Copenhagen is flat, compact and easy to cross by bike or boat, so a first trip with kids is simple to plan. These are the places we'd take visiting family first, the ones that hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. Danes play outside in any weather, so pack rain gear. Here's what we checked, from Tivoli's old rides to a ski slope on a power plant.
Copenhagen Zoo, Zoologisk Have to locals, keeps elephants, lions, tigers, hippos and chimpanzees, plus polar bears you watch underwater in the Arctic Ring. In the Kids' Zoo, kids stroke goats and meet pigs, llamas and cows, right by the zoo's largest playground.
The Tropical House, Elephant House, Hippo House and Zoolab (with a leafcutter ant colony) are all indoors, so it works on a rainy day too.
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.
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.
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.
Nyhavn is a 450-meter canal dug in the 1670s, lined with brightly painted 17th and 18th-century townhouses and moored historic wooden ships. Canal tour boats leave from the quay, and the Memorial Anchor stands at the harbor end. Hans Christian Andersen lived in three of the houses.
The quay is mostly restaurants and cafés, so it suits a stroll and a boat ride more than a long day out.
A guided harbor and canal loop on one of the low blue Netto boats, with commentary in Danish, English and German. The route passes Nyhavn's old houses and sailing ships, the former naval islands of Holmen, the Little Mermaid, Amalienborg Palace, the twisted spire of Our Saviour's Church on Christianshavn's Canal, and Christiansborg Palace.
From October to March the boats are glass-roofed and heated.
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.
Christian IV built the Round Tower in 1642 as an observatory. Instead of stairs, a wide cobbled spiral ramp winds up past the Library Hall and its changing exhibitions, then two short staircases lead to an open platform 34.8 m above the street, with views over the old town's rooftops.
On winter evenings, astronomers open the dome and let kids look through the 1929 telescope at the Moon or planets.
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.
Tårnlegepladsen is a staffed playground in Fælledparken built around play-size copies of Copenhagen's landmark towers, linked by walkways and slides. Around them sit a sand and plank building area, an artificial-turf pitch, a fire pit and electronic birds to catch.
The playhouse, run by play staff during opening hours, has drop-in games, crafts and room to tumble indoors. A large scooter track runs alongside.
An open-air harbor bath on wooden decks off the Islands Brygge quay, open since 2002. Four pools sit side by side: a toddler pool 0.1 to 0.7 m deep, a play pool 1.2 m deep, a 75 m lap pool, and a 5 m deep diving pool with platforms at 1, 3 and 5 m.
It suits families with swimmers best; non-swimmers stay in the two shallow pools.
Tivoli Gardens is the third-oldest amusement park in the world. Its 30-plus rides run from gentle ones for small kids, like the Camel Trail and the Little Dragon, up to the Demon roller coaster, and the Tivoli Aquarium holds more than 100 fish species.
Rasmus Klump's World, named for the Danish cartoon bear, is the playground: the sailing ship Mary, climbing towers and lookouts, with a pancake house next door.
Copenhagen is flat, compact and easy to cross by bike or boat, so a first trip with kids is simple to plan. These are the places we'd take visiting family first, the ones that hold a kid's attention and not only an adult's. Danes play outside in any weather, so pack rain gear. Here's what we checked, from Tivoli's old rides to a ski slope on a power plant.
Copenhagen Zoo, Zoologisk Have to locals, keeps elephants, lions, tigers, hippos and chimpanzees, plus polar bears you watch underwater in the Arctic Ring. In the Kids' Zoo, kids stroke goats and meet pigs, llamas and cows, right by the zoo's largest playground.
The Tropical House, Elephant House, Hippo House and Zoolab (with a leafcutter ant colony) are all indoors, so it works on a rainy day too.
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.
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.
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.
Nyhavn is a 450-meter canal dug in the 1670s, lined with brightly painted 17th and 18th-century townhouses and moored historic wooden ships. Canal tour boats leave from the quay, and the Memorial Anchor stands at the harbor end. Hans Christian Andersen lived in three of the houses.
The quay is mostly restaurants and cafés, so it suits a stroll and a boat ride more than a long day out.
A guided harbor and canal loop on one of the low blue Netto boats, with commentary in Danish, English and German. The route passes Nyhavn's old houses and sailing ships, the former naval islands of Holmen, the Little Mermaid, Amalienborg Palace, the twisted spire of Our Saviour's Church on Christianshavn's Canal, and Christiansborg Palace.
From October to March the boats are glass-roofed and heated.
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.
Christian IV built the Round Tower in 1642 as an observatory. Instead of stairs, a wide cobbled spiral ramp winds up past the Library Hall and its changing exhibitions, then two short staircases lead to an open platform 34.8 m above the street, with views over the old town's rooftops.
On winter evenings, astronomers open the dome and let kids look through the 1929 telescope at the Moon or planets.
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.
Tårnlegepladsen is a staffed playground in Fælledparken built around play-size copies of Copenhagen's landmark towers, linked by walkways and slides. Around them sit a sand and plank building area, an artificial-turf pitch, a fire pit and electronic birds to catch.
The playhouse, run by play staff during opening hours, has drop-in games, crafts and room to tumble indoors. A large scooter track runs alongside.
An open-air harbor bath on wooden decks off the Islands Brygge quay, open since 2002. Four pools sit side by side: a toddler pool 0.1 to 0.7 m deep, a play pool 1.2 m deep, a 75 m lap pool, and a 5 m deep diving pool with platforms at 1, 3 and 5 m.
It suits families with swimmers best; non-swimmers stay in the two shallow pools.
Tivoli Gardens is the third-oldest amusement park in the world. Its 30-plus rides run from gentle ones for small kids, like the Camel Trail and the Little Dragon, up to the Demon roller coaster, and the Tivoli Aquarium holds more than 100 fish species.
Rasmus Klump's World, named for the Danish cartoon bear, is the playground: the sailing ship Mary, climbing towers and lookouts, with a pancake house next door.
