Copenhagen, Denmark: Highlights, Details, Thoughts!

Before I get into anything else, let me address what I know your main, burning question here is: So, did they measure your luggage on IcelandAir?? 😅(If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see previous posts here, here and here.)

The answer is: Sort of!! But only in Chicago.

We had checked in online and already had our mobile boarding passes, so when we arrived to O’Hare, we went straight to our gate. Shortly before boarding began, they started calling certain people up to the desk, as they sometimes do.

Well, we were surprised to hear the “Lopez family” called up! For some reason they had to issue us paper boarding passes (which was odd, because this was not needed on the way home… who knows.). She also then said they needed to make sure our carryons were the right size. We saw the next agent over asking people to put their carryons in the metal sizer. However, in our case, she just looked them over and said, “I think those should be okay”. Phew! (It did seem like they were letting people gate check those that were too big for free, however. So we probably would have been okay with our other ones.) I’m still glad we did what we did though, and were able to keep our bags with us the whole time. I was also really digging the extra small roller bag!! I felt so light and free moving through the airport!

On the way home, no one asked about or looked at our luggage at all. So I guess the online reports were true: It depends!

Okay, on to all the rest. This is a (very) long post, but I hope it can serve as a nice reference/ resource for anyone planning a family trip to Copenhagen! 🙂

Copenhagen Favorites!

I really loved everything we did on this trip and honestly have very little, if anything, that I would change. Perhaps that sounds annoyingly positive, but I can’t help it- our itinerary really ended up working out pretty perfectly for us!

Of course, we liked certain things maybe slightly “better” than others, but we all agreed we wouldn’t have wanted to cut anything, either. We saw a really nice variety of key city sights + also a good sampling of the smaller towns and even natural beauty.

Favorite Things We Did!

My favorite day was our first full day, Friday. I consider everything we did that day to be on my favorites list!

• The Old Library
• The Round Tower
• GO Boat rental + picnic –> the boys both ranked this as their favorite activity of the trip!
• Christiana neighborhood
• climbing the (unique outside! tower) at the Church of Our Saviour

The Old Library in the University of Copenhagen is just SO COOL looking!!! If you love books, you should definitely go here. It doesn’t take too long, but it’s just neat. They also let you take books off the shelves and climb on the ladders! Just a fun stop. They do charge an entrance fee (75 DKK or $11.50 USD, kids free).

The Round Tower is another really cool building. I’ve never climbed a tower that was just a big circular ramp before! I loved the white walls, windows and the brown brick flooring. The views from the top are great, too. (60 DKK, or ~$9.50 USD, kids free)

The GO Boats are a MUST DO especially if you have kids. We originally had thought we’d do a regular canal tour, but oh man- I am SO glad we didn’t! Elisabeth‘s brother (who lives in Denmark) told me about the GO Boat option, and it was a million times better. We saw some of the big canal boats stuffed with people go by, and our experience was so much cooler! You can choose how long you rent the boat for, and they give you a map with a planned out route to match the time you have. They encourage picnics/drinks on the boat and even sell (expensive) picnic boxes, if you want. (We came prepared from a local grocery store.) The boys loved trying their hand at driving the boat and it was such an awesome, memorable experience. An absolute highlight for us!!! (Cost for 2 hour rental= 1,099 DKK or ~$170 USD).

The Church of Our Saviour tower is amazing, too. I have climbed many a church tower now in my day, but never on the outside! There is an inside portion with very steep steps and even ladders, then the outside spiral staircase. If you are afraid of heights, you’d likely need to pass on this. But if you can handle it, do this!! It’s great. Climbing this felt “adventurous” and also topped the list of things the boys really enjoyed on our trip. (69DKK/ $10 USD for adults, 20DKK/$3 USD for kids under 15) Highly recommended to book in advance as very limited entrance with small size of tower! (We did and when we arrived there were signs that it was fully booked.)

Other Favorites/ Must-Do’s:

• Rosenborg Castle
• Tivoli Gardens
• the trampolines in the ground!
• Amalienborg Palace Square
• Nyhavn!!
• Copenhagen by night
• Stroget/ walking around/ Grabrodretorv
• our Day Trips! (Mons Klint, Roskilde, Sweden (Lund + Malmo)
• Old English Pub (maybe not for everyone, but we LOVED this place! I’ll never forget stopping there with Ivan (most) nights!)

Rosenborg Castle was so beautiful in such a unique way! I had never seen a palace decorated in this style before, so for that reason alone, it’s a must-do from me. It’s also not that big, so it doesn’t take that long and it’s right in the middle of the city and very convenient. (140 DKK or ~$20/adult, kids free). This is the only other spot we booked in advance (along with Our Saviour)- due to smaller size of castle, they limit admission, so booking highly recommended.

The crown jewels here are also amazing! I liked them better than the crown jewels in London. A big section with all different types of jewelry and crowns and rings.

Tivoli Gardens is an old, quaint amusement park right in the middle of Copenhagen, which was actually Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disneyland! Reportedly, he visited Tivoli several times as he mulled together the idea of opening Disneyland. It’s super cute and a very family friendly place. It has a few wilder rides, but the majority are a bit lower key than you might find at other newer amusement parks. The boys still enjoyed it a lot, even though they are thrill ride junkies. Tivoli is a Copenhagen classic, a must-do!

(Price depends on day- higher on weekends. We paid $75USD per person for entrance + unlimited ride pass on a weekday.)

The trampolines are located at the Havnegade Promenade, just around the corner from Nyhavn. If you put that in Google Maps, you’ll find them. Free, fun, unique spot- definitely a cool (and quick) highlight! (Perfect example of what we loved about Copenhagen. It’s like… quirky, but in such a cool way! SO FUN!!).

😆 (I feel like I look dumb in this photo, but also, it captures my feeling of happiness and pure glee in that moment! 😊)

Amalienborg Palace Square is so beautiful! We opted to not tour the palace, in the interest of time, and also, well, interest, but you can. This is the official Danish Royal residence and it does look gorgeous inside in the photos I saw. There’s just only so much time. There’s a changing of the guard ceremony here daily as well. Definitely worth a stop even if you don’t tour the palace! (~$20USD/adult to tour palace, kids free)

Nyhavn is THE most obvious don’t-miss spot in Copenhagen. Adding to list even though I don’t think anyone visits Copenhagen and doesn’t see this canal! It’s beautiful. 💗

Copenhagen by night can actually prove tricky in the summer, because it doesn’t get dark until at least 11 pm! But it’s so worth staying up for. (We tend to be night owls on vacation, so no big deal here. ;))

Shown below: Nyhavn on left, Radhudspladsen Plaza on right. (Our apartment was 2 steps from Radhudspladsen, so we passed this beautiful plaza literally dozens of times on our trip. LOVED IT.)

Stroget/ Walking Around/ Grabrodretorv:

The Stroget is a long pedestrian street (VERY vibrant, full of people, shops, restaurants, etc at all hours- our apartment was located along here!). I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed having our windows/ doors open overlooking the street and enjoying the sounds of the hustle and bustle of the city below. (*Full disclosure- the street was flat out LOUD at night- even like, 3-4 a.m.!!! For that reason, I can’t in good conscience recommend this specific location to families with young kids. We were fine with it (we actually liked being right in the middle of the action and close to everything) and I’d stay there again! But it was not a quiet spot.)

Grabrodretorv is an adorable square we stumbled upon but shouldn’t be missed- it’s just so cute! We passed by several times and ended up having an outdoor dinner here one night.

Day Trips:

I would rank these, if I had to, in this order:

#1: Mons Klint

Mons Klint was just so gorgeous. I didn’t even know this existed until like, 2 months ago, so I was just so thrilled to find that it was so close to Copenhagen (<2 hour drive). I loved inserting a “nature day” into our itinerary, and I also loved getting out of the city and seeing a different area of Denmark.

There is a GeoCenter/ visitor center there that we opted to not do, just due to time, but it looks like it would be GREAT for kids!!! They do charge an entrance fee and have exhibits and also 3-D movies, etc. There are multiple hiking trails in the area as well. We focused on the main one down to the beach and took picnic stuff along. (Ideally would have had a blanket or something- the beach is rocky and not many places to really sit! We still enjoyed it though and just sat on a log.)

The Forest Tower we did was really cool, too. It’s about half way from Copenhagen to Mons Klint. I’d recommend doing what we did and doing it first, on the way down (~50 minutes from Copenhagen). This allowed time for stops and detours closer to Mons Klint on the way back.

The Forest Tower is maybe not a “must do”- it’s really just an easy hike through the woods + climbing the tower- but I liked it! It was unique and we had the most gorgeous day for it. The views from the top really do look a lot like Wisconsin, lol, but it’s still very beautiful! I do think this place is a little overpriced for what it is… it’s 195 DKK, or about $30 USD per person, which isn’t a lot but can add up for a whole family, and again, it’s really just mostly an easy walk through the woods and doesn’t take that long. They do also have a climbing ropes course and zip lines (only open certain days in some seasons, closed when we were there) for extra fees if you wanted to make a whole afternoon of it.

I would highly recommend the little detours we did on the way back from Mons Klint, too! We stopped off at Elmelunde Church and Nyord. The church is in a teeny tiny town, basically on the side of the road, but it’s just beautiful!! There was almost no one else around and this almost felt like a secret spot. So worth visiting and walking around. The inside is very unique, too. Free to enter.

Nyord also had very few other tourists, if any! It’s a little fishing village and no cars are allowed. You have to park in a lot and then walk through the town. Also free.

Getting a little off the beaten path is always fun! I love getting a glimpse of places outside of the “main tourist trap” places. This little cafe where we got ice cream/beer was a real treat. I felt so happy sitting there, in this adorable town in rural Denmark, with my family…. Such happy memories and kind of epitomized what I love about traveling! 💗

*Side note- we rented a car for the day from Europcar in the city center of Copenhagen. We paid $152 for the day and once you get out of the city (which can be slightly hairy with all the bikers and traffic and bike lanes!!!), the driving is VERY easy.

#2: Roskilde (town, Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde Cathedral)

The 3 most popular day trips out of Copenhagen include: Roskilde (which we did), Hillerod + the Fredricksburg Castle, and Helsingor, Denmark (with ferry over to Helsingborg, Sweden). Given the number of days we had, and knowing I wanted to do Mons Klint, I decided to pick just one of these 3.

We opted for Roskilde because:

• a) the Viking Ship museum there seemed the most unique/different from other things we were seeing in Copenhagen
• b) the ships and Viking stuff looked cool!
• c) it’s only ~30 minutes away by train
• d) Roskilde Cathedral looked very interesting, historical and important (it’s like Denmark’s version of Westminster Abbey, ie where all the kings/queens are buried)
• e) Roskilde the town looked cute!
• f) I recalled how, ahem, uninterested overall Asher was in Windsor Castle in London 🙄, so we thought doing Hillerod (where Fredricksburg Castle is the main attraction) seemed not the best plan.
• g) Helsingor + Helsingborg sounded very nice, but after reading many reviews, it seemed more people recommended Roskilde, and that for a “Sweden” destination, Lund was more highly recommended instead.

I am happy with our choice! We all thought the Viking Ship Musuem was maybe a little underwhelming, though. I mean, it was nice, and interesting. The ships were fun to look at. It’s a pretty spot there right on the water, too. (160 DKK or $25 USD adults, kids free!)

But the exhibits could have been better done, we thought, and we had also thought there would be MORE on the Vikings history in general. The main focus of the museum was the specific Viking ships that were found sunk off the coast of Roskilde and later recovered and restored. So lots of talk about the restoration process, etc which I found a little less interesting. There are some fun hands-on things for kids there and also an option to go out on rowing excursion (need to book in advance and it costs a lot extra- we opted not to).

Roskilde Cathedral though was really neat! I’m so glad we saw that. I also really enjoyed walking around Roskilde and seeing a smaller Danish town. It was so cute! We had a lovely little lunch at the Cafe Hygge (I mean, what a great name!) and later got drinks in the town plaza. (Cathedral price 70DKK or $11USD adults, kids free).

#3: Sweden (Lund + Malmo)

Ivan was most interested in tacking on “Sweden” to the trip, just because it’s so close, so why not?! (The train ride from Copenhagen to Lund is under an hour.)

I listed this as 3rd place for us though, just because for the boys it was not really as exciting. We mostly just walked around and didn’t really “do” much besides look at things and get lunch. Our legs were rather tired also by this point in the trip, so there was some intermittent complaining about all the walking from members of the peanut gallery. 😉

Lund particularly is SO picturesque though and I absolutely loved seeing it! But for teen boys… well, you can imagine. They just don’t get as whipped up over “cute Swedish houses” as I might. Haha. Malmo is larger and had a great city center and was really cool looking too!

Ivan and I are both really happy we had time for this day trip, but with so many other amazing things in Copenhagen, if you have limited time, it would probably be fair to skip this.

*If you ever go to Lund, let me clue you in some cute spots to focus on! I had to specifically research this and if we had just “wandered around” blindly from the train station, we would have missed these for sure.

Add to your Google Map:

• Lund Cathedral
• Adelegatan
• Hjortgatan
• Tomegapsgatan
• Lundagard Park
• Lund University Library

Old English Pub. Just a pub, really, but decorated so cute and has the best vibe. They have live music every single night after 10 and every musician was better than the next. For us, this was the perfect way to wind down and gave us some nice couples time. The boys by this time of night were happy to stay back and play on their phones and/or run to Burger King down the street for milkshakes. lol!

Things that we really enjoyed and would recommend, but a little lower down the list:

• seeing the famous Little Mermaid statue. (Iconic, yes. But quite “out of the way” location wise, and really, she’s not that exciting… lol.)

• walking around Kastellet. An old military fortress. I liked this! And there is a super cool windmill that I loved. But again, out of the way and not really a “must do”. There are some beautiful views and spots within this park, though.

• the Happiness Museum! This was a fun stop for me, but at $17/ person, it may not be worth it for everyone. It’s quite small and sort of a quirky little place. Ivan (and Ethan) ended up skipping it after realizing there was a fee, lol. Asher and I had been the most interested in it, anyway. (The woman at the entrance desk overheard us talking and Ivan saying they’d wait for us down the street. When Asher and I went in, she said, “Okay! You’re here because you want to be happier, no? I guess the others have already found all the happiness, so they don’t need to come in!” 🤣) The most photogenic spot is definitely the “post-it” room where people write things they’re happy for on a post-it and stick it on the wall. It was super fun to read these and we spent a long time here. We added our own, too. (Asher’s were: swimming, vacation, and good food. Mine were: Traveling with my husband + boys, and snuggles with my dog Charlie. :)) The rest of the museum was just little exhibits and facts/statistics about happiness, happiness in different places, factors impacting happiness, etc. We spent about an hour here.

Favorite post-its:

One that made me tear up….😭

• Assistens Cemetery. This is a beautiful spot!! It’s really almost more like a big park with both bike and foot paths. We rented bikes and rode here, which was a fun experience in and of itself. (Originally we had talked about doing a bike tour this day, but ultimately decided that by that point in the trip, we had already seen most of the places the bike tours tend to go to. Of course the biking is the fun part, but I had wanted to get to Assistens Cemetery anyway (where Hans Christian Andersen is buried) and it wasn’t far by bike. This ended up being a win-win for us. Got us the bike experience for cheaper than a tour, plus took us to a spot we hadn’t been yet!)

We rented the “Lime” e-bikes right from the Radhuspladsen Square near our apartment. There are bikes for rent everywhere in Copenhagen, literally every 5 feet. We downloaded the apps and did the “rent by minute” option. Only negative is that we didn’t have helmets, but…. most people in Copenhagen do not seem to wear helmets!! I was a bit surprised by this. I’d say 9 out of 10 bikers not wearing helmets, specifically including people who appeared to be locals. (Made me a little nervous, but, we survived.)

Things we would skip!

Really, the only thing we wouldn’t repeat is IKONO Copenhagen. LOL. This is not a place even unique to Copenhagen- they have IKONOs in several other major European cities. (We are not sure how these are so popular, because it seemed… mostly just weird and not worth the money at all.)

Asher had found this place online and it looked like a fun kid/teen friendly spot. It’s supposed to be an “immersive art experience” to engage all of your senses and allow you to combine “art and play”. There are 12 rooms that all have different themes and “activities”, sort of. It’s honestly hard to explain. The concept is cool, but in reality, it was just kind of… weird. Like, it almost could have been really awesome, but it just wasn’t there. It did make for some fun photos. (I think maybe that’s maybe the main appeal? Like it’s a TikTok/ Instagramer hotspot? I don’t know.)

Anyway, we paid out of pocket for this which felt outrageous for what it was. If you have the Copenhagen Card (we didn’t) and it’s included and you have kids, sure, maybe stop by. But do NOT pay $120 for this like we did!! This was worth $10/ person to me, max, not $30/ person.

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In summary, for anyone who would like a brief overview of our itinerary, here’s how it looked!

Wednesday 6/11: fly overnight

Thursday 6/12: arrival day! Walk around, Nyhavn, Stroget, dinner, trampolines.

Friday 6/13: cafe breakfast, the Old Library, Round Tower, see guard parade, GO Boat rental 1-3 pm, walk around Christiana hippie neighborhood and get a beer, 4:30 pm Our Saviour Tower reservation, quicker burger dinner out, Old English Pub (adults only) + late night walk.

Saturday 6/14: Rosenborg Palace tickets for 10:45 am. Lunch along Nyhavn! Amalienborg Palace Square p.m, Happiness Museum. IKONO at night + out for ramen. 🙂

Sunday 6/15: day trip to Roskilde. (Lunch at Cafe Hygge, Viking Ship Museum, Roskilde Cathedral, drinks in square). Train back to Copenhagen –> Little Mermaid, Kastellet, long walk back to apartment. Dinner in Grabrodretorv.

Monday 6/16: bike rental, Assistens Cemetery. Tivoli Gardens rest of day and dinner at the awesome and highly recommended Tivoli Food Hall! Endless ethnic options and super cool vibe, (You can also access the food hall from outside the park!)

Tuesday 6/17: day trip with car rental to Forest Tower, Mons Klint, Emelunde Church and Nyord.

Wednesday 6/18: day trip to Lund and Malmo, Sweden.

Thursday 6/19: pack up, morning walk, back to Nyhavn, City Hall…. train back to airport and fly home!

There were many things we didn’t get to- other museums, palaces, day trips- but I am thrilled with what we covered and am SO GLAD we had at least 7 nights here. I had read a few reports that seemed to indicate Copenhagen could be covered in just a couple days…. no. Just no! You need a good chunk of time to really experience all Copenhagen has to offer and the surrounding areas.

WE ABSOLUTELY LOVED Copenhagen. I had zero expectations going into the trip- I really knew nothing about it, and we primarily went there because Ivan had always wanted to go. It’s definitely a “summer” destination, in my opinion- the perfect weather was a game changer, and I doubt our experience would have been as great had it been dark and cold! But it was incredible.

I think it’s a fabulous European destination for families. Honestly, European destinations can be a little… boring in some ways, for kids. The reality is that Europe contains a LOT of historical sites, and kids unfortunately just don’t/can’t always quite appreciate all of that yet! But Copenhagen strikes an amazing balance of being fun, quirky and light-hearted, while still containing incredible history, architectural beauty and charm.

If Copenhagen hasn’t been on your list of places to visit, you need to add it!!! It’s so, so, so good! If you can’t tell, I’m still riding a big high right now. We connected with the boys in a really special way on this trip, which at their ages (15 and 16) and only a couples years left under our roof, is so incredibly important to me.

I just could not be happier with how everything turned out. It was truly an A++++ vacation and I will hold these memories so near and dear to my heart forever!! 😊😊😊