Has anyone had a family summer holiday in Denmark?

[aliceinwanderland]

I am thinking about going to Denmark for 7-10 days this summer. A few days in Copenhagen and then some time near a beach but which is also driveable to Legoland. DC will be 9 and 4.

Can anyone tell me about their holidays in Denmark? Particularly the weather! I am not looking for blistering heat but hoping for something a bit sunnier than West of Scotland.

Also, if we self-cater is food shopping very expensive compared to the UK?

We had a lovely time there - it's so child friendly. Every cafe/restaurant/ice cream shop had toys for customers. We rented a summer house near the beach for a week. We were going to stay in Copenhagen too but couldn't find any family rooms in hotels where the singles weren't up scary steps/ladders (my youngest was 18 months at the time) in hindsight we should have rented an apartment. We weren't near legoland but went to a great medieval open air museum and got to see a trebuchet being fired and jousting. We were about an hour or two south of Copenhagen near the ferry to Germany. We chose a place that had a bit more of a town. Also we thought the sea to the south might be calmer than the seas to the west. It was but quite a lot of seaweed. I'll see if I can remember the name. It was expensive generally - but the local town had lots of buffets deals which the kids loved and had play areas outside. We were really lucky with the weather - at end of July it was really hot. I think unseasonably so. You can get real bargains when it's out of Danish school holidays (last 3 weeks of August) but we decided not to go then just in case things shut up - we went out of season once to somehow we in France and Belgium and even non summer things were closed)
Also if you are renting a Sumer house through a company I would pay the extra cost for them to clean it. We lost our deposit because they claimed we hadn't left it clean enough. I was so cross because we left it cleaner than we found it. After several months of angry emails I got it back.
There's also a really weird sounding theme park which we were going to go to which had a lot of toilet humour - I'm sure my 6 yr old would have loved it.

We took three kids 9, 6 and 18months) two years ago and loved it. We went to Copenhagen (hotel) and Billund (self-catered). We didn't find it any more expensive than the UK and it was very family friendly (although to be fair Billund is the town where Legoland is so it'd be weird if it wasn't).

We used public transport and found it very affordable and of great quality. The kids loved taking the train from Copenhagen to Billund, the scenery is lovely.

We went in July and it was hot. We ate all of our meals outside and were sat out long after the kids went to bed. We loved Denmark and it's a perfect place for a family holiday.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marielyst We went here

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BonBon-Land It has a farting dog ride.

The Danish schools start mid august, so legoland will be quieter then.

I've been many times and can recommend Tivoli, the canal boat tours, the zoo, the aquarium and the Experimentarium in Copenhagen. Summerland and Bonbon land (the rude theme park mentioned above) also great for a family day out. See if you can squeeze in a few days in Lalandia, it's a bit like Centre Parcs but with more free activities.

It's a great, child-friendly country. The public transport is great for pushchairs. The weather is similar to ours so can be very hit and miss but we went in August last year and it was hot and sunny for the whole 2 weeks. It can be expensive but taking a packed lunch everywhere is very common.

that's great, thanks so much for the replies. It has pretty much convinced me! I hadn't realised Danish school holidays were that late, probably explains why there are still quite a few holiday apartments to rent.

Really looking forward to it!

And love the idea of a farting dog ride!!

Following - I would live to holiday in DK

just booked flights! now browsing airbnb for accommodation

We've also been a lot, as well as all the above advice, we liked this place May be trickier to get to if you don't have a car.

Roskilde is a good day trip from Copenhagen. Legoland is great, but IMO there's not very much else to see around there- may be an idea to base yourself elsewhere and travel for that 1 day? Aarhus is great to visit, and there's the option of the fast ferry from Aarhus?ebeltoft to Zeeland for Copenhagen.

Marielyst does have a reasonable beach, although I didn't particularly like anything else about it there (but this was pre kids). You may find beaches on Jutland, which is where Legoland is more surf-like.

Last time we went we got a Copenhagen card which we used a lot. We got a 3 day card but staggered it over 4 days, so started at noon day 1. This meant we were able to use it on the day 4 morning, in fact we went to Sagnlandet and had the day there. It's also valid for transport and I think children under 10 are free so you would only need 1/2 adult cards.

As has been said, food is very comparable, even booze. And they have Netto/Lidl which makes it even better.

Depending on your self catering comfort needs, many Danish campsites have little huts they rent out. Some will be basic, think camping pod but many others have bathroom/kitchen etc. May mean you are able to base yourself in more places?

Example here

Danish campsites main site

thanks profpoopsnagle. I was thinking of getting a cottage somewhere between Copenhagen and Billund. May have to be near public transport as it is possible I might not be able to drive (another long story) but I think that should be doable.

I would camp but there is no way I would get DP to do it. SAgnlandet would be perfect for the kids.

Following this as I would love a holiday in Denmark but thought it was very expensive.

so did I frazzled - but I've managed to return flights for family of 4 for less than £400. Accommodation looks like it will be between 60-100 per night airbnb. still have to pay for food etc but i don't think supermarkets are that much more than here.

• managed to book return flights...

reup please could you tell me the name of the mediaeval museum? Or which town it was in? Sounds just our thing!

I can't think what the museum reup mentions might be, but there's a Viking museum in Ribe, on the SW coast of Jutland. To drive to legoland from there would take about 45 minutes I think.

www.middelaldercentret.dk/ is the centre mentioned.

www.middelaldercentret.dk/da/middelalderbyen/videoer

Takes you to some video clips

We went when the kids were around 5 and 7. Camped in July. Fantastic weather, very warm. Sea is warmer than in UK too as no tides. Campsites were all fab.

Stayed in Lolland for a couple of days. Went to the medieval centre - amazing day, the kids still talk about it. Can't recommend it enough. And all the 'medieval' people speak English. Viking ship museum in Roskilde is good too.

Also stayed in Ebeltoft - lovely beach. And in Skagen, also lovely.
Did legoland on the way home as a one day thing. It was our only rainy day! But no bad thing as very little queueing.

In Copenhagen I'd recommend the canal boat tour, Tivoli and the Round Tower. Public transport is very good and easy to use.

Sounds a great place for a holiday!

We went 2 years ago and did a cycling holiday based round Copenhagen. Cycling set up is great, youngest was 9 and easily cycling up to 40 miles a day. For us weather was dreadful and we found eating out very expensive (booze was cheaper than we expected). To be honest the eating out aspect became
Stressful, because the weather was bad we couldn't picnic as often as planned and it was just so expensive. As others have said lidl is there and when we went to legoland and had a cabin self catering was similar prices to here . Before the start of our cycling trip we crossed into Sweden for a
Few days and stayed in a cabin on a campsite , that was lovely and definitely cheaper for eating out

thanks all - sounds like self-catering is the way forward. Which is okay as we are going to mainly airbnb. I would have been happy to camp myself but I don't think my other half would agree. And as the kids are so fussy and I like cooking so that hopefully won;t be a problem. I like shopping abroad anyway