Flying out of Faroe Islands offered five options of destinations to visit next. Since my goal for our 20 Countries in 20 Years Trip was visiting four new counties, while avoiding peak travel crowds in July and European heat with no AC, Copenhagen was the perfect next destination.
Planning a trip with four children ranging in ages from 3-14 requires strategic actions to meet the diverse desires in travel goals. I knew Copenhagen would be a fun place to land after being bundled up in Iceland and Faroe Islands for a week, where hiking was the main attraction. I knew Tivoli the amusement park would be a hit with the girls. We all loved this childhood wonderland! By coincidence of my last minute planning, the Copenhagen Jazz festival was happening while we were there. So we nursed our Tivoli exhaustion by chilling in the park to an eclectic girl jazz band and making friends with some other parents coping a squat with kids running around in the grass.
We were in Copenhagen for five nights. From the airport we took the Metro to our neighborhood Christianshavan. Our Airbnb was on the canals close to Nyhavn and the open-air food market. Travel days are not easy. We pack light to make carrying our load easier as we schlep our bags and figure out new cities. On this travel day I was super proud of my girls navigating with us from the airport and through a new subway system. They were patient with me while I found the 7Eleven where the key to our Airbnb was kept in a lock box and when walked 15 minutes (some of that in the wrong direction) to find our address. It’s all part of the journey of travel.
Copenhagen is a walking city and there is a reason people love bikes there. It’s a small city. The metro train and bus system is sleek but there is still a fair amount of walking between stops. The stroller came in handy since I didn’t trust us to rent bikes and hop into the fast bike lanes. Biking in Copenhagen is really a local’s only skill! Like all Scandinavian countries, they are a pram cultures. The buses have doors marked for strollers and parents park their kids in the strollers and take a seat on the bus. So the combo of walking and a bus with a stroller works out better than underground metros with stairs and no lifts. EK spends more time walking than in her stroller. But we are a family of long fast walking legs. Expecting her to always keep up with older siblings, or everyone to always travel at her pace, isn’t always realistic. The stroller worked great for this trip.
The open-air food market was around the corner from our place and food is always our first stop. The market is like a food truck park but the restaurants are stationary and made out of old shipping containers. We ate there a few times while in Copenhagen. It had something for everyone and then some…Indian food, dumplings and noodles, chia seed pudding bowls and vegan banana ice cream made from wasted bananas. Plus the basics like pizza, fish and chips and burgers etc. AND sun chairs by the canal. We lived like locals here and loved it.
Our first full day in Copenhagen we walked a lot, probably several miles! We set out for an interesting playground and a pretty walk along a lake with swans. By the time we decided to hop on a bus we learned we couldn’t buy tickets on the bus so we walked towards the metro station. Then the metro ticket machine would only take Danish credit cards. So we kept walking. But along the way we found a cool sidewalk cafe for lunch, the palace where the Danish crown jewels are still kept, a farmer’s market, a smoothie bar, an ice cream stand, dinner by a random New Orleans jazz band playing for the festival, and ended the day with sitting our tired legs down on a boat tour of the harbor.
We usually skip sightseeing tours but we got a combo ticket for the sightseeing boat, an open air bus and discounts on Tivoli tickets in advanced. The next day we took the open air sightseeing bus as our VIP transportation to Tivoli and walked right in, bypassing all the people waiting to buy tickets. So that was worth it! The sightseeing buses are popular in many big cities and we always get requests from the girl to ride on one. The infamous red bus was a one and done thing for us but we think we picked a good city to give it try. Getting on a boat someway in Copenhagen is a must and tour boat fit the need in the moment at the end of a long day.
The photo above was taken from the boat and our Airbnb was in the building on the left. It was a nice flat in a great location. It was the most expensive Airbnb we stayed in during out trip but I think rates were higher because Jazz Fest was in town. The kitchen was small so mostly we ate at the open food market. The entire time we were in Copenhagen we loved the culture of all the bikes and boats. Next time we come back maybe we will find a houseboat to tour around on! Or maybe we’ll stay long enough to learn the bike rules. 
But truthfully, this is more my more style. If I had a boat this would be me with some kids and my dog. And the next photo would be my car plus my paddle board on the top.
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Tivoli I love you! I’m not a big amusement park mom. I have no plans of ever taking my kids to Disney World. We have had season passes to Dollywood before but as a whole I would rather spend money traveling. But Tivoli won me over. It’s a whimsical world full of cultural beauty that will bring out the child in everyone’s heart. Everywhere I looked I wanted to remember what it was like there. I was the person sneaking my phone in my pocket on a rollercoaster and being warned in Danish about dropping my phone. I wanted to remember what every detail of the place looked like. I could have ridden The Flying Trunk, a journey through fairy-tale scenes by Hans Christian Andersen, eight more times. Because twice wasn’t enough!
We were at Tivoli for 10 hours. We ate a nice dinner on the water and sat in the beer market while the kids closed down the pirate ride with EK in tow. I could live at Tivoli.
We enjoyed down time at Jazz Fest the next day. We put our Tivoli souvenir cups to good use by filling them with wine in the park as we relived some past time memories of our pre-kid travels.
Staying on the path of diversifying our days with things for kids of all ages plus the parents, The National Museum of Denmark was a home run for all the ages. The museum’s interactive children’s exhibits and map hunt to find all the “I’m not bored anymore buttons” which made exhibits come to life, kept our girls busy learning about Danish history and added to their already growing Viking knowledge. The museum also had a visiting exhibit on Mongolia that was amazing. Plus the most extensive displays of Viking treasures we have seen through all our Scandinavian trips. The modern Meet the Vikings exhibit was realistic, drew us in and was the first time we have seen women Vikings portrayed in history like this.
On our last day we also climbed 90 meters to the top of the Church of Our Saviour spire to catch some great views of the city. And we took a walk through Free Town Christiania, Copenhagen’s hippie commune for free living that was founded in 1971 and still lives strong with 900 people in their community. Our walk along the river inside the commune didn’t last long but I’m glad we visited.
We did Copenhagen at a easy pace but we saw a lot. The sun staying up late meant all the girls were still staying up till 11 every night. We had longer days to play but our mornings got off to a later start. Our Airbnb had a playground in the courtyard and we used it past the requested quiet time hours. There is a travel balance just like in life and going with the flow with multiple age kids. Stroller naps might happen at 5:00. We use those to our advantage, send the bigs up for much appreciated media time in the apartment and sit by the canal to catch up on some adult time.
This is the glimpse into how we travel with four kids, and still get enough experiences out of it as parents. I could have sat next to the canals and watched the boat culture for days. All the beautiful boats! I am not a camper but I could live on a houseboat. Copenhagen we loved you. If we had one more day we would have gone swimming in the harbor. Instead we’ll do that in Sweden.
Next we took a train from Copenhagen to Stockholm and hopped on an overnight boat to wake up the next morning in Tallinn, Estonia. 
