Copenhagen is a beautiful family friendly city but like the rest of Denmark it is not the most affordable of destinations for many travellers. Read about our tips for things to do on a family city break to Copenhagen here.
Here are a few ideas of how to minimise your costs while still enjoying all that this great city has to offer.
Book an apartment rather than a hotel
We stayed in a fantastic airbnb apartment. There are many ways in which this saved us money. Firstly it was much cheaper than a hotel room would have been. It also allowed us to prepare our own food, saving money on not having to eat out all of the time. With a toddler that can’t sit still for more than five minutes there were other advantages to eating at the apartment for us!
Our apartment was really well stocked with food basics and there was a mini-market just across the road where we picked up more supplies. We noticed plenty of supermarkets and mini-markets all over the city so wherever you are staying you shouldn’t be far from one . We then prepared all of our breakfasts in the apartment and some of our evening meals. We had picnic lunches on most days with food we packed up at the apartment or bought in mini-market shops. In these small shops you could get pizza by the slice and other great lunch/ snack foods.
Think about the location of your apartment- the closer you are to the centre, the more expensive it will most likely be. On the other hand you might offset the additional costs by being able to walk to most places rather than paying for public transport or taxis. If you are thinking about getting a Copenhagen Card (see below) you will get public transport included so having to hop on a bus might not be an additional expense.
Enjoy the many free parks
If, like us, you have small children in tow, then they will always be grateful of a runaround in a park as a break from sightseeing. Many parks have fantastic playgrounds and some will just have open spaces to run around in and enjoy a picnic. They are also often a great place to people watch and get a taste for how the locals live. We enjoyed the Kongens Have (King’s Garden) in Nørreport but there are plenty of parks in the city, discover what is close to where you are staying.
The local outdoor space to where we were staying in Nørrebro was actually a cemetery- Assistens Kirkegård! It is as much of a park/garden as it is a cemetery and was a lovely place to wander around. Although there is obviously no playground for the children, ours did enjoy wandering around looking at the gravestones and trying to spot the most famous residents.
Take in a free city view
You don’t have to pay to get great views over Copenhagen. Entry to Tarnet tower, the tallest tower in the city at Christiansborg Slot is free. Well worth it. (More information on this in my other Copenhagen post here).
Head to a market for lunch
We headed to Torvehallerne KBH in Nørreport for lunch one day. It is a fantastic place to wander around (although you will want to keep small children close to you as it was busy when we were there). There are market stalls selling every kind of food you can think of and plenty of picnic benches just outside to sit down at to enjoy your purchases. Some stalls also had their own stools to sit at too.
We enjoyed the best ice cream of the trip here. It was so good, there was no way that B was going to share his and had a huge toddler meltdown when Husband took a bite of it!
Get a Copenhagen Card
If you plan on visiting lots of the attractions this can be a really good deal. It covers public transport as well as 87 attractions in and around Copenhagen. There are 24, 48 and 72 hour options. Children under 10 are free with an adult that has a Copenhagen card. The website lists all the attractions that it covers and even has a handy calculator to work out how much money you will save with the card compared to paying for each attraction individually.
Walk or bike around
Copenhagen is very flat and many of the main attractions are reasonably close to one another. I love walking around a city as not only does it get those steps in but it allows you to see corners of the city that would otherwise be missed if you were zooming through on a bus or train. Even with M’s tiny legs we managed to walk around a lot (until the moaning got too much).
If you want to get around a bit quicker, hiring a bike is another inexpensive way to get around. There are bike hire shops everywhere and the whole city is completely set up for cyclists.
If you want to go to Copenhagen these are just a few ways that you could stretch the budget further. I’m sure there are many more free/ cheaper attractions that I don’t know of. Did you discover any budget gems in Copenhagen?