Family day out in Copenhagen,Tivoli Gardens – rising like a playground reaching for the sky in an urban jungle…
Posted by Sachelle, 9th June 2018 at 11:52
On our recent family city break to Copenhagen in Denmark we were give tickets to the Tivoli Gardens, here’s a little snippet into the past and present of this popular family attraction, home to an amusement park and pleasure gardens.
About Tivoli Gardens - Life is the most wonderful fairy tale
Tivoli Gardens lies in the heart of Copenhagen surrounded by the city’s hustle and historical and modern buildings. It rises like a playground reaching for the sky, a wonderland of relaxation, fun, excitement and adrenaline in an urban jungle.
Tivoli first opened its doors on 15thAugust 1893 and is the second oldest amusement park in the world only being topped by its nearby neighbour Dyrehavsbakken also in Denmark. Its brain child was Georg Carstensen who got permission from Kind Christian VIII after advising that ‘people do not think about politics when they are having fun’.
Over the years Tivoli has evolved, never losing its identity or true historical charm and Georg Carstensen’s words still ring true today ‘Tivoli will never, so to speak, be finished.’ Walt Disney’s Disneyland was inspired by Tivoli and although Tivoli Gardens aren’t quite the scale of the Disney Parks it still offers a kind of nostalgic magic all of its own.
Family day out in the Tivoli Gardens
The first entrance gates we came to at Tivoli reminded me of an old fashioned amusement park and is overlooked by the amazing Fatamorgana, a ride to thrill all ages. At ground level there are mini bumper cars for the littlies (age five and up) and moving up to the next floor there is a dual ride for the faint heart and the lesser faint hearted. Choose from a two seated gondola where you will get a great view of the park and the larger floorless rings where you will experience 2-5 G-force overlooking the park. This was our must do ride…
We walked round to the main box office entrance to collect our tickets and once inside realised the scale of the area.
To gather our thoughts and formulate some sort of plan we grabbed a coffee at Woodhouse, great coffee and toilets, with automatic doors!
I’ve thought about how to share the fun we had here with you and decided on pictures so here are a few from the day.
Eating
If you are in Copenhagen already at the time of reading this then you will already realise it’s fairly expensive here. Think London prices and with a bad exchange rate add a bit. So to save a few pennies we decided to have a picnic lunch and then treat ourselves to a nice dinner. There are plenty of places to choose from for snacks, lunch and dinner at different price points too. We were really surprised at the choice. From chips and hot dogs to salads and gourmet meals and more.
We had dinner in a traditional Danish restaurant called Groften. One of Tivoli's oldest and most traditional restaurants - goes back to 1874! (They have high chairs for little ones)
The food was absolutely delicious. My daughter and I had the veggie dish of the season which consisted of white asparagus, wasabi beans, avocado, tomato etc, OH had the recommended fish of the day and Freddie enjoyed fried meatballs from the kids menu. I doubt they have much call for desserts here as we had our fill of sweet stuff like ice cream and candy floss through the day.
if you decide not to picnic, there are lots of restuarants to choose from - vist the Tivoli restuarant page for info
Practicalities
Tivoli Gardens are family friendly for all ages. There are changing facilities around the park and baby feeding in public Is encouraged. There are rides and amusements for all ages
Tickets
You can buy tickets to enter the park and buy individual tickets from machines inside the park for rides. If your family will want to ride on a few rides then an all inclusive entry and ride ticket is advisable.
Point to note. Take cash for the amusement games, there are cash points onsite but they do charge. We got caught out there.
If you have forgotten anything there is a supermarket near the box office entrance for sun cream or snacks and water.
We were advised that we could refill bottles of water in the toilets here as this is where water is coldest and we did this without any problems
If weather good plenty of space for picnics in the gardens to save money
Visit the Tivoli Gardens website for more information
