Copenhagen for families

Best free attractions

Copenhagen is a city of squares — small, unceremonious patches of stone and bench stitched directly into the centre. Tourists chase the bronze on the harbour and the queue at Tivoli; the squares are where Copenhagen actually lives. The list below is twelve of them, ranked, with one park threaded in. None has a ticketed entrance, an audio guide, or a gift shop. None asks anything of you except that you slow down. Sit at Gammeltorv with a coffee and a bun, cross Rådhuspladsen on the diagonal at rush hour, take a bench at Gråbrødretorv in the long blue hour, and you have understood more about Danish street life than the brochure will ever tell you. These places cost nothing. They reward an unhurried hour. They are not destinations in the conventional sense — they are the connective tissue between them — and that is exactly the point.