military museum where you can see the biggest motherfucker missile imaginable. The Seige Museum is small but also really good and the museum attendant was very sweet and very concerned that we might not understand what we were looking at so searched out all the English signs for us.

The Smolny Catherdral is a little out of the way but if you have time, it is so so pretty (wasn’t open to the public when we went but you can wander round it. Our apartment wasn’t too far from it but it is a trek from the centre).