4 Fun day trips from Copenhagen

The capital of Denmark offers lots of fun attractions and activities, but there is more to Denmark than its capital. There are several fun locations you can easily visit on a day trip from Copenhagen. These are some of our favourite spots around Copenhagen that you don’t want to miss on your visit to Denmark.

Twenty minutes on the train will take you from Copenhagen Central Station to Klampenborg Station. Klampenborg is a northern suburb of Copenhagen and is home to two not to miss sights: Dyrehaven and Bakken. Combining a visit to these two places will make for a great day trip from central Copenhagen.

Bakken is the oldest amusement park in the world, founded in 1583, and entry is free! It is a great place to simply explore and take in its history. To maintain its historic feel, there are no big name brands or neon signs in the park. If you also want to hop on some of the rides or play games at the park, you can buy access to these in the park.

From Bakken, you can easily walk into Dyrehaven, a beautiful park with around 2000 wild deer. Dyrehaven is a part of the Danish countryside that has been mostly untouched in the last 350 years. There are great oak trees, views over the Øresund, woodland, and large plains where the deer roam free, and where you can enjoy a lovely walk.

A 45 minute train ride will take you from Copenhagen to Helsingør, home to Kronborg Castle. The castle sits on a fortified island where the Øresund is at its narrowest point. This unique and strategic position is part of why Kronborg Castle has such a rich history and has a place on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The castle started out as a fortress that was used to control access to the Øresund, the entrance to the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Sweden. From the castle grounds you can easily spot Sweden on the other side of the sound. As the two nations warred, the castle was conquered and plundered by the Swedes once in 1658.

But its strategic position and listing by UNESCO are not what has made Kronborg Castle famous around the world. That fame came through Shakespeare, who set his play Hamlet at the castle. He named the castle Elsinore, which has become the English name for the town Helsingør.

The train ride from Copenhagen to Roskilde will only take you about 25 minutes, which makes for an easy day trip. Roskilde has a long history to explore on your visit, the city dates back to the Viking Age and is one of the oldest cities in Denmark. Along with its history, the city is also famous for the Roskilde Festival, one of the largest music festivals in Europe.

An important historic sight in Roskilde is the Cathedral which holds the graves of many generations of Danish kings and queens. Each monarch that is entombed here, has their own royal chapel, which reflect the times in which it was built. This explains why the Roskilde Cathedral reflects 800 years of European architectural history, and is part of why the Cathedral is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

To explore the city’s Viking history a visit to the Viking Ship Museum is a must in Roskilde. The museum befittingly sits on the shoreline and has five Viking ships from Skuldelev on display. As you explore the museum, you’ll learn how the Vikings changed the world with their ships.

With Copenhagen sitting on the eastern shore of Denmark, you can easily fit in a day trip to Sweden on your visit. The city of Malmö, the third biggest Swedish city, is only a 45 minute train ride from Copenhagen. Make sure to bring your passport for the journey as border patrol will check it.

If you are only visiting Malmö for a day, you will want to focus your visit on the Gamla Staden area of the city, also known as the city’s Old Town. The central square of the city is Stortorget, which is surrounded by historical buildings, such as the Town Hall and Kockska Huset, one of the best preserved 16^th-century buildings in the city. Just around the corner from the main square sits the cobblestoned square of Lilla torg, where you can visit the market, cafes, half-timbered houses and shops selling handicrafts.

On the western edge of Malmö’s old town stands Malmö Castle, a red-brick fortress surrounded by parkland and a moat. The current castle was actually built by Danish King Christian III in the 1530s, to replace the castle built in 1434 by King Eric of Pomerania. Today, the castle is part of Malmö Museum and features several exhibitions as well as an aquarium.