A city break in Copenhagen with kids
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This is a city that I had fancied visiting for quite some time, but had never made it to Denmark so far. I’d heard how family friendly it is and so was determined to visit Copenhagen with kids. We managed to bag some cheap flights for the five of us, sealing the deal on our next family city break.
Getting around Copenhagen with kids
Copenhagen is very flat which is a massive advantage when trying to get little legs to do some walking. It is also very pushchair friendly which always makes things easier! If your children are slightly older it would be great to hire a bike to get around. There are plenty of bike hire shops throughout the city. Some of these also hire trailers for young children to sit in. The bike lanes are very busy so children need to be pretty confident riders. When not walking we got around on the bus and the underground which were both very easy to navigate.
Where to stay in Copenhagen with kids
We stayed in a fantastic airbnb apartment in the Nørrebro area. For us an apartment was much better than a hotel room for numerous reasons. 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 eating out all of the time. With a toddler that couldn’t sit still for more than five minutes there were other advantages for us to eating at the apartment!
Our apartment was really well stocked with food basics and we were able to pick up other supplies from a mini-market across the street. We then prepared some of our evening meals and all of our breakfasts in the apartment.
Think about the location of your apartment. The closer you are to the centre, the more expensive it will most likely be. You might offset some of the additional costs by walking 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 hopping on a bus would not be an additional expense.
Exploring Copenhagen on a budget
Enjoy the free parks
If, like us, you have small children in tow, then they will always be grateful for a runaround in a park as a break from sightseeing. The bonus being that this a free activity! 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 if you’re in Copenhagen with kids.
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. We looked at the gravestones and tried to spot the most famous residents.
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. It even has a handy calculator to work out how much money you will save with the card compared to paying for each attraction individually.
Top attractions in Copenhagen with kids
Tivoli Gardens
This is probably one of Copenagen’s most famous attractions and is a great place to go with or without children. There is loads to see and do there so you will probably need the best part of a day. Like most things in Copenhagen it’s not cheap so you want to feel like you make the most of your ticket! There’s an abundance of rides to suit visitors of any age. There are also beautiful gardens (the clue is in the name!) as well as parades and regular shows. Particularly over the summer there are regular concerts on at the weekend which are included in your entrance ticket. On Saturday nights there’s a firework display throughout the summer, although at 23:45 it is a bit late for the smallest travellers!
There were plenty of rides that the toddler was able to go on. What he enjoyed most though was the amazing playground in the Rasmus Klump area (to be honest children of all ages will love this). Even better it is free with the entrance ticket. There are lots of family friendly facilities in this area and a little theatre which has toddler friendly shows on throughout the day. The shows were all in Danish but our kids didn’t seem to mind this!
Top Tips for Tivoli Gardens
Work out at the beginning of your visit how many rides you think you might go on to try and get the best ride ticket options for you. The ride tickets are additional to the entrance fee and can be paid per individual ride or you can get a wristband for unlimited rides. Have a look at the website to see the types of rides there are. It also details here any age/ height restrictions and how much it costs for an individual ticket. If you decide you want to go for the unlimited rides pass you can pre-book here.
Nyhaven
This is the picture I had in mind when I visualised Copenhagen. It is basically one street around a canal. But it is one of the prettiest streets you will see anywhere, and is a must-see for anyone visiting Copenhagen with kids. It’s full of colourful buildings, small cafes/ bars and boats. One end of Nyhavn leads towards the main square (Kongens Nytorv- King’s Square).
Nyhavn is also a jumping on/ off point for many of the boat tours.
Canal Tour of Copenhagen with kids
There are multitudes of options for canal tours from Nyhavn, and also from other points around the city. Some of them are hop-on and hop-off and some you just stay on. We opted for one that we stayed on. It was an hour in length, which was the perfect amount of time for us. It allowed us to see Copenhagen from the water without the children getting bored.
We all loved this trip as there was lots to see and a commentary to let you know where we were and what we were looking at. It’s a really good way to get your bearings and might show you other places that you then want to go back and see properly. Our boat had seats both inside and outside. We went straight to the outside seats- much better for seeing what was around us. Half way through the tour though everyone rushed in as the heavens opened! Luckily it was only a shower so we were soon back outside in the sunshine.
There are a few different companies offering canal tours. We just turned up on the day and got straight on. You can book tickets online or from the kiosk in advance if you want to avoid queuing.
Amalienborg Slot/ Marmorkirken
Close to Nyhavn is the Royal quarter which includes the current Queen’s home, Amalienborg slot. Like most children, our girls are intrigued by anything that involves queens, palaces and castles so we went to have a look. We managed to time it right and got there for the changing of the guard, which was fantastic.
There were no real barriers, so we were really up close to the soldiers and the kids loved marching around the palace square re-enacting the whole scene afterwards. We didn’t go into the palace (parts of it are open to visitors though), but seeing it from the outside was impressive.
Just down the road from Amalienborg is Marmorkirken (Marble Church). This has a dome said to be inspired by St Peter’s in Rome, which was very impressive. It’s definitely worth going for a look.
Top Tips for the royal quarter
– Changing of the guards at Amalienborg Slot is at 12:00 every day.
– We didn’t do it but you can pay to go up the dome of Marmorkirken for views of the city.
Christiansborg Slot Tower
We did want to go somewhere with a view of the city though so we went for the free option! The island of Slotsholmen is where all the main Government buildings are. Christiansborg Slot is a palace and is also used as a government building for the Houses of Parliament and the Prime Ministers office among other things. The city’s tallest tower is also here and free to go up! We got there not long after it opened to avoid huge queues (which worked) and then got the lift to the top. There were lots of cordons set up so it obviously does get very busy.
The views were definitely worth it and the children loved seeing the city from above. There is a restaurant up the tower too, if your budget can stretch to it!
Top Tips for Christiansborg Slot Tower
– Try to get there early to avoid the queues.
– Strollers aren’t allowed up the tower, so if you have a young child you may want to bring a baby carrier. If you do have a stroller with you (we did) you can leave it at the bottom of the lift safely and collect on the way back down.
Check the website for up to date opening times so you can time your visit to avoid queues.
Rosenborg Slot / Kongens Have (King’s Gardens)
Rosenborg Slot and the King’s Gardens are next door to each other in the Nørreport area of the city. We walked there from Nyhavn, which was just about ok for M’s little legs (the toddler was in the pushchair). If you are travelling from further afield in the city or just don’t fancy the walk, there are plenty of buses that go straight past. When travelling we mostly use google maps to work out routes. It’s a great way to quickly work out how long it might take to walk. If the walk seems too long it can show how viable public transport is. If you want to find out more about the Copenhagen public transport options have a look here.
We had a picnic for lunch in the King’s Gardens, which is apparently the oldest park in the city. There are free puppet shows here too in July/ August, but we were a bit early in the season for that. It’s a beautiful park and we enjoyed wandering around then picnicking. We also found a small but lovely playground which the children really enjoyed.
After our picnic and a play in the park we moved on to next-door Rosenborg Slot. This was the summer home for the Danish royals but has been a museum for some time now. We all enjoyed wandering around the castle but the highlight for the girls was seeing the Danish Crown Jewels. These are kept in the treasury in the basement.
You can book your tickets for Rosenborg online in advance (we just did it the morning we were going). It cut out queuing time for us.
Where to eat in Copenhagen with kids
Have a picnic
Mostly to save money 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.
Go to a foodhall
We headed to Torvehallerne KBH in Nørreport for lunch one day. It is a fantastic place to wander around. You will want to keep small children close to you as it can be very busy. 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 Benjamin was going to share his and had a huge toddler meltdown when Daddy took a bite of it!
Overall we certainly weren’t disappointed with Copenhagen. We had 4 days there and kept busy without rushing around too much. Copenhagen with kids is easy to get around and has all the family amenities you could need. There are plenty of other sights and activities that we didn’t get around to so always chance for a return visit. If you’d like other family city break ideas, you might enjoy Paris, Palma de Mallorca or Barcelona.
Have a look at our travel resources page for help with further help with planning your trip. Or contact us if you have specific questions, we always love to hear from readers.
