A train ride is half the outing for most kids, and the regional lines out of Copenhagen reach castles, beaches and a deer forest within an hour. Most stops are a short walk or bus ride from the station, and kids under 18 get in free at most of them. Here's what we checked, from Hamlet's castle at Helsingør to the Viking ships at Roskilde.
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.
The museum tells Denmark's seafaring story in galleries below ground, built around a former dry dock beside Kronborg Castle. Interactive exhibits let kids play an 18th-century merchant, navigate with traditional tools and get a washable sailor's tattoo.
The Dream Ship play area is a toy 1950s motor ship where kids crawl through the engine room, load cargo, ring the engine-room telegraph and make their own boats from rope and sails.
A big museum of Danish technology, from the first cars to early computers. Kids get up close to the space capsule that carried Andreas Mogensen, the first Dane in space, then climb into a play capsule of their own. They can sit in plane and car cockpits and see the aircraft of inventor J.C.H. Ellehammer.
On weekends and holidays, kids build machines and rockets in the Spektakel workshop.
A small saltwater aquarium run by the University of Copenhagen's biology department, beside the Nordhavnen marina in Helsingør. The tanks hold the fish, crabs and plants of the Øresund strait, the water just outside.
Kids can handle shore crabs, mussels, starfish and flatfish in the touch tanks and watch the animals being fed. Outside, the Water laboratory pool is free and always open.
Louisiana is a modern art museum set in an old park facing the Øresund, with about 60 sculptures, including works by Alexander Calder and Henry Moore, spread over open lawns, shady woods and a gorge down to the beach.
The Children's Wing fills three floors with open workshops led by art educators and tied to the current exhibitions: kids shape clay, experiment with paint and build small imaginative worlds.
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.
The museum is built around five original Viking ships, sunk in Roskilde Fjord to block a sea route about a thousand years ago, then raised in one of Denmark's major excavations. A giant window frames the fjord behind them.
Kids can climb aboard two full-size Viking ships as a light-and-sound storm rolls across the walls, play in a Viking children's village, and watch boatbuilders at work on Museum Island.
Dyrehaven is a former royal hunting forest, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, where about 300 red deer and 1,600 fallow deer roam free. Herds of several hundred graze the open Eremitage plain below a hilltop hunting lodge.
Cars are banned, so the wide roads suit strollers and bikes. In the hilly Ulvedalene, kids climb inside a hollow oak worn smooth by generations of play.
ARKEN is an art museum on the shore of Køge Bay, in a concrete building shaped like a stranded ship, with a 150-meter-long gallery spine and porthole doors. A family workshop stays open all day, with hands-on projects tied to the current exhibitions.
Ishøj Beach, with a playground, a bathing jetty and summer lifeguards, starts just outside, so art and a swim fit in one outing.
Frilandsmuseet is one of Europe's oldest open-air museums, open since 1901. Farms, houses and mills from across Denmark, Skåne and the Faroe Islands were taken down and rebuilt here among historic gardens and heritage breeds: horses, goats, sheep and rabbits kids can pet.
The Freddy Frogface Village is the play zone, based on Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books, with a labyrinth, soapbox cars, apple trees to climb and a reading cave.
Bakken, officially Dyrehavsbakken, dates from 1583 and is the world's oldest amusement park. It sits inside the Dyrehaven woods, with colorful wooden stalls instead of big brands or neon signs.
The 39 rides include a wooden roller coaster from 1932 and 17 rides for small children. Pjerrot, the white-faced clown, has entertained young visitors for more than 200 years. Shooting stalls and arcades fill the rest.
A train ride is half the outing for most kids, and the regional lines out of Copenhagen reach castles, beaches and a deer forest within an hour. Most stops are a short walk or bus ride from the station, and kids under 18 get in free at most of them. Here's what we checked, from Hamlet's castle at Helsingør to the Viking ships at Roskilde.
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.
The museum tells Denmark's seafaring story in galleries below ground, built around a former dry dock beside Kronborg Castle. Interactive exhibits let kids play an 18th-century merchant, navigate with traditional tools and get a washable sailor's tattoo.
The Dream Ship play area is a toy 1950s motor ship where kids crawl through the engine room, load cargo, ring the engine-room telegraph and make their own boats from rope and sails.
A big museum of Danish technology, from the first cars to early computers. Kids get up close to the space capsule that carried Andreas Mogensen, the first Dane in space, then climb into a play capsule of their own. They can sit in plane and car cockpits and see the aircraft of inventor J.C.H. Ellehammer.
On weekends and holidays, kids build machines and rockets in the Spektakel workshop.
A small saltwater aquarium run by the University of Copenhagen's biology department, beside the Nordhavnen marina in Helsingør. The tanks hold the fish, crabs and plants of the Øresund strait, the water just outside.
Kids can handle shore crabs, mussels, starfish and flatfish in the touch tanks and watch the animals being fed. Outside, the Water laboratory pool is free and always open.
Louisiana is a modern art museum set in an old park facing the Øresund, with about 60 sculptures, including works by Alexander Calder and Henry Moore, spread over open lawns, shady woods and a gorge down to the beach.
The Children's Wing fills three floors with open workshops led by art educators and tied to the current exhibitions: kids shape clay, experiment with paint and build small imaginative worlds.
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.
The museum is built around five original Viking ships, sunk in Roskilde Fjord to block a sea route about a thousand years ago, then raised in one of Denmark's major excavations. A giant window frames the fjord behind them.
Kids can climb aboard two full-size Viking ships as a light-and-sound storm rolls across the walls, play in a Viking children's village, and watch boatbuilders at work on Museum Island.
Dyrehaven is a former royal hunting forest, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, where about 300 red deer and 1,600 fallow deer roam free. Herds of several hundred graze the open Eremitage plain below a hilltop hunting lodge.
Cars are banned, so the wide roads suit strollers and bikes. In the hilly Ulvedalene, kids climb inside a hollow oak worn smooth by generations of play.
ARKEN is an art museum on the shore of Køge Bay, in a concrete building shaped like a stranded ship, with a 150-meter-long gallery spine and porthole doors. A family workshop stays open all day, with hands-on projects tied to the current exhibitions.
Ishøj Beach, with a playground, a bathing jetty and summer lifeguards, starts just outside, so art and a swim fit in one outing.
Frilandsmuseet is one of Europe's oldest open-air museums, open since 1901. Farms, houses and mills from across Denmark, Skåne and the Faroe Islands were taken down and rebuilt here among historic gardens and heritage breeds: horses, goats, sheep and rabbits kids can pet.
The Freddy Frogface Village is the play zone, based on Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books, with a labyrinth, soapbox cars, apple trees to climb and a reading cave.
Bakken, officially Dyrehavsbakken, dates from 1583 and is the world's oldest amusement park. It sits inside the Dyrehaven woods, with colorful wooden stalls instead of big brands or neon signs.
The 39 rides include a wooden roller coaster from 1932 and 17 rides for small children. Pjerrot, the white-faced clown, has entertained young visitors for more than 200 years. Shooting stalls and arcades fill the rest.
