Paris and London with kids - planning the trip - part 2

If you read the previous post about our trip to Paris and London you remember we made a detailed plan of our stay in Paris.
Here is how it worked out.

June 13
just after noon - departing from Frankfurt, Germany by train
16:50 - arrive to Paris
17:30 - arrive to the hotel
18:00 - dinner
Unexpectedly it took us a little bit more than one hour to check in.  So we quickly had a snack in the nearest restaurant and went to Eiffel Tower
18:45 - ice cream
Because we wanted to visit Eiffel Tower that night we skipped ice cream
19:00 - take subway to Eiffel Tower
When we reached Eiffel Tower it started raining and we became wet very quickly. Our kids anticipated to be on the top of Eiffel Tower very much, so rain was not a problem for them.
20:00 20:30 - go to the top of Eiffel Tower
Our kids were very excited when they reached the top of Eiffel Tower. Also for several days before the trip our 6 years old son had a wiggly tooth and when we were on the top of Eiffel Tower he lost his tooth. He was the happiest kid around!
21:30 - go back to the hotel 

June 14
8:00 - wake up
8:30 - breakfast
On this day we arranged to have a private tour around Paris. Unfortunately our tour guide had a baby that morning and he rescheduled the tour for the next day. Because on the following day we planned going to Louvre we decided just to switch days in our itinerary. But ... we found out that Louvre was closed on Tuesdays. So we decided just to explore Paris.
9:45 - ice cream
10:00 - 13:00 - private tour around Paris
Here are the places we visited that day

• Passed Pompidou museum
• Went through yard inside of Louvre, where our son thought that he can safely step on water in the fountain and still stay dry. Well, laws of nature did not work the way he wanted.
• Stayed in Tuileries Garden. It was a very nice playground over there.
• Stayed in D'Orsay museum for an hour.
• Stopped at playground, ate ice cream and visited the shop where they sold a lot of delicious sweets, candies, and croissants

13:30 - lunch
14:30 - ice cream
15:00 - Luxembourg Garden, playground, pony, carousel
17:00 - croissants, ice cream, and other delicious stuff

18:00 - Seine river tour
It was very relaxing tour after our day of exploration
20:00 - dinner
21:00 - ice cream
21:30 - go back to the hotel

June 15
It was the busiest day in Paris
8:00 - wake up
8:30 - breakfast
9:45 - ice cream
Because we had a private tour guide that day we changed our plans again.
10:00 - go to Louvre
11:00 - 13:00 - Louvre
10:00 - 13:00 - Private tour guide around Paris
The final stop was Notre Dame, where we ate crepes. To be honest we were not impressed by Parisian crepes. 
13:30 - lunch
14:00 - ice cream
14:30 - 16:00 - Louvre
We prepared our kids what we would see in Louvre months in advance. I planned our route through the museum, so kids would not loose interest and not become bored. There were ten major pieces that we showed them including Venus of Milos, Mona Lisa, Michelangelo statues among others. Within an hour and a half we were done.
15:00 - 18:30 - playground, go to Montmartre 
16:00 - 18:00 - visited Arc de Triomphe
18:00 - 22:00 - went to Montmartre, walked around Montmartre, carousel,  ice cream, playground, went to the hotel

June 16

After very hectic day we had a very calm schedule
8:00 - wake up
8:30 - breakfast
9:45 - croissants, ice cream, and other delicious stuff
10:00 - go to D'Orsay
10:30 - 12:30 - D'Orsay

10:00 - 12:00 - Luxembourg Garden and playground
13:00 - lunch

We had lunch in a restaurant next to Luxembourg Garden. It was very authentic and we were the only tourists in that restaurant. The waiter did not speak English and to demonstrate some menu items he took food from a table next to us to show how it looked.
14:00 - ice cream
14:30 - 16:30 - walked around Paris, moved towards railroad station
17:30 - departed to London by train

To be Continued...

Paris and London with kids - planning the trip - part 1

Last year my wife and I decided to take our oldest kids (6 and 9 years old at that time) to Paris and London.

When planning the trip we had several requirements. It needed to be easy and entertaining. We wanted to visit some museums and get tours around Paris and London, but kids should not be bored. Every day we should have ice cream and opportunity to visit playgrounds. Also we needed to have contingency plans, just in case of rain, museum closures and other unexpected events.

So I started very detailed planning three months in advance, and  it worked for us perfectly. Well, not everything worked 100%, but because we had contingency plans not only we covered everything, we also had a lot of fun!

Here is our original plan
June 13
just after noon - departing from Frankfurt, Germany by train
16:50 - arrive to Paris
17:30 - arrive to the hotel
18:00 - dinner
18:45 - ice cream
19:00 - take subway to Eiffel Tower
20:00 - go to the top of Eiffel Tower
21:30 - go back to the hotel

June 14
8:00 - wake up
8:30 - breakfast
9:45 - ice cream
10:00 - 13:00 - private tour around Paris
13:30 - lunch
14:30 - ice cream
15:00 - Luxembourg Garden, playground, pony, carousel
17:00 - croissants, ice cream, and other delicious stuff
18:00 - Seine river tour
20:00 - dinner
21:00 - ice cream
21:30 - go back to the hotel

June 15
8:00 - wake up
8:30 - breakfast
9:45 - ice cream
10:00 - go to Louvre
11:00 - 13:00 - Louvre
13:30 - dinner
14:30 - ice cream
15:00 - 18:30 - playground, go to Montmartre
18:30 - dinner
19:30 - ice cream
20:00 - 22:00 - walk around Montmartre, go to the hotel

June 16
8:00 - wake up
8:30 - breakfast
9:45 - croissants, ice cream, and other delicious stuff
10:00 - go to D'Orsay
10:30 - 12:30 - D'Orsay
13:00 - dinner
14:00 - ice cream
14:30 - 16:30 - walk around Paris, moving towards railroad station
17:30 - depart to London by train

To be Continued...

St. Petersburg (Russia) - Excellent private tour guide matters!

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Before our one day visit to St. Petersburg we needed to make a decision: take a group bus tour or pay more and take a private tour guide. We decided to spend extra money taking a private tour guide and never regretted it. We found a great tour company that accommodated us (2 adults and 3 children).

Masha, that company's partner, worked with us for about one month and a half before the start of the cruise to plan our itinerary. We had limited time in St. Petersburg, so we wanted to utilize it as much as possible and ensure that our kids would be interested, not bored and not tired. Masha acted as a true concierge listening to all our crazy requests changing our itinerary several times.

When we arrived to St. Petersburg Masha met us just after passport control. She had a Mercedes minivan with a driver waiting for us in front of the port building. After we got into the minivan we started our tour around the city.

Masha made sure that our children were very comfortable and not bored. We stopped at several tourist spots to hear history and stories about them. Masha's stories were targeted at the level that our kids understood and she allowed many questions especially from our oldest son who loves asking questions. Our kids were involved in conversations with Masha from the very beginning and had a lot of fun. They still remember some interesting historical facts that Masha told them. Peter the Great, being the most powerful person in Russia, lived in a very tiny house with his wife and  kids. His daughter, Elisabeth, had 15,000 dresses and left only 6 rubles when she passed away. Cats saved the city after World War II eliminating rats...

Masha even brought us to the small yard where kids did Treasure Hunt.

No only our kids learned a lot from Masha while touring Hermitage museum, but they also had a lot of fun. Just after entering the museum Masha gave toy swords to boys and a fan to our daughter. Our kids were playing with the swords outside of Hermitage when we finished. We never would think that our kids would enjoy the overall Hermitage experience so much.

After visiting Science Museum we had some time and decided to go to a book store (it was not planned). Within several minutes Masha found an excellent one near by.

Masha provided a true concierge service to us satisfying all our desires on 'the' fly and being flexible to change plans when we asked. We had such a great experience. I would say that experience was worth all the money we spent. Most importantly kids had a blast and would love to return to St. Petersburg!