Baltic cruise with teens!

I've done a whole bunch of Baltic cruises with my husband and on my own (and as he's from Finland we have a home in Helsinki so know the city pretty well). But I need your advice! Am taking my two nieces, darling American girls 12 and 15 years old, on a standard Baltic 7-night itinerary, where ports are Stockholm, St. Pete, and Copenhagen (along with Helsinki, which I've got covered).

Would love advice on what to do with teens in these ports.

Thanks.

Carolyn

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

I think the ABBA museum in Stockholm would be appreciated.

Other than that I would probably ask them what they want to do

Do you know what generally your nieces are interested in? Is this their first trip to Europe? Are they capable of planning part of this trip themselves? If you spend part of the day on their interests, things are likely to go more smoothly.

My 3.5 year old loved seeing all of the museums. The Vasa is a great option for all ages, and Skansen has a really nice open lemur exhibit and aquarium if they like animals. My son wasn't too interested in the costumes at the Royal Armoury, but your nieces might find it more interesting.

The canal tours in Copenhagen and St. Petersburg are interesting, and an easy way to close out a long day of touring, although they are much more pleasant when the weather is nice. My son loved running through the fountains of Peterhof - most of the people who ran were teenagers or in their 20s, but I'd recommend a change of clothing since the trick fountains aren't near the entrance and it can be a bit chilly. Stolle has quick and easy meat and fruit pies. Their daily selection of pies changes but here are some of the options: http://www.stolle.ru/en/menu/saint-petersburg#block-quicktabs-pirogi

My son lasted an hour in the Hermitage, and after that we went to the internet cafe on the ground floor while my husband got to see the Impressionists (we started with my favorite paintings first since we knew that a toddler might have a limited attention span for art).

Tallinn has a great hands on Seaplane museum with a flight simulator and submarines to explore but that is a better choice if they are interested in that sort of thing. If you are worried about your nieces getting tired in St. Petersburg, you might want to consider touring part of Tallinn in a pedicab (Tallinn is beautiful, but usually requires a lot of walking and is often scheduled the day before St. Petersburg).

There were a lot of children of all ages on our cruise, and they all seemed to have an amazing time.

I've done a whole bunch of Baltic cruises with my husband and on my own (and as he's from Finland we have a home in Helsinki so know the city pretty well). But I need your advice! Am taking my two nieces, darling American girls 12 and 15 years old, on a standard Baltic 7-night itinerary, where ports are Stockholm, St. Pete, and Copenhagen (along with Helsinki, which I've got covered).

 

Would love advice on what to do with teens in these ports.

Copenhagen: The noon time changing of the guard at the Amalienborg Palace is quite a show. The event takes places at the four guard houses at points around the central plaza. That means the public fills up the center to watch. Equally amusing is if you happen to be in the way of the guards' route. The leader is quite the expert at aggressively telling the crowd to get out of the way without missing a beat of his instructions to the guard themselves.

Two essential eating experiences in Copenhagen: eating a hot dog from a street vendor and eating smorrebrod (open-faced sandwiches with an assortment of toppings).

The hot dog stand alongside the Round Tower is an organic stand where you can be confident of the cleanliness and quality of the product.

URL:

http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/dop-round-tower-gdk412735

We ate smorrebrod twice: once at a cafe in the plaza within sight of the Georg Jensen/Royal Copenhagen flagship store and once at the Hallernes Smorrebrod, the smorrebrod specialty kiosk in the Torvehallerne food halls. There are other restaurants which specialize in smorrebrod.

URL for Hallernes Smmorrebrod (you'll need to use Google translate):

http://www.hallernes.dk/

Trip Advisor covers Hallernes if you want English-language reviews.

We went last year with two 15 yo's and a 12 yo. The 15 yo's had studied the Hanseatic League in school, so were excited to see examples of it while touring.

Copenhagen: They enjoyed walking the city and the free walking tour, Tivoli

SPB: Was more for the adults, but we did add a stop at the Cat Museum, which is really just a home for retired Hermitage mousers and other interesting breeds. You pay a bit of money and go pet cats. Good if you love animals and need a fix. We also had a very lovely dinner at a local 'home cooking" restaurant where the kids enjoyed talking to our waitress.

Helsinki:they did a speedboat tour around the coast. A total thrill ride.

Stockholm: We did a tour that included the Vasa, a large food market, and a walk around old town. They enjoyed all of it.

We went last year with two 15 yo's and a 12 yo. The 15 yo's had studied the Hanseatic League in school, so were excited to see examples of it while touring.

 

Copenhagen: They enjoyed walking the city and the free walking tour, Tivoli

 

SPB: Was more for the adults, but we did add a stop at the Cat Museum, which is really just a home for retired Hermitage mousers and other interesting breeds. You pay a bit of money and go pet cats. Good if you love animals and need a fix. We also had a very lovely dinner at a local 'home cooking" restaurant where the kids enjoyed talking to our waitress.

 

Helsinki:they did a speedboat tour around the coast. A total thrill ride.

 

Stockholm: We did a tour that included the Vasa, a large food market, and a walk around old town. They enjoyed all of it.

Östermalmshallen (Östermalms saluhall) likely, or possibly Hötorgshallen.

There is also a foodmarket at Medborgarplatsen in Södermalm.

Yes, Ostermalmshallen. We are foodies, and had a great time trying and sharing new foods there. The vendors were the nicest.people.ever. It was really a pleasure.

I've done a whole bunch of Baltic cruises with my husband and on my own (and as he's from Finland we have a home in Helsinki so know the city pretty well). But I need your advice! Am taking my two nieces, darling American girls 12 and 15 years old, on a standard Baltic 7-night itinerary, where ports are Stockholm, St. Pete, and Copenhagen (along with Helsinki, which I've got covered).

 

Would love advice on what to do with teens in these ports.

 

Thanks.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Editor in Chief

Cruise Critic

If you have time in Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens is great, for ALL ages.

If the girls are into anything to do with history, and museum would be fine. If not, do walking tours, boat rides and, as has been said, trying different foods from each country (desserts would probably be better for the teens).

As whichever tour you book for St Petersburg, if they might cater to teens and, of course, check your rill call to see if others are traveling with teens. Meeting other kids their own age for a tour would enhance the experience a great deal.

Cheers

Len

As whichever tour you book for St Petersburg, if they might cater to teens and, of course, check your rill call to see if others are traveling with teens. Meeting other kids their own age for a tour would enhance the experience a great deal.

One word of caution on the immigration checkpoint at St. Petersburg - when we researched ahead of time many people posted that families could go through together. That wasn't the case on our cruise - we had to go through individually. Actually it was a good experience for our sons, as we want them to learn to be independent travelers. However, you might want to mention to the teens that this might happen so they're prepared for the possibility.

If you have time in Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens is great, for ALL ages.

 

 

 

If the girls are into anything to do with history, and museum would be fine. If not, do walking tours, boat rides and, as has been said, trying different foods from each country (desserts would probably be better for the teens).

 

As whichever tour you book for St Petersburg, if they might cater to teens and, of course, check your rill call to see if others are traveling with teens. Meeting other kids their own age for a tour would enhance the experience a great deal.

 

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

Len

 

We met a family through our roll call and did a tour together through Anastasia with them in SPB. It was great for two reasons- we divided costs and my kids loved sharing the experience with other kids.

We did a Baltic cruise with our 14 and 10 year old girls. In Stockholm, our girls found the Nordic Museum quite a bit more interesting than the Vasa. Also, they loved Skansen. They enjoyed canal boat ride, St. Catherine's Palace (interior), and Peterhof (exterior), as well as subway ride in St. Petersburg. In Copenhagen, agree that Tivoli is a must, and museum that they preferred was the Danish Resistance Museum. Have a great trip!