Copenhagen has been on my list of cities to visit for quite some time. Since a teenage trip to Stockholm I've been captivated by Scandinavian influence and design. The cleanliness and simplicity, the people and the architecture. Stockholm offers so much for the young visitor and I'd hoped that Copenhagen would be no different.
Aside from the two most touristy things you might have seen in pictures which are the pretty pastel houses of Nyhavn and the Little Mermaid statue, I wanted to make sure we had experienced a real weekend in the Danish Capital.
First thing you notice is that it's so much calmer than big cities like London. Theres no frantic rushing. The majority of people are on bikes because the bike lanes are huge and cars are reportedly around 3 times more expensive here. Everyone from the fashionista to the pregnant mum and the suited guy rides a bike, which probably also explains why none of them are locked up. Why steal a bike when everyone already has one?
If we'd realised how much walking we'd have done and the kids had been more confident on their bikes we'd definitely have hired some. Most of the hotels have bikes to hire from their concierge or can forward you to somewhere you can.
The city is relatively small and the main sections can be walked from one end to the other in under an hour.
Here's our 72 hours in Copenhagen with 3 kids. 6,9 and 11.
FRIDAY. We flew out on Friday afternoon from London. It's a 1.5- 2 hour flight depending on which way the wind blows if you are on time and also how fast the crew can turn around the clean if you are travelling with a budget airline like Ryan Air. By the time we arrived and got through quite a speedy airport process we hopped in a cab and headed to our hotel The Scandic Copenhagen, which was situated in the Vesterbro area not too far from Tivoli, the famous ‘old school’ theme park. We picked this hotel mainly because the location seemed quite central, the price point was OK and most importantly it slept all 5 of us in one room, with a room divider between the sofa bed area where the kids slept and 'the bedroom' area.
We headed out for an evening stroll and reccy of the area, armed with tourist maps we picked up from the airport when we landed and ready to make a plan for the next day. We ended up going for a kid friendly Hard Rock Cafe as it was heading on for 8pm and eating quickly was our main priority. After a pretty standard Hard Rock experience we headed on back to the hotel for some beauty sleep.
There were 4 things I decided by research I didn't want to miss whilst here. - Tivoli, The Louisiana Museum, The Roundhouse and The Lego Shop for Seb! The other things were a toss up between the Botanical Gardens, The Aquarium - Den Bla Planet , The Zoo and The Zoological Museum (Natural History Museum), The Planetarium and Gruntvig's Church I'd seen some insane images of on Instagram and wanted to see if we could pop in!
SATURDAY. We headed straight out to The Louisiana Museum which was a 45 minute train ride from Central Station then a short walk or coach transfer they were offering the weekend we were there. As it happened trains were not as easy to navigate as id have assumed. The platforms are not always labelled with what lines run from them and often the tickets are cheaper if you buy them from a person as part of a package than from a machine. If I have any advice it would be to ask, ask, ask until you find your way. That being said we spent around 30 minutes faffing around trying to work out the correct station and platform but the train journey once on was pleasant and clean and fun to see the regional journey it took you on.
The Louisiana was undoubtedly worth the trip. Its a modern art museum in a beautiful set of buildings with beautiful grounds. There is a sculpture garden, a large open cafe with outdoor space and a long jetty with a small beach too. The children's wing however captured our hearts with art stations on every level for all types of children to create and learn, from lego areas to painting tables, pottery and Picasso line drawing. Some children were even making delicate tree houses out of sticks and twigs which looked amazing. Outside of this was a large hidden slide my three spent nearly 30 minutes sliding up and down. so much simplicity and so much beauty all in one place. It is so far, my favourite museum I have visited and also the place we experienced our first Yayoi Kusama exhibit from the Japanese artist. 'Gleaming lights of the souls' an immersive mirrored box room of lights. We were allowed one minute in the box but we baulked the max. 4 person rule and snuck Lola in too! It was Serenely magical. Possibly one of the best minutes of my life! My new goal is to travel the world and do all her exhibits now!
We snacked in the cafe but returned to Copenhagen for dinner in one of their gourmet fast food joints 'Jagger'. A cool space with great food including a side of béarnaise with your chips and an offer of a frozen daiquiri or beer with your meal deal. What more can anyone wish for?
SUNDAY. We got up early to take the shuttle bus from Central station to Den Bla Planet. The large aquarium housing 3 different areas of exhibits from interactive to giant glass tanks holding hammerhead sharks and swimming puffins! (cutest things ever!) We all loved it here and if you are short on time its only 5 minutes from the airport and has lockers you can store your luggage in too.
Sunday afternoon we lunched in one of the popular Lagkagehuset cafe's and ate Danish Cinnamon Buns - a speciality in Copenhagen, before heading into the centre to do a quick bit of shopping. Kids and shopping generally is a fun experience as long as they are shopping for things they like and the time you spend is limited. With this in mind we popped briefly into Illum, Copenhagen's famous department store similar to London's Selfridges, And took a quick squizz around. In the children's floor where Lola bought a cute doll and then we moved onto the famous Lego Shop! Since Lego was designed in Denmark we thought it would rude not to. The store itself is not as large as you might imagine but is perfectly equipped for a wander, a play and to find some Lego you want to take home.
Finally we couldn't put it off any longer and made our way back to the hotel with our purchases, had a quick change leaving all our valuables at home and headed for Tivoli gardens around 5pm. Tivoli is a theme park of dreams, traditional, decorative and attractive with candy floss stalls, toffee apples and lots of green space. I don't know whether it is always quieter in the evenings but we managed to get on and off, of even the biggest of rides, with great speed and often straight back on them again. If you love a rollercoaster I highly recommend 'The Demon' which you can ride with or without a virtual reality headset! (Note: take a card with you or cash to pay the extra 30dkk at the front of the line if you want to do this.) I actually preferred the ride without as I like to see when you are about to be thrown upside down and enjoy the thrill of it - which we did - over 5 times! We bought wristbands on entering that allowed us to ride as many times as we liked. This worked great for us as some of the rides have a high individual ride cost.
We managed to eat the best fish and chips from a little side stall near 'The Demon' and head on home by 10.15pm. We literally had to drag the kids out. Making an evening of it seemed to make sense as it didn't take up any of the time in the day. Lots of the other kids tourist spots close by 5pm as do the shops so its worth bearing in mind.
MONDAY. We packed up, left our bags in reception and made a plan to explore what we could on foot. We walked past the design museum to the Black Diamond, the public library which is a large imposing glass building right on the water. You can stop for coffee or take the elevator and travelators to the top for the view. Its a fun 5 minute stop and totally free. We then headed onto Nyhavn to see the famous pretty street for ourselves, passing some trampolines built in the ground by the waterfront, that the kids stopped to jump in along the way. In Nyhavyn we had waffles and ice cream and if we'd had more time would have taken one of the boats for a quick tour of everything we might have missed. I had one more goal on my tick list and so we headed onto the Rundetaarn. The round Tower. A beautiful church and tower you can climb the slanted walkway to the top for a view of the whole city. I thought it might be a little claustrophobic to climb but there were plenty of windows and it felt really quite wide. The last few spiral steps are very short so it wasn't a problem and the view from the entire city at the top is magical.
We ate our last meal at the Paleo restaurant on the rooftop floor of Illum which had various restaurants and cafes with another pretty view of the city. With an hour to get back to the hotel for our transfer it felt we had managed a pretty full itinerary whilst still having time to saviour and enjoy it.
A few notes: Coffee and Cinnamon buns are good and the various coffee bars are definitely worth stopping by, as is the hotdog stands on every street. They all have a different name of the the person who runs them and can make for a cheap and fun meal in an otherwise expensive city. Yes food is expensive, so are hotels and cabs. You can buy a Copenhagen card which gets you into lots of attractions and transport options for a fixed price but unless you really want to cram them in it didn't quite work for us as children travel free on most transport and go in at a highly reduced rate to most attractions.
Our hotel as I said was Scandic Copenhagen. It was fine and the room was great but it was big and impersonal, plus the breakfast wasn't great. Lots of choice but no egg station I'd expect in a big hotel and no cinnamon buns! We would stay there again but ideally I'd try one of the smaller boutique hotels with a more personal feel.
Top tip:Use Instagram tags to search for things you might like to see in Copenhagen. It often gives you a snapshot into a building or attraction you hadn't even thought of.
So we missed the statue of the Little Mermaid, The Zoo, The Zoological Museum, The Planetarium, The Botanical Gardens and so much more but I always like to leave with a reason to come back.
