Parks of St. Petersburg and recreation with children: why we removed these materials
Here there used to be three pieces: a guide to Alexander Garden, a large list of activities for children, and a roundup of city parks. All three have been removed in every language version, and the old URLs now redirect permanently to this page.
We are answering directly, because the question was a practical one and deserves a practical answer. We no longer plan or describe family trips to Saint Petersburg. Not because the parks stopped being parks, but because an editorial team based in the EU cannot recommend a country that the German Foreign Office advises against traveling to, and where the same Foreign Office warns of the risk of arbitrary detention, to a family with a child.
💡 At a glance:
- which three pieces were removed and what they covered
- why the family format in particular fails the review
- which circumstances make traveling with a child a fundamentally different matter
- which cities for traveling with children remain in our live sections
- Last updated: 09/2026
Why we deleted these guides
Two of the three texts were lists: thirty activities for children and twenty parks, with 2021 prices, opening hours, and tips on what to fit into a day. The third was a standard guide to a garden in the city center. What they had in common was that all three assumed a simple thing: come here and spend a weekend.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022 (UN press release GA/12407, 03/02/2022). After that date, we no longer consider it possible for us to put together a family weekend itinerary in that country. Such texts cannot be updated in substance: a list of activities without a suggestion of somewhere to go is an empty page.
On the money side, we will be brief and precise. The share of oil and gas revenue in Russia's budget fell to roughly 22 percent in 2025 and 2026, while the share of non-oil-and-gas revenue rose to roughly 78 percent (OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, 12/09/2025). Amusement park tickets, cafes, and hotels fall squarely into the second category.
Why the family format fails the review
Here we need a caveat, which we make deliberately and without irony. We do not consider readers who planned such a trip to be careless, and we are not judging anyone's family decisions. The point is what we as a publisher can allow ourselves to publish.
A piece in the "where to go with a child" genre rests on the assumption that the background is normal. That if a passport is lost, there is somewhere to go; that the card in your wallet works; that an adult does not face having to explain their documents to someone. It is precisely this assumption that has stopped being true, and a list of activities is structured in such a way that there is no room to say this out loud: it consists of bullet points, not paragraphs.
Hence our decision. Not to rewrite the text with a warning at the top, but to remove it entirely and explain the reason in the same place where a reader arrives from search.
What makes such a trip a different matter
Below are only verifiable circumstances, each with a source.
Payments. Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia on March 10, 2022, and cards issued outside the country do not work there (The Moscow Times, 03/06/2022). The German Foreign Office confirms this in its current guidance: using cards common in Germany is currently not possible (Auswärtiges Amt).
Documents. German missions in the Russian Federation are in principle unable to issue replacement passport documents outside working hours (Auswärtiges Amt). For a family with a morning flight, this is not a formality.
Personal safety of adults. The German Foreign Office warns: for German citizens and persons with dual German-Russian citizenship, there is a risk of arbitrary detention (Auswärtiges Amt). Separately, the ministry notes that Russian authorities treat German-Russian dual citizens exclusively as Russian citizens, which includes conscription into the military, and that the partial mobilization announced in September 2022 has officially still not been completed (Auswärtiges Amt). For a family where one adult holds a second citizenship, this changes the entire framework of the trip.
Help in an emergency. The U.S. Department of State maintains a Level 4 "Do Not Travel" advisory for Russia, reissued on December 29, 2025, and notes that all U.S. consulates in the country have suspended operations and the embassy in Moscow has reduced staff (U.S. Department of State).
What this means for you
Item | Status 09/2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
Services related to tourism in Russia | Prohibited by Article 5n(2) of Regulation 833/2014 as amended by Regulation 2025/2033 of 23.10.2025 | |
Transition period | Ended 01.01.2026 | |
Paying with an EU card | Impossible since 10.03.2022 | |
Replacing a lost passport | German missions do not issue such documents outside working hours | |
Dual citizenship | Russian authorities treat dual citizens exclusively as citizens of Russia | |
US State Department advisory | Level 4: Do Not Travel, reissued 29.12.2025 |
Where to go instead
The query was about a city where a child would not be bored and an adult would not be miserable: large parks, understandable transit, a museum you can drop into for an hour, and a short trip. The live sections of the site answer this: Finland with Helsinki and its parks and science centers, Poland with Gdansk and Warsaw, Germany with Berlin and Hamburg, Czechia with Prague. The Baltic direction is closest in spirit to what readers were looking for when they opened the deleted lists. We do not list specific places, prices, or schedules here: our live country sections handle that, not this column.
The overall explanation for the entire section is collected in the column hub. Related topics: our position on routes and excursions and our position on city hotels.
Where we stand
We believe that material in the "where to go with kids" genre carries a particular responsibility, because people read it to make a decision on behalf of someone who cannot decide for themselves. In our assessment, publishing such material about a country that the reader's own government's foreign ministry warns against traveling to means shifting the risk onto the family and pretending there is no risk. We decided to remove all three texts and not publish updated versions with caveats.
We do not give, and will not give, advice like "if you do go, take cash." That kind of advice is itself practical information about a trip we have declined to cover, and at the same time it is a way to absolve ourselves of responsibility while leaving the recommendation in place.
We write about a state and its policies, not about people based on their passport. There are people in Russia who spoke out against the war and received prison sentences for it. Our decision not to publish guides to Russia is about money, sanctions, and reader safety, not nationality.
Publication date: September 3, 2026. Last updated: September 3, 2026.
⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions
A park is a safe place. What does war have to do with it?
The park does remain a park. The issue is not the park itself, but the trip as a whole. The circumstances and sources are listed above in the sections "What makes such a trip a different story" and "What this means for you as a reader from the EU and the US". The list of entertainment covers the entire trip, not just one evening on a bench.
We have relatives in the city, we will come anyway. Why not help with advice?
A trip to see family is your personal matter, and we are not judging it in any way. But it does not require a tourist guide, and we can only publish what we consider responsible: the legal framework and official warnings, not practical advice.
Do you consider parents who traveled there irresponsible?
No, and we say so explicitly. We are responsible for our own publications, not for judging our readers. The circumstances listed in the text changed after 2022, and that change concerns the publisher first and foremost.
Why do you mention mobilization in a text about children's entertainment?
Because the German Foreign Office explicitly warns about it with regard to dual citizens, and such families were a notable part of the audience for the deleted materials. Staying silent about it in a text about a family trip would have been dishonest.
What will happen to the old links to these lists?
They lead here. We decided that an honest answer to the question is better than an empty page, which is why each deleted material has been replaced with an explanation and a list of destinations we continue to write about.
In short
Three materials about Saint Petersburg parks and children's entertainment have been deleted in full, and the old addresses redirect here. The family format withstands scrutiny the least, because it relies on the assumption of a normal backdrop. At present, that assumption holds only partially at best. Details and official sources are collected in the section "What makes such a trip a different story". The legal framework does not depend on the trip format: from January 1, 2026, services related to tourism activities in Russia are prohibited for persons from the EU. The cities we continue to take readers with children to in our live sections are listed above.
How you can help
We do not collect money and receive nothing from the links below. These are official websites of organizations working with the consequences of the war:
- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, unhcr.org
- UNICEF, unicef.org
- Ukrainian Red Cross, redcross.org.ua
Sources
- UN General Assembly, resolution ES-11/1 "Aggression against Ukraine", 03/02/2022. https://press.un.org/en/2022/ga12407.doc.htm
- Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2033 of 10/23/2025 amending Regulation 833/2014, EUR-Lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202502033
- Skadden, analysis of the EU's 19th sanctions package, 11/2025. https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/11/eu-adopts-19th-sanctions-package
- The Moscow Times, on Visa and Mastercard suspending operations, 03/06/2022. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/06/visa-mastercard-suspend-operations-in-russia-a76784
- Auswärtiges Amt, Russische Föderation: Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise, as of 09/02/2026. https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/service/laender/russischefoederation-node/russischefoederationsicherheit-201536?isLocal=false&isPreview=false
- U.S. Department of State, Russia Travel Advisory, Level 4, reissued 12/29/2025. https://travel.state.gov/en/international-travel/travel-advisories/russia.html
- Centre for Eastern Studies OSW, Russia's 2026 budget, 12/09/2025. https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2025-12-09/russias-2026-budget-mounting-financial-challenges-and-economic
Link check date: 09/03/2026.
A small editorial team writing guides for independent travel. We travel ourselves, but we haven’t been everywhere, so we check prices, opening hours and how to get there against official sources.