Copenhagen with Kids, Tivoli Included

We rode the old wooden roller coaster. The roller coaster won.

I brought my nephews to Copenhagen because I had promised them a castle, a mermaid and a roller coaster, and Copenhagen is the only city I know where all three are within walking distance of a pastry.

We started with the Little Mermaid, which every guidebook warns you is small. It is small. The eight-year-old was outraged on her behalf and gave her a pep talk. Then the green ramparts of Kastellet, a star-shaped fortress where soldiers still march, and the boys marched beside them until a soldier, very kindly, asked them not to.

Lunch was hot dogs from Pølsevognen Rød, a sausage wagon near the harbour, with crispy onions, pickles and remoulade. The six-year-old declared it the best meal of his life, ahead of my cooking.

The afternoon was the splurge: Tivoli Gardens, unlimited ride passes for everyone. The wooden roller coaster still has a brakeman who rides along in the middle car. We rode it four times. I screamed three of them. In the evening the gardens lit up with thousands of coloured bulbs, and we ate ice cream at the edge of the lake. They fell asleep at Hotel Lanterne before I finished the first page of the bedtime story. I took a glass of wine to the window and called it even.

Lived July 11, 2026.