3 Best Sights in Side Trips from Copenhagen, Denmark

Herds of deer roam freely in the verdant, 2,500-acre Dyrehaven. Once the favored hunting grounds of Danish royals, today the park has become a cherished weekend oasis for Copenhageners. Hiking and biking trails traverse the park, and lush fields beckon nature-seekers and families with picnic baskets. The deer are everywhere; in the less-trafficked regions of the park you may find yourself surrounded by an entire herd of deer delicately stepping through the fields. The park's centerpiece is the copper-top, 17th-century Eremitagen, formerly a royal hunting lodge. It is closed to the public but is sometimes rented for private events. Dyrehaven is a retreat for hikers and bikers, but you can also go in for the royal treatment and enjoy it from the high seat of a horse-drawn carriage. The carriages gather at the park entrance near the station.

Since opening in 2019, this forest tower has been one of the most popular day-trips from Copenhagen. The 45-meter (148-foot) tall spiraling wooden structure towers over the trees below, and it’s as much an architectural masterpiece as it is a way to experience nature from a new angle. It’s part of Camp Adventure, a nature camp with a climbing park and a café. The tower is open year-round.

Price discounts for the climbing park are available online; children younger than 15 also pay a lower rate for the climbing park.

Ordrupgaard is one of the largest museum collections of French impressionism in Europe outside France itself, and it reopened in late 2020 after a major renovation. Most of the great 19th-century French artists are represented, including Manet, Monet, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Sisley, Delacroix, and Pissarro. Ordrupgaard also has a superb collection of Danish Golden Age painters and spectacular works by Vilhelm Hammershøi, whose deft use of light and space creates haunting settings for his mostly solitary figures. The paintings hang on the walls of what was once the home of museum founder and art collector Wilhelm Hansen. The interior of this manor, dating from 1918, has been left just as it was when Hansen and his wife Henny lived here. In 2005 a black, curvaceous addition, designed by the acclaimed Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, joined the main building. In addition to extra exhibition space, the new structure made room for a spacious café that overlooks the park. There are labels in English.