3 days in Copenhagen: The Ultimate Itinerary for Families
You can’t see it all but you can certainly make the most of your 3 days in Copenhagen.
If you landed here from my Copenhagen travel guide post, you know that here, I am sharing our full itinerary for our 3 (and a half) days in Copenhagen.
We are a family of four with two teens and try to find activities in our trips that provide a balance between taking in the famous sights a new city has to offer and learning more about where the locals go, digging into the personality and culture of the city. We also try to find time to unwind, slow down and have fun.
I can honestly say that in Copenhagen, we were able to find that balance pretty well!
We truly enjoyed our visit to Copenhagen—it’s such a beautiful, welcoming city. Everything shared below was a part of our actual visit to Copenhagen and was researched, booked and paid for ourselves.
My day job is travel planning, I love researching destinations to find the places to go to experience a new city to the fullest, no matter how long we have there. If I can help you plan a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark or anywhere else for that matter, don’t hesitate to reach out! I’d love to help you turn your travel dreams into an itinerary you can’t wait to experience!
If you missed my tips and insights to visiting Copenhagen, especially if it’s your first time, be sure to check out the full post here! I share about the basics like weather and transportation and I also include a list of suggested places to stay and eat during your time in Copenhagen!
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Copenhagen is a great walking city and one you can hit the ground running as soon as you arrive. Drop off your luggage, put your walking shoes on and start exploring!
Day 1 Itinerary: Wandering through Nyhavn
After arriving from Amsterdam, we grabbed lunch at Il Rosmarino, the restaurant at our hotel, 71 Nyhavn. We sat by the water and people watched for a bit, then walked around Nyhavn to get our bearings and take in the sights of this beautiful area.
You can walk this area, stop in shops, grab a sweet treat or just watch the action around you. Be sure to have a camera because it’s quite the area to photograph.
Quick tip: If you want to take pictures without the crowds, I suggest you wake up early. One morning I got out there about 7:30am and had the place almost entirely to myself.
For dinner we went to The Union Kitchen and walked around the square before heading back to get ice cream.
Day 2 Itinerary: A full day taking in all the sights of Copenhagen
This was our first full day in Copenhagen, so we started our day off with a fresh pastry from Sct. Peders Bageri & Konditori. We let the teens sleep in and my husband and I went for an early morning walk to this sweet local bakery. It’s key to get there early for the best selection. Note: on Wednesdays they make cinnamon rolls!
The cinnamon rolls were incredible (warm and fresh out of the oven!) and the coffee was great too. There are a few seats inside and out to sit and eat if you prefer. Most locals grab and go.
Once our day officially started (ie: the teens woke up and they ate the rolls we brought them), we started by touring the Rosenborg Palace, a Dutch Renaissance Castle and gardens. The nearby park, Kongens Have, is a great place to walk and if you have littles, you can let them run around and burn off some energy before heading to the castle.
My advice would be to buy tickets in advance & don’t skip the basement! It’s where they keep all the artillery and crown jewels. You have to tour the castle before getting access to the basement. They keep the best part for last!
We spent about an hour here b/c we are not the biggest museum people and after our walk around the grounds, we headed over to The Round Tower with a few quick stops along the way.
If you want to see more gardens and flowers, stop by the Botanical Gardens nearby. The teens weren’t huge on this idea so we went on to explore more of the city.
For the tower, you can buy tickets when you arrive and walk up to the top for great views. The tickets are about $8 each for adults and this tower has a long ramp up followed by two sets of stairs. Sadly the view points are not accessible by wheelchair or stroller. Strollers can be left at the bottom of the ramp or at the bottom of the stairs. Follow this link for more information on accessibility.
It takes about 10 min to walk to the top and you can spend as much time up there as you’d like. Weather may determine the length of your stay! ;) It was a bit cloudy but not rainy on the day we went.
As we made our way around the city, we strolled through TorvehallerneKBH, a popular market for locals. This is a great place to grab a snack, fine chocolates or a sandwich. It’s also fun for people watching and there is lot of seating if you need to rest your feet.
Public bathrooms can be a bit challenging to find but they do have some outside the market. Like most public bathrooms in Europe there is usually a small fee to enter so be sure to have some coins on you.
Next, we wandered through Storkespringvandet (the square with the Stork Fountain)
This is a great area to grab lunch (or in any of the local squares on your way to Nørrebro). We landed at Gasoline Grill (Niels location), which serves up a great burger. The location closest to the tower does not have seating but we found park benches in a square to sit and eat al fresco. Note: this location is not fancy so keep expectations low for ambience, high for a good burger!
If you want to burn off a few calories after lunch, you can stop and shop in Strøget. There is every store you can imagine, something for everyone but if you didn’t leave enough room in your bags to shop, I’d suggest walking to Nørrebro, a trendy neighborhood filled with art galleries, restaurants and more.
The neighborhood of Nørrebro has been named the world’s coolest neighborhoods by Time Out Magazine.
If you love colorful, locally-made pottery be sure to stop by Studio Arhoj for a great selection at reasonable prices. Mugs, vases, art, kitchenware, etc. They craft it all in every color you can imagine.
Next on our day’s itinerary was an experience.
If you follow along with our travels, you know we like to have experiences that connect us with locals and teach us something about the area we are in. We’ve done cooking classes, food tours, outdoor adventures and more. This was the first time we’ve taken an art class.
Thanks to AirBnB Experiences, we found Craig who is a master at LinoCut Printing. We met him at a local gallery for a private lesson on print-making. We got to create our own art piece and he taught us how to take that stencil and turn it into a print. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and learn something new.
We had no experience in the art (or art in general, we are not artistic at all!) but we all walked away feeling accomplished for trying something new. Craig was so nice, patient and a great teacher. If you ever want to take a class with him, you can find out more info using this link here.
As you can gather, we’ve had a full day up to this point but we still had dinner reservations at Bæst, which was actually the first bit of planning we did because we had heard amazing things and we love pizza. After all, it’s ranked in the top 5 for pizza restaurants in the WORLD.
We were tired after a full day of walking so we took a cab over to the restaurant. We ordered 2 pizzas, drinks and two desserts and everything was amazing. Service was excellent and the ambience is warm and inviting. Not at all stuffy as you might imagine for such a highly regarded restaurant.
Directly across the street is Brus, a local brewpub that features locally made beers. There is tons of seating inside and out and they offer a great selection of drinks. If you have the time and/or room left in your belly, stop here before the night is over. Many locals are here and it has a great energetic vibe about it.
After so much eating and drinking, we were rested and needed to burn off a few calories so we walked back to our hotel which was about a 30 min walk. I mention this just to note that late night walks (it was about 10pm) are a great thing to do in Copenhagen in the summer. The sun doesn’t set until about 10:30 and the streets are a bit quieter. It’s so lovely to see the lights start to twinkle under a setting sky.
Day 3 Itinerary: All about fun in the city; boat rides and amusement parks.
As you know, if you travel with teens, it’s important to find things teens like to do because they an quickly get bored with a lot of sight-seeing and walking around for endless hours to “look” at things.
We designed our next day to be all about the kids—giving them a day of fun and play. This itinerary would be great for kids of all ages and let’s be honest, as adults we had a lot of fun too!
Let’s pause and talk breakfast at the hotel, (this is becoming a favorite thing of mine). In my opinion, I like starting the day off with a good meal that I didn’t have to search high and low for. We all prefer a different style breakfast and the hotel buffet/omelet bar gives each of us a choice that make us happy. We can’t always find that quickly and nearby when we travel. Not to mention, it’s so convenient, no lines, no waiting, no walking across town and it usually saves us money.
Tell me, are you a fan of hotel breakfasts or do you prefer to venture out first thing?
Ok, enough about that. Let’s talk about our favorite day in Copenhagen.
After being in Amsterdam and experiencing the canals, we quickly grew to appreciate the lure of the water throughout the city, the difference in Copenhagen is that the canals are MUCH cleaner. That should not come as a huge surprise considering the city itself is a lot cleaner than Amsterdam.
We wanted to get out on the water but we did not want to do a tour. Big crowds, a tour guide talking on and on was not style, especially on this day so we opted to go solo and rented a boat from GoBoat.
Check out this Instagram post for all the details about our experience. It was a true highlight to our trip!
After our boat ride, we walked over the bridge to Tivoli Gardens. We had such a great time here. Tivoli is an amusement park meets botanical gardens. It’s stunning—so many flowers, beautiful displays and green spaces, every space is immaculate and impeccably designed.
We went on a Thursday afternoon after buying our tickets online and it was perfect. No crowds, beautiful weather (we got lucky!) and we breezed in. There are lockers you can rent to store your belongings and bathrooms everywhere.
We quickly were on our way to rides, games and more. It had been a while since we were in an amusement park with our teens and it was fun to see them light up. Strategizing on which ride to take and where to go next. We quickly all turned into kids again. Going with teens is great because they are old enough to go off on their own for a bit. There were few lines for any ride and so many options to choose from.
If rides aren’t your thing, there are games, carousels, restaurants, shows, concerts, a haunted house, gardens to explore and more. Truly something for everyone. There are also a number of restaurants to choose from—casual to fine dining, burgers to Asian to pizza and more.
The evening we were there, they were preparing for a live outdoor concert. We didn’t stay but it would have been a great way to end the night. The park closes at 10pm, before the sun sets but I have heard if you go in other seasons, the park is really pretty when all the lights come on.
If you are in Copenhagen I would highly recommend an afternoon in Tivoli. It’s amazing what they have created right inside the city—it really is perfect for a day of fun for any age.
Day 4 Itinerary
On this day, we were heading to London, so we only had the morning left to explore. Since we were staying in the Nyhavn area, we decided to wander around the waterfront and walk to The Little Mermaid statue. It’s probably one of the most iconic sights in Copenhagen and we hadn’t seen it yet.
From our hotel, it was about a mile walk and the sun was shining, so why not! We walked along the Langelinie walkway, where there were parks like the Amaliehaven Park to wander through, statues to see and boats to admire. It was a beautiful area where bikers, walkers, travelers and locals are all spending time outside. Some locals are even sunbathing on the steps of the waterfront.
The Little Mermaid is worth the walk if you have the time. Not sure I would go out of your way for it but it was the perfect thing to do to bide some time. It’s a bit crowded around there but if you wait your turn, you can get your picture.
I hope this gives you some ideas for your visit to Copenhagen. It truly is city that has something for everyone. Copenhagen ranked very high on our list of European cities we have visited and highly recommend spending time there. Obviously, the more time the better but even with just three days, you can see a lot and get a true sense of the spirit and allure of the city.
Celebrate Copenhagen, Explore the city!
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