One of the “assignments” for our stay in Copenhagen was to find and observe five different playgrounds (“legeplads,” in Danish).  At first I was not overly excited about this task. Based on what I have seen of playgrounds in America, many of them are largely the same. They usually consist of some kind of child-sized jungle gym with slide, swings, and monkey bars. Maybe a bench or two for the adults to observe from…because adults don’t play. I assumed playgrounds in Denmark would be the same.

After doing some research on which playgrounds I wanted to visit for this blog post, however, I was much more excited. I discovered that Copenhagen has some seriously cool and unique play areas for both kids and adults. Every park I looked at had a different theme and most of them included a wide range of activities to engage people of all ages. These parks are the kinds of places that kids might draw if you were to ask them to imagine their “dream playground.” Each one felt whimsical in its own way, with imaginative artwork and play structures providing opportunities for creativity, movement, and learning.

With my list of places to visit in hand (narrowing it down to five turned out to be a challenge), I set out on my bike with my two adventure buddies (roommates Lauren and Kelsey) to go play.

Skydebanehaven Playground

Our first stop was a mere 650 meters from our hostel (three minutes by bike). This playground appeared to be mostly geared towards younger children (maybe ages 3-10?), but it also included activities for older people to enjoy.

The park was bird-themed, its centerpiece a massive, colorful parrot-shaped structure that included a slide, small rock wall, and internal hiding places.

Other play structures in the park included wooden boats, a zip line, swings, and cute little pyramid-shaped huts.

And of course, no trip to the park is complete without a few turns on the merry-go-round… IMG-1259

This park was also the first of several we saw that had shared toys and games on site for anyone to use. There were an impressive number of communal bikes, balls, and garden toys littered around the area.

There were built-in ping pong and foosball tables too…

Garden planters…

And several open areas and game courts.

Nørrebroparken Playground

The second park we visited was nestled within a larger green space in the Nørrebro neighborhood. This playground also seemed to be mostly geared towards younger children (estimated ages 3-10), but with activities for older people too, both within the playground itself and in the surrounding area.

The playground had a darker theme than the last one, with two pieces of a crashed plane provided places for kids to hide, climb, and play creatively.

This playground had an impressive herb garden set up in planter boxes with labels identifying each plant type. I did not ask, but my assumption is that this is one of Copenhagen’s staffed play areas, and that staff members are responsible for tending and teaching children about the different kinds of herbs.

I even found some rosemary…

Like the first playground, this one also had communal toys, swings, and slides.

The Red Square

On our way to the next park we planned to visit, we stumbled upon several others. The first of our accidental finds was the Red Square (or “Den Røde Plads”). We found it as we were pedaling our way north along a bike route through a linear park. Unlike the others, this park was geared towards older people wanting to get some exercise, although it did have some play structures for children too. On the eastern side of the bike route, there was a large, flat, paved area for people to skateboard. On the western side of the path, there were workout structures, a boxing ring, seat swings, and an elephant-shaped slide. This park felt much more open than the others because it was directly off of the bike path and not fenced in. It seems like the parks geared more towards children have fences or some other kind of barrier around them to keep the children contained.

The Black Square

After visiting the Red Square, we hopped on our bikes, intending to continue to our next destination. Before we could roll more than 300 feet, however, we found ourselves at yet another park. This one seemed nicely balanced between kid and adult enjoyment. There were pleasant seating areas, a few play structures, and wavey white lines painted on the ground that anyone with enough of an imagination could turn into some kind of game. Like the Red Square, this park was open, with no fencing or barriers of any kind around it. It was right off of the bike path, and it seemed like a significant portion of the parks visitors might have been on their way somewhere and decided to stop off for a few minutes to play before continuing to their final destination (kind of like us!).

BaNanna Park

After leaving the Black Square, we biked for another five minutes or so and finally reached the BaNanna Park, whose most prominent feature was a large rock climbing arch/wall, decorated with colorful climbing gorillas and bananas. According to Google, anyone can pay 120 DKK annually for access to the climbing wall whenever they want it. There were several people on the wall when we visited.

The park also included a paved, ovular track around a large field that could be used for various sports (soccer, maybe), a children’s playground, a bathroom, a fenced in sports court, a couple of built-in game tables, and several interesting murals. There was a little bit of something for everyone here.

Conclusion

After seeing a variety of Copenhagen’s playgrounds, some common themes that emerged were:

-Each park had Lots of small little details. It was clear that a lot of thought and creativity went into each one to make it an engaging place for all kinds of people.

-Although most of the parks were clearly intended for a certain age group, they still all seemed to have places for kids, adults, seniors to mingle and play together.

-Most of the playgrounds had really interesting murals and artwork, making the spaces even more engaging.