1. The Durov Animal Theater

The Theater today offers a fantastic and bewildering array of performances including goats, horses, bears, wild boars, pigeons, camels, cats, dogs and mice! It's a great afternoon or day out for the kids and is guaranteed to put a smile on their faces.

2. Moscow Dolphinarium

has become one of the city's favorite kids' days out spot. Some of the acts performed in the show are very difficult and complicated and involve the animals dancing, clapping their flippers, "walking" on water, catching rings, balancing balls on their noses and jumping through hoops. The dolphins are especially playful and friendly and require little training.

3. Children's Musical Theater

Musical Theater continues to perform to packed audiences today. The theater, originally set up in a tiny hall, now boasts its own purpose-built building featuring a giant filigree birdcage and a unique Palekh Room painted with characters and scenes from traditional Russian and European fairytales. Before each performance the actors don costumes and mingle and talk with the children.

4. Gorky Park

Gorky Park situated just across the Moskva River from Park Kultury Metro Station. Today the park is filled with children's play areas, fun fairs, an original Buran spacecraft now open as a "Cosmic Experience for Kids", various rides and an enormous Ferris wheel next to the river, offering some spectacular views of the city for the more daring amongst you! During the winter many of the footpaths are flooded and freeze over to allow children ice skate around the park and in February visitors can enjoy Moscow's annual Festival of Ice Sculpture. In the summer months hydrofoils and various other small boats depart from the jetty next to the park and take visitors on cruises right through the center of the city and to most of her famous sights.

5. Yury Kuklachev's House of Cats

Yury Kuklachev's House of Cats is a unique phenomenon where cats and the odd dog are the only performers on stage! Cats have long been considered beautiful, wise, graceful, proud and independent animals, and here you can see them performing a whole host of tricks and routines, all to the absolute delight of the children in the crowd!

6. Obraztsov Puppet Theater

The Obraztsov Theatre is the largest puppet theater and puppetry teaching center in Russia. The center houses the theater as well as the Russian State Museum of Theatrical Puppets (containing over 3,000 puppets from over 50 countries, making it one of the largest puppet museums in the world), a library entirely devoted to the art of puppetry, and various manuscripts and documents related to puppetry in the center's pedagogical department.

Puppetry has been a popular form of entertainment for centuries in Europe. During the 16th and 17th centuries puppet shows became popular amongst the European aristocracy and puppets were used extensively as vehicles for caricature and satire. It was only in the 19th century that puppets began to be used as a means of entertaining and amusing children in parks and theaters.

The theater presents shows for both children and adults, with matinee performances full of humor and ideal for children and evening shows more likely to be silent or mimed.

7. Puppet Theatre of Fairy-Tales

Today it's one of the best city theaters. The participant of many Russian and international festivals, this theater is well-known among St. Petersburg viewers. It always tours: Spain, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, England, Finland, Scotland, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Egypt.