Amager is where Copenhagen goes to get outside. There's a beach with shallow lagoons, harbor baths you can swim in from the city, a ski slope on a power plant roof and wild commons for bike rides and bug hunts. When it rains, there's the aquarium, indoor play halls and kids' theater. We keep this list current with the places and events worth the trip over the bridge.
An open house at the nature center on Amager Strand, all about the fish and crabs of the Øresund. Educators guide families through dissecting a fish with scissors and tweezers, looking at it inside and out.
At the water tables, kids learn the gentle way to hold a crab and how to tell a male from a female. It suits curious kids who like to touch things.
Denmark's longest Christmas parade has marched down Amagerbrogade for more than 50 years. The procession stretches over a kilometer: Santas, vintage cars, nisse children (Danish Christmas elves), Disney and cartoon characters.
It suits kids who like a spectacle and don't mind standing in a big, cheerful crowd. Families who find crowds hard may prefer a quieter Christmas outing.
DR's children's channel brings its Christmas show to the big concert hall. The Ramasjang hosts and characters, Bamse included, meet in the Ramasjang cabin while DR Spirekoret, dressed as elves, make mischief on stage and snow comes down.
Expect songs from the TV Christmas calendar series, carols and Christmas hits with a swinging band. It suits kids who already know Ramasjang from TV, since it all happens in Danish.
An arcade inside the Field's shopping center with 30 machines and 57 places to play: air hockey, claw and prize machines, racing games, rhythm games, classics and a four-player Minecraft Dungeons Arcade.
Games run on a rechargeable gamecard or the app, not coins. Many machines pay out tickets that collect on the card, never expire, and swap for prizes at the counter.
Kalvebod Fælled is a 20-square-kilometer nature reserve on Amager, home to deer, horses, sheep, cows and many birds. Naturcenter Amager is its base: rangers share ideas for the day, and the visitor house rents bikes, binoculars and campfire gear.
Near the center, the Himmelhøj nature playground has a 50-meter ark with mazes, stages and a fire pit, plus an insect forest of tall black trunks to hunt through.
Naturcenter Amager Strand is a city-run nature center and nature school in Amager Strandpark, run by Copenhagen and Frederiksberg since 2015. Weekdays belong to school and daycare groups.
On weekends and school holidays, family open houses change theme through the year: Øresund crabs and fish in water tables, a guided fish dissection, or stone hunts on the beach with a stone saw back in the workshop.
Two staffed playgrounds face each other in Remiseparken on Amager. Bonderen is a farm for younger kids, with hens, rabbits, ponies, pigs and a goat pen, and set feeding and care times kids can join. The farmhouse playhouse has toys, board games, fish and stick insects. Opposite, Byggeren is the bigger kids' adventure playground, with a ball court, table tennis, sandboxes and a fire pit.
Kastrup Sea Bath, known locally as Sneglen (the Snail), is a circular wooden bathing deck shaped like a conch shell, about 100 meters out from the beach in the Øresund. The water is deep enough for dives, with jumping platforms at 3 and 5 meters and views across to Saltholm and Sweden.
It suits confident older swimmers. Families with younger kids are advised to swim at the beach instead.
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.
The city's largest beach stretches 4.6 km along an artificial island, with a lagoon between the island and the original shore. Five beach stations have toilets and kiosks, linked by concrete paths.
Kids swim in the summer bathing zone, and families can rent kayaks, canoes or paddleboards at the southern end. Grilling is allowed anywhere in the park, and the Naturcenter Amager Strand opens to all on weekends.
A long strip of lawn along the harbor on Islands Brygge, with views across the water between Langebro and Bryggebroen. The south end has a fenced playground for small children, with a rope bridge, a balance course and willow-planted mounds for hide-and-seek and tag.
Older kids get a roller and skate rink with street basketball at the north end, plus a sand beach volleyball court and petanque courts.
Amager Fælled is a former military training ground turned protected nature area of meadows, scrub, marsh and lakes. Highland cattle and Exmoor ponies graze here, roe deer raise their fawns, and frogs croak loudly in spring.
Kids can fly kites, build dens from branches, and climb the three hills for a view of the city center. In winter the hills are good for sledding.
JumpYard Field's is a trampoline park on the second floor of Field's shopping center, next to the food court. Kids bounce across the trampolines, scale colorful climbing walls, run a ninja course and an indoor parkour park, practice flips into a big air bag, and play dodgeball. Interactive games include the Valo Jump airtrack and a Cardio Wall. JumpSchool training groups teach tricks with coaches.
A culture house built only for kids, designed by Dorte Mandrup from ideas that local children drew up in workshops. Inside are a big climbing wall, a ball pit for under-6s, a dance hall, a workshop, and crooked nooks and dens sized for children.
Kids come for after-school art, music and dance classes, Saturday workshops, family concerts and holiday festivals. Families can eat packed lunches in the café.
Dinos is a big indoor play center right by Vestamager Metro. Kids climb the Vulcano and zoom down its slide, fire foam balls from ball cannons, bounce on trampolines, and take on a ninja course and a 70 m² climbing hall. Toddlers get their own area, Mini Dinoland.
Parents can join in or sit in the lounge with a coffee, and packed lunches are welcome in the café area.
GoBoat rents small electric picnic boats from Islands Brygge that you drive yourself, no license needed. Each seats up to 8 around a central picnic table.
The crew show you the tiller first, then you cruise the harbor at about 3 knots: south toward Sydhavnen, or north through the Christianshavn canals and around the Opera House. Bring a picnic or buy snacks at check-in. Dogs can ride along.
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.
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.
Amager is where Copenhagen goes to get outside. There's a beach with shallow lagoons, harbor baths you can swim in from the city, a ski slope on a power plant roof and wild commons for bike rides and bug hunts. When it rains, there's the aquarium, indoor play halls and kids' theater. We keep this list current with the places and events worth the trip over the bridge.
An open house at the nature center on Amager Strand, all about the fish and crabs of the Øresund. Educators guide families through dissecting a fish with scissors and tweezers, looking at it inside and out.
At the water tables, kids learn the gentle way to hold a crab and how to tell a male from a female. It suits curious kids who like to touch things.
Denmark's longest Christmas parade has marched down Amagerbrogade for more than 50 years. The procession stretches over a kilometer: Santas, vintage cars, nisse children (Danish Christmas elves), Disney and cartoon characters.
It suits kids who like a spectacle and don't mind standing in a big, cheerful crowd. Families who find crowds hard may prefer a quieter Christmas outing.
DR's children's channel brings its Christmas show to the big concert hall. The Ramasjang hosts and characters, Bamse included, meet in the Ramasjang cabin while DR Spirekoret, dressed as elves, make mischief on stage and snow comes down.
Expect songs from the TV Christmas calendar series, carols and Christmas hits with a swinging band. It suits kids who already know Ramasjang from TV, since it all happens in Danish.
An arcade inside the Field's shopping center with 30 machines and 57 places to play: air hockey, claw and prize machines, racing games, rhythm games, classics and a four-player Minecraft Dungeons Arcade.
Games run on a rechargeable gamecard or the app, not coins. Many machines pay out tickets that collect on the card, never expire, and swap for prizes at the counter.
Kalvebod Fælled is a 20-square-kilometer nature reserve on Amager, home to deer, horses, sheep, cows and many birds. Naturcenter Amager is its base: rangers share ideas for the day, and the visitor house rents bikes, binoculars and campfire gear.
Near the center, the Himmelhøj nature playground has a 50-meter ark with mazes, stages and a fire pit, plus an insect forest of tall black trunks to hunt through.
Naturcenter Amager Strand is a city-run nature center and nature school in Amager Strandpark, run by Copenhagen and Frederiksberg since 2015. Weekdays belong to school and daycare groups.
On weekends and school holidays, family open houses change theme through the year: Øresund crabs and fish in water tables, a guided fish dissection, or stone hunts on the beach with a stone saw back in the workshop.
Two staffed playgrounds face each other in Remiseparken on Amager. Bonderen is a farm for younger kids, with hens, rabbits, ponies, pigs and a goat pen, and set feeding and care times kids can join. The farmhouse playhouse has toys, board games, fish and stick insects. Opposite, Byggeren is the bigger kids' adventure playground, with a ball court, table tennis, sandboxes and a fire pit.
Kastrup Sea Bath, known locally as Sneglen (the Snail), is a circular wooden bathing deck shaped like a conch shell, about 100 meters out from the beach in the Øresund. The water is deep enough for dives, with jumping platforms at 3 and 5 meters and views across to Saltholm and Sweden.
It suits confident older swimmers. Families with younger kids are advised to swim at the beach instead.
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.
The city's largest beach stretches 4.6 km along an artificial island, with a lagoon between the island and the original shore. Five beach stations have toilets and kiosks, linked by concrete paths.
Kids swim in the summer bathing zone, and families can rent kayaks, canoes or paddleboards at the southern end. Grilling is allowed anywhere in the park, and the Naturcenter Amager Strand opens to all on weekends.
A long strip of lawn along the harbor on Islands Brygge, with views across the water between Langebro and Bryggebroen. The south end has a fenced playground for small children, with a rope bridge, a balance course and willow-planted mounds for hide-and-seek and tag.
Older kids get a roller and skate rink with street basketball at the north end, plus a sand beach volleyball court and petanque courts.
Amager Fælled is a former military training ground turned protected nature area of meadows, scrub, marsh and lakes. Highland cattle and Exmoor ponies graze here, roe deer raise their fawns, and frogs croak loudly in spring.
Kids can fly kites, build dens from branches, and climb the three hills for a view of the city center. In winter the hills are good for sledding.
JumpYard Field's is a trampoline park on the second floor of Field's shopping center, next to the food court. Kids bounce across the trampolines, scale colorful climbing walls, run a ninja course and an indoor parkour park, practice flips into a big air bag, and play dodgeball. Interactive games include the Valo Jump airtrack and a Cardio Wall. JumpSchool training groups teach tricks with coaches.
A culture house built only for kids, designed by Dorte Mandrup from ideas that local children drew up in workshops. Inside are a big climbing wall, a ball pit for under-6s, a dance hall, a workshop, and crooked nooks and dens sized for children.
Kids come for after-school art, music and dance classes, Saturday workshops, family concerts and holiday festivals. Families can eat packed lunches in the café.
Dinos is a big indoor play center right by Vestamager Metro. Kids climb the Vulcano and zoom down its slide, fire foam balls from ball cannons, bounce on trampolines, and take on a ninja course and a 70 m² climbing hall. Toddlers get their own area, Mini Dinoland.
Parents can join in or sit in the lounge with a coffee, and packed lunches are welcome in the café area.
GoBoat rents small electric picnic boats from Islands Brygge that you drive yourself, no license needed. Each seats up to 8 around a central picnic table.
The crew show you the tiller first, then you cruise the harbor at about 3 knots: south toward Sydhavnen, or north through the Christianshavn canals and around the Opera House. Bring a picnic or buy snacks at check-in. Dogs can ride along.
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.
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.
