February is dark and cold, and it brings two things to plan around. Fastelavn, the Danish carnival, puts kids in costumes swinging at a candy-filled barrel until it breaks, with buns to follow. Then comes the winter break week. Here's what we checked, from barrel bashing in the Designmuseum garden to sharks at the Blue Planet, plus places to warm up and burn off energy indoors.
Designmuseum Danmark fills a former 1750s hospital with Danish and international design, from the 'Danish Modern' story of 1920s to 1970s classics to Chinese and German porcelain.
Kids tend to head for the quiet garden, where Anne Brandhøj's wooden 'Playmates' figures are made for touching and climbing. On selected Saturdays and in school holidays, the banquet hall becomes a workshop where kids make something to take home.
Fastelavn is Denmark's dress-up festival before Lent, and Designmuseum Denmark holds a party for it in its protected historic garden. Kids come in costume and take turns swinging at the barrel, where courage and good aim can make one of them the cat king (kattekonge).
It suits kids who love dressing up and want a go at a classic Danish tradition, with parents cheering or taking a swing themselves.
Fælledparken is the city's second largest park, laid out on old common land. Kids get two standout playgrounds: a traffic playground with road signs, traffic lights and bike paths, and the Tower Playground, built around five of the city's best-known towers.
Older kids head for the skatepark, one of the largest in Northern Europe. A 3.5 km path loops past lawns, mature trees and a lakeside flower garden.
A festival of light art that takes over Copenhagen's squares, buildings, bridges and hidden corners in the darkest weeks of winter. Sculptures, installations and projections by light artists, designers and students line a walking route through the inner city, with a few pieces further out.
Kids hunt for the next glowing work in the dark, and the route lets a family walk as far as tired kids allow.
A big new library exhibition built around The Comet Is Coming, the Moomin story where the world teeters on the edge of disaster and the Moomins find their way through it together. It is about friendship, joy and coping when things feel uncertain.
It suits families who already know the Moomins, and kids old enough to talk about a story with a bit of worry in it.
CopenHill is a ski slope, hiking trail and rooftop park built on top of the Amager Bakke incineration plant. The green artificial piste runs from steep black and red sections at the top to blue and green runs below, with magic carpet lifts and a freestyle park.
Kids who don't ski can ride rental tubes down the sledding hill, or hike the trails and stairs up to the rooftop café.
Experimentarium is a hands-on science center spread over three indoor floors and a rooftop. Kids make soap bubbles of every size in the Bubblearium, splash with water at The Beach, navigate a ship simulator in The Port and see their own body through a thermal camera in Under Your Skin.
The exhibits are built for play, so kids need no Danish or English to join in.
Den Blå Planet holds around 50 aquariums in three sections, from a rainforest with giant arapaima to the Ocean aquarium, the largest tank, where hammerhead sharks and stingrays glide past. Kids can watch four sea otters crack shellfish on their bellies and spot a giant Pacific octopus.
Outside, a water playground has an Archimedes screw, pumps and sluices, next to a playground with climbing frames and a slide.
Denmark's national history museum fills the Prince's Palace with 42,000 objects on display, from a longbow made around 7,000 BCE to the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. Kids can lift a real gold bar, meet a mummy and the Egtved Girl, see the Gundestrup Cauldron that inspired the Asterix and Obelix artist, and find astronaut Andreas Mogensen's spacesuit.
KU.BE is a four-story culture and movement house by the architects MVRDV and ADEPT, where the building doubles as play equipment. Kids scale climbing hills, crawl through wall mazes, cross a hanging climbing net with a view and ride the silver slide.
Toddlers get their own tumble area upstairs, and the garden outside adds a basketball court and a playground for small kids.
The planetarium's big dome screen shows space films, some in English and some in Danish, and every ticket includes one. The exhibitions hold the largest moon rock outside the United States, on loan from NASA, plus astronaut tests, two humanoid robots and Tomás Saraceno's 25-meter-high Cosmic Threads installation. Weekends and school holidays add science shows and a LEGO space workshop.
Reffen is a street food market by the water on Refshaleøen, with more than 30 world food stalls, bars and a coffee shop.
Kids get a 300 m² skate park for boards, scooters and skates, a sandy play area with a big boat to climb, ping pong, petanque and mini golf. On rainy days, the covered Beer Garden and Werkstatt hall, with a play corner and foosball, give shelter.
February is dark and cold, and it brings two things to plan around. Fastelavn, the Danish carnival, puts kids in costumes swinging at a candy-filled barrel until it breaks, with buns to follow. Then comes the winter break week. Here's what we checked, from barrel bashing in the Designmuseum garden to sharks at the Blue Planet, plus places to warm up and burn off energy indoors.
Designmuseum Danmark fills a former 1750s hospital with Danish and international design, from the 'Danish Modern' story of 1920s to 1970s classics to Chinese and German porcelain.
Kids tend to head for the quiet garden, where Anne Brandhøj's wooden 'Playmates' figures are made for touching and climbing. On selected Saturdays and in school holidays, the banquet hall becomes a workshop where kids make something to take home.
Fastelavn is Denmark's dress-up festival before Lent, and Designmuseum Denmark holds a party for it in its protected historic garden. Kids come in costume and take turns swinging at the barrel, where courage and good aim can make one of them the cat king (kattekonge).
It suits kids who love dressing up and want a go at a classic Danish tradition, with parents cheering or taking a swing themselves.
Fælledparken is the city's second largest park, laid out on old common land. Kids get two standout playgrounds: a traffic playground with road signs, traffic lights and bike paths, and the Tower Playground, built around five of the city's best-known towers.
Older kids head for the skatepark, one of the largest in Northern Europe. A 3.5 km path loops past lawns, mature trees and a lakeside flower garden.
A festival of light art that takes over Copenhagen's squares, buildings, bridges and hidden corners in the darkest weeks of winter. Sculptures, installations and projections by light artists, designers and students line a walking route through the inner city, with a few pieces further out.
Kids hunt for the next glowing work in the dark, and the route lets a family walk as far as tired kids allow.
A big new library exhibition built around The Comet Is Coming, the Moomin story where the world teeters on the edge of disaster and the Moomins find their way through it together. It is about friendship, joy and coping when things feel uncertain.
It suits families who already know the Moomins, and kids old enough to talk about a story with a bit of worry in it.
CopenHill is a ski slope, hiking trail and rooftop park built on top of the Amager Bakke incineration plant. The green artificial piste runs from steep black and red sections at the top to blue and green runs below, with magic carpet lifts and a freestyle park.
Kids who don't ski can ride rental tubes down the sledding hill, or hike the trails and stairs up to the rooftop café.
Experimentarium is a hands-on science center spread over three indoor floors and a rooftop. Kids make soap bubbles of every size in the Bubblearium, splash with water at The Beach, navigate a ship simulator in The Port and see their own body through a thermal camera in Under Your Skin.
The exhibits are built for play, so kids need no Danish or English to join in.
Den Blå Planet holds around 50 aquariums in three sections, from a rainforest with giant arapaima to the Ocean aquarium, the largest tank, where hammerhead sharks and stingrays glide past. Kids can watch four sea otters crack shellfish on their bellies and spot a giant Pacific octopus.
Outside, a water playground has an Archimedes screw, pumps and sluices, next to a playground with climbing frames and a slide.
Denmark's national history museum fills the Prince's Palace with 42,000 objects on display, from a longbow made around 7,000 BCE to the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. Kids can lift a real gold bar, meet a mummy and the Egtved Girl, see the Gundestrup Cauldron that inspired the Asterix and Obelix artist, and find astronaut Andreas Mogensen's spacesuit.
KU.BE is a four-story culture and movement house by the architects MVRDV and ADEPT, where the building doubles as play equipment. Kids scale climbing hills, crawl through wall mazes, cross a hanging climbing net with a view and ride the silver slide.
Toddlers get their own tumble area upstairs, and the garden outside adds a basketball court and a playground for small kids.
The planetarium's big dome screen shows space films, some in English and some in Danish, and every ticket includes one. The exhibitions hold the largest moon rock outside the United States, on loan from NASA, plus astronaut tests, two humanoid robots and Tomás Saraceno's 25-meter-high Cosmic Threads installation. Weekends and school holidays add science shows and a LEGO space workshop.
Reffen is a street food market by the water on Refshaleøen, with more than 30 world food stalls, bars and a coffee shop.
Kids get a 300 m² skate park for boards, scooters and skates, a sandy play area with a big boat to climb, ping pong, petanque and mini golf. On rainy days, the covered Beer Garden and Werkstatt hall, with a play corner and foosball, give shelter.
