Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is a fantastic destination for family travel. This vibrant city seamlessly combines rich history with a modern, family-friendly atmosphere. With its charming cobblestone streets, colourful buildings, and picturesque parks, Copenhagen offers a delightful blend of culture and fun for visitors of all ages.

We love exploring new places as a family and will often choose slightly unexpected destinations to visit with the kids. Many city breaks, especially in Scandinavia, are overlooked by families with younger children, due to concerns about cost (I will address this later) and worries about how to keep the kids entertained in a city, please forget these concerns Copenhagen is a super family friendly city!! Not only is it extremely safe with a low crime rate (In the 2021 Safe Cities Index it was named the world’s safest city), Copenhagen has many family-friendly attractions, a lot of them offering FREE entry for under 18’s!

We spent 5 nights in Copenhagen, and I have picked out our top 10 highlights for you to try, it may not be the expected list!!

Top 10 things to do in Copenhagen with kids

1. See the Danish Crown Jewels at Rosenborg Castle

Built by Christian IV between 1606-34, Rosenborg Castle is situated in the magnificent King’s Garden in the centre of Copenhagen. Before we visited the castle we spent some time exploring the gardens and had a picnic (on our money-saving budget!). We visited Rosenborg Castle on our first day in Copenhagen, the main attraction for us was to see the Danish Crown Jewels. Entrance to the castle was such good value – DKK 280 (approx £32) for 2 adults and children under 18 years are FREE! We spent several hours here, you can also watch the changing of the guard relief from here as they depart from their barracks at Rosenborg before marching through the city to Amalienborg.

2. Explore the canals on a GoBoat

Our most expensive activity and definitely a ‘splurge’, but one we enjoyed immensely. This was Dave’s pick. Before we arrived in Copenhagen we were naively unaware of all the beautiful canals in the city and a popular pastime in the sunshine seemed to be cruising the canals by electric boat. Luckily for us there was a GoBoat Rental at Islands Brugge opposite our accommodation at Danhostel. The cost was DKK 500 for 1 hour. Read more about our experience with GoBoat here.

3. Take a trip out of the city to visit the Viking Museum in Roskilde

The favourite day of our trip! The Viking Museum is located in Roskilde, a 20-30 minute train ride from Copenhagen. The museum houses five Viking ships, giving the perfect opportunity to learn, not only about the different types of ships and how they’re made, but also about life as a Viking. I recommend you join one of the free guided tours of the museum, the guides are very informative and will bring the exhibits to life. There is also lots to keep the kids occupied here too, including a workshop to make your own Viking ship and sailing trips. Entry costs 160 DKK for adults in the summer season and children under 18yrs are FREE, if you are visiting with kids and there are two adults it is slightly cheaper to purchase the Family ticket for 300 DKK. I would recommend visiting in the summer (May-Oct) as more parts of the museum are open, many of the outdoor activities are closed during winter although you can still visit the main museum.

4. Have a picnic

Copenhagen is set up perfectly for eating outdoors, lots of parks and green areas throughout the city. Having a picnic will also help to keep the costs down. We found 7-Eleven perfect for a low cost lunch, they are set up like a mini bakery with pizzas, sandwiches and Polsehorn. If you are visiting in the summer another popular option was to grab a takeaway and eat it by the lido.

5. See the Little Mermaid Statue

The statue of the Little Mermaid has mixed reviews – is it worth visiting? In our opinion, yes, we did enjoy the trip, now you have to prepare yourself that the statue is much smaller than anyone expects and in true Insta-generation fashion you will probably have to queue to have your photo taken with it. On the plus-side it is a free activity and although located in the far north of the city, quite a walk out of the centre there are other interesting attractions nearby.

To get to the statue we took the Harbour Bus from the Royal Danish Library up to Nordre Toldbod. Read more about the Harbour Bus below. When you get off the boat you need to walk about 10minutes to reach the statue, during this time you can see many monuments including this Iver Huitfeldt Memorial and you will go past a playground, excellent if you have small children (we had a stop here for at least 15 minutes).

6. Take a trip on the Harbour Bus

The yellow Harbour Bus offers a way to see Copenhagen from the river on a budget. It is also an effective mode of transport to get to attractions including the statue of the Little Mermaid and Reffen Street Food.

Single tickets for an adult start from 24 DKK, with two children under 12 able to travel free with each adult. You can buy tickets via the DOT app and plan your journey here.

7. Explore Nyhavn

A trip to Copenhagen wouldn’t be complete without exploring Nyhavn, the insta-worthy image of Copenhagen. Be prepared as this area is tourist-central with extra pricey-prices, but is a must-see when in the city as it is stunningly beautiful and also very historic. Originally a commercial port most of the houses that line the docks have now been transformed into restaurants and bars. We visited in May and every time we went past Nyhavn no matter what the time it was busy. The Stromma boat tours also leave from here if you are looking for a group boat tour of Copenhagen, again a really popular activity I would recommend you book ahead.

Tip – look for number 20, this is where Hans Christian Andersen used to live when he wrote the The Princess and the Pea amongst other fairy tales, he also lived at no.67 and no.18,

So, what did we miss?

The following attractions were on our initial list we researched but we didn’t end up visiting for varying reasons, for some we simply ran out of time, for others we decided the cost was too high for us on this occasion.

8. Tivoli gardens

Tivoli Gardens is one of the most popular attractions in Copenhagen, usually coming out top on ‘must-do lists’. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world and is conveniently located outside Central Station. However, we skipped this attraction – why? Well for a start it is expensive. There are two types of tickets; Entrance from 140 DKK or Entrance and ride pass from 419 DKK. The entrance ticket gets you into Tivoli but doesn’t permit you to go on any rides, it does allow you to look round the gardens, which are supposed to be beautiful though. We felt that if we couldn’t go in without letting the kids go on some rides but three out of the four of us are not fans of big rides, so we didn’t feel we would get value for money. For 2 adults and 2 children (age 6 & 12 at the time) it would have cost 1,466 DKK (£169)!! As much as I wanted to go in and tick this attraction off the list, for us this was too much money to spend.

9. The Blue Planet Aquarium

Before our visit the aquarium was top of our list as Ryan loves aquariums, and this is Northern Europe’s largest aquarium. However during our visit we were blessed with extremely hot and sunny weather so decided to stay outside enjoying this rather than venture indoors. Hopefully next visit though as it is supposed to be amazing.

10. Hire a bike to explore the city

In Copenhagen, you’ll see instantly that the primary method of transport is by bike. The city is very compact with many dedicated bike lanes and even bridges. There are even family bikes with ‘baskets’ for the kids, known as Cargo bikes. As much as we wanted to do this we thought we would struggle hiring a bike suitable for the kids, our hostel rented bikes but these were full-size adult bikes – too big even for me at a lowly 5ft 1″! You can rent cargo bikes from a variety of places across the city for around 600 DKK, we considered this quite pricey for a days hire when the city was easily walkable.

11. Swim in the harbour baths

I really wanted to do this but I was overruled. We stayed at the Danhostel which was opposite Islands Brygge Harbour Baths. There are many harbour baths along the river, allowing you to swim safely in the river, some have kids pools and water slides. We visited in May, and there were plenty of people using the harbour baths we saw, so if you are visiting in the spring/summer definitely take your swimming costume!! Read about the different Harbour Baths in Copenhagen here.