Denmark's monarchy goes back more than a thousand years, and the king still lives in a palace downtown. Kids can see crown jewels in a basement treasury, watch the guard march across a palace square, and run the ramparts of a star-shaped fort. Here's what we checked, from Rosenborg's treasury in the city to Frederiksborg on its lake north of town.
Christian IV built Rosenborg as a summerhouse in his garden and finished it as a three-story castle in 1624. Kids can walk through his rooms, including the bedchamber where he died, and climb to the Knights' Hall, hung with 12 tapestries of Christian V's war victories.
In the Treasury beneath the castle, the Danish crown jewels, royal crowns and Crown regalia are on show. The King's Garden lies outside.
A Danish tradition: on the King's birthday, everyone is invited to the palace square at Amalienborg to celebrate King Frederik X. The royal family steps out onto the balcony while the Royal Life Guards band plays below.
For kids it is a live royal show: guards marching in formation, a cheering crowd and a military band. It suits kids who can stand in a crowd and watch.
Four matching palaces ring a square with a 1771 statue of King Frederik V, and the Danish royal family lives in two of them. Every day the Royal Life Guard marches from its barracks by Rosenborg Castle, often with a band, to change the guard here.
Inside Christian VIII's Palace, the Amalienborg Museum shows royal offices and private rooms kept as they were, the Gala Hall and the Fabergé Chamber.
Christiansborg, on the Slotsholmen islet, is still a working palace used by the Royal Family for state visits. Kids can walk the Great Hall, lined with Bjørn Nørgaard's colorful tapestries of 1000 years of Danish history, and see the Throne Room, whose balcony is where Frederik X was proclaimed king in 2024. Below the palace, a tour leads through 800-year-old ruins, and the Royal Kitchen and Stables complete the visit.
Kronborg is the castle where Shakespeare set Hamlet, a UNESCO World Heritage fortress of towers, ramparts and moats on the Øresund strait.
Inside, kids can sprint the length of the ballroom (the largest in the Nordic countries), lie on a royal four-poster bed, stir pots in the old kitchen and build a dream castle in LEGO. Down in the dim casemates, they meet Holger the Dane.
Frederiksborg Castle sits on three islets in Castle Lake. Christian IV built it in the early 1600s, and it is the largest Renaissance complex in the Nordic region. Inside, the Museum of National History tells 500 years of Danish history through Denmark's largest portrait collection.
Kids follow a family trail of checkpoints through the halls. Outside, a Baroque Garden with royal monograms cut into the hedges sits by the lake.
Laid out in the early 1600s as the kitchen garden of Rosenborg Castle, this is Denmark's oldest royal garden. Today its lawns fill with picnics and games on sunny days.
Kids head for the fairytale playground and, in summer, a traditional puppet theater. Tree-lined avenues lead past a rose garden, fountains, the Hercules Pavilion and a statue of Hans Christian Andersen.
Kastellet is a five-pointed star fortress from the 1660s, still a working military base and one of the best preserved in Northern Europe. A path runs along the top of the grassy ramparts, looking down on the moat, the long rows of old soldiers' barracks and the Citadel Church.
On the King's Bastion stands Kastelsmøllen, a windmill from 1847 and the city's last working mill.
Frederiksberg Gardens is a 32-hectare romantic landscape garden laid out around Frederiksberg Palace, which sits on the hill above it. Winding paths follow lakes and canals past small islands, a waterfall and a Chinese summerhouse built as a royal teahouse.
Kids can spot herons, swans and geese, picnic on the lawns, and in summer take a rowed boat tour on the canals. Copenhagen Zoo borders the gardens.
Denmark's monarchy goes back more than a thousand years, and the king still lives in a palace downtown. Kids can see crown jewels in a basement treasury, watch the guard march across a palace square, and run the ramparts of a star-shaped fort. Here's what we checked, from Rosenborg's treasury in the city to Frederiksborg on its lake north of town.
Christian IV built Rosenborg as a summerhouse in his garden and finished it as a three-story castle in 1624. Kids can walk through his rooms, including the bedchamber where he died, and climb to the Knights' Hall, hung with 12 tapestries of Christian V's war victories.
In the Treasury beneath the castle, the Danish crown jewels, royal crowns and Crown regalia are on show. The King's Garden lies outside.
A Danish tradition: on the King's birthday, everyone is invited to the palace square at Amalienborg to celebrate King Frederik X. The royal family steps out onto the balcony while the Royal Life Guards band plays below.
For kids it is a live royal show: guards marching in formation, a cheering crowd and a military band. It suits kids who can stand in a crowd and watch.
Four matching palaces ring a square with a 1771 statue of King Frederik V, and the Danish royal family lives in two of them. Every day the Royal Life Guard marches from its barracks by Rosenborg Castle, often with a band, to change the guard here.
Inside Christian VIII's Palace, the Amalienborg Museum shows royal offices and private rooms kept as they were, the Gala Hall and the Fabergé Chamber.
Christiansborg, on the Slotsholmen islet, is still a working palace used by the Royal Family for state visits. Kids can walk the Great Hall, lined with Bjørn Nørgaard's colorful tapestries of 1000 years of Danish history, and see the Throne Room, whose balcony is where Frederik X was proclaimed king in 2024. Below the palace, a tour leads through 800-year-old ruins, and the Royal Kitchen and Stables complete the visit.
Kronborg is the castle where Shakespeare set Hamlet, a UNESCO World Heritage fortress of towers, ramparts and moats on the Øresund strait.
Inside, kids can sprint the length of the ballroom (the largest in the Nordic countries), lie on a royal four-poster bed, stir pots in the old kitchen and build a dream castle in LEGO. Down in the dim casemates, they meet Holger the Dane.
Frederiksborg Castle sits on three islets in Castle Lake. Christian IV built it in the early 1600s, and it is the largest Renaissance complex in the Nordic region. Inside, the Museum of National History tells 500 years of Danish history through Denmark's largest portrait collection.
Kids follow a family trail of checkpoints through the halls. Outside, a Baroque Garden with royal monograms cut into the hedges sits by the lake.
Laid out in the early 1600s as the kitchen garden of Rosenborg Castle, this is Denmark's oldest royal garden. Today its lawns fill with picnics and games on sunny days.
Kids head for the fairytale playground and, in summer, a traditional puppet theater. Tree-lined avenues lead past a rose garden, fountains, the Hercules Pavilion and a statue of Hans Christian Andersen.
Kastellet is a five-pointed star fortress from the 1660s, still a working military base and one of the best preserved in Northern Europe. A path runs along the top of the grassy ramparts, looking down on the moat, the long rows of old soldiers' barracks and the Citadel Church.
On the King's Bastion stands Kastelsmøllen, a windmill from 1847 and the city's last working mill.
Frederiksberg Gardens is a 32-hectare romantic landscape garden laid out around Frederiksberg Palace, which sits on the hill above it. Winding paths follow lakes and canals past small islands, a waterfall and a Chinese summerhouse built as a royal teahouse.
Kids can spot herons, swans and geese, picnic on the lawns, and in summer take a rowed boat tour on the canals. Copenhagen Zoo borders the gardens.
