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Russia-has anyone taken their kids?

3 replies

foreverastudent · 13/04/2010 17:34

I was thinking of taking my DCs (8 and almost 3) but saw on fco site that there is a kidnapping risk so now not so keen!

Has anyone else been there with/out kids and hw would they rate its child-friendliness?

OP posts:
jkklpu · 13/04/2010 20:24

Depends where you go - the kidnapping risks isn't universal, just as terrorism risk in central London is probably very different from the risk in Pitlochry.

Took my kids when they were nearly 4 and nearly 2 to Moscow last September when I thought we were going to be moving there. With older kids, the non-buggy-friendliness of the metro, other public transport and the broken pavements and underpasses will be less of an issue. That said, there are quite a few children's options there, including kids' theatres, the zoo, big parks and fairground (in Gorky park), lots of museums.

Depends where you're looking at going and what kind of things you like doing. Lots of big spaces for running around in Moscow and St Petersburg (and probably in most cities). Also huge expanses of rural areas, but not a great infrastructure in terms of international tourism support and, outside the 2 big cities, probably a relatively low level of English spoken.

So, as with anywhere, you need to decide what kind of holiday you want before you decide whether it's for you. You should also bear in mind that it's quite expensive, especially in Moscow, and that's just accommodation, not counting the visas for which there's no child discount. We paid £300 for all 4 of us just for visas.

jkklpu · 13/04/2010 20:26

PS 2 other things which might be relevant: I should have said that Russians on the whole love kids so you'd get lots of smiling and interacting with the kids on the metro, for example, and higher tolerance of kids in cafes/restaurants than you'd get in the UK. And the other things is that almost everyone smokes and even supposedly segregated restaurants often don't seem that way.

Louise2004 · 11/05/2010 17:13

A bit late with my reply but I second what jkklpu wrote and I do think it's safe overall to visit Russia with children. You could check out www.childreninmoscow.ru for ideas of where to go with your DCs - parks, restaurants and all the museums and art galleries etc. I hope you have a good trip and that I'm not too late in replying for your decision making process!

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