Tivoli Gardens
Copenhagen, Denmark
Greetings, folks! With Coronavirus shutdowns still in place all across the country—meaning pretty much all theme parks and local attractions and any places of gathering are closed—we thought that this would be an ideal time to get back to some of our travel features. In particular, we thought that a look at some of the wonderful amusement parks we’ve visited in years past would be just the content to bring a little extra interest to your day. We may mostly be staying at home now, but once the world eventually gets back to moving, updates like this one may serve to inspire and motivate some international explorations!
Our destination today is the famed and gorgeous Tivoli Gardens, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. This classic amusement park opened in 1843 and is the second oldest continually operating park in the world (coincidentally, number one—Bakken, opened in 1543—is also in Denmark, and actually not too far north of Copenhagen). It’s also one of the most charming and atmospheric parks out there, with lush, world-famous gardens, evocative architecture, several rough themed lands, and a lovely assortment of rides neatly packed into a city block. In some ways, this is kind of like the predecessor to Knott’s Berry Farm, in that both are classic and historic amusement parks that have evolved and grown through time but have retained the sense of enchantment that made them famous. But as nice as Knott’s is and has returned itself to, Tivoli is even more alluring—both day and night!
A bustling crowd outside the entrance gates of Tivoli Gardens.
Don’t believe me? Read on and let this virtual tour and its many photos serve as testament! (Note: the pictures are from my trip taken back in 2014, so there have been updates to the park that are not captured photographically. But in the grand scheme of the park’s impressive history, the gaps are not that much.)
Ambiance
The biggest appeal of Tivoli Gardens is the theming and general ambiance of the park, which carries a rich charm of those vintage amusement parks of old. Despite the age of the park, the facilities are still in excellent condition, with plenty of vibrant colors and vivid details across the architecture and structures on the grounds. And while it’s not a proper theme park with cohesive lands organized around each other, it does feature a lot of theming—it’s just more localized. There are broader expanses designed to a common theme, but sometimes, the aesthetic changes from building to building or local area to the next. Yet, everything still manages to blend together in a beautiful aesthetic harmony.
The park’s walkways conjure a classic, turn-of-the-20th-century European vibe.
Tivoli might be famed as an amusement park, bit it also features a fair share of performance spaces. The Pantomime Theater is a beloved park classic that still puts on pantomime theater shows to the public. Its Chinese Imperialistic architecture is bold and vibrant and certainly stands out. Around the center of the park, a large lawn area contains the Open Air Stage, where guests can picnic or pull up lawn chairs and take in a nighttime concert put on by any number of rock, pop, and jazz bands.
The Glass Hall Theatre is an elegant structure reminiscent of a glasshouse—similar to the Crystal Palace exhibition halls of past World Fairs, but more intimate for musical or comedy performances. Tivoli also has a proper large scale indoor concert hall too, located at the south end of the property. The Gardens and the Orangery also provide some lovely green spaces that serve as both an ecological attraction and a backdrop for small performances.
Tivoli has several performance stages, like the Pantomime Theater, the only one in the world where pantomime is still presented as an independent art form.
Plænen, the Open Air Stage, houses a wide variety of entertainment, including an annual summer concert series.
There is a wide varieties of architectural styles at Tivoli, ranging from the clean, modern Scandinavian look to highly stylized, vernacular architecture emulating exotic cultures. The Nimb Hotel, for example, takes on a Middle Eastern feel, with Moorish arches and minaret structures and Arabesque domes. In the back of the park, near the mighty Daemonen floorless roller coaster and the Japanese Tower, an East Asian style pervades, mixing romanticized styles of Japanese and Chinese temples and palaces. The Design Restaurant is fittingly sleek with glass and wood, emblematic of the type of design that Scandinavia is known for. And the Tivoli Concert Hall is a rhythmic statement of mid-century modernism!
Scandinavian architecture and design also makes its presence felt at Tivoli.
This elaborate, Middle Eastern-esque building might look like it houses a theaterical show or perhaps sprawling dark ride, but it’s actually a hotel overlooking the park and includes a few restaurants!
This is Fru Nimb, an classic Danish open faced sandwiched restaurant.
Of course, Tivoli can’t be Tivoli without its famous gardens, which are spread throughout the middle of the park and actually contain botanical specimen that bloom with vibrant color during the spring! The rest of the year, until winter, the park is a verdant shade of green, though, with plenty of lush plants and shade and mature trees adding even more to the historic environment.
Some lush, green gardens occupy space near the Glass Hall Theater.
Additional garden space runs along a pond on the eastern side of the park. Hans Christian Anderson Castle, a banquet hall, forms the backdrop.
Tivoli also makes great use of its waterways, with a small lake that wraps north to south along the eastern half of the park, stretching from the gardens down to the Asian themed area. There are so many lovely, photogenic moments to be found along the walk, and at night, the lake also doubles as a canvas for an after-dark water show spectacular in the style of World of Color! In between a pirate ship, little row boats, and various water fowl dot the placid lagoon.
A pirate ship floats along the waters on the other side of the Glass Hall Theater.
There’s more classic charm along the pathway near Tivoli’s classic wooden roller coaster, Rutschebanen.
Family Rides
Tivoli is first and foremost a family tradition… a place where parents take their kids and relive the wonderful memories of their own youth. It that sense, it serves very much as Denmark’s Disneyland—a magical and wondrous place that captures the hearts of those who visit. Not surprisingly, the park has a robust collection of children’s rides—most of them straightforward classic carnival attractions of the ferris wheel or merry-go-round type or mini tower ride type, but whimsically themed to curious sea creatures or fantastical sailing ships or flying rockets.
There’s a busy city boulevard directly on the other side of these rides, but you’d never tell from the way the park architecture builds up a berm to separate the outside world.
I actually think this ride might be defunct at the park now, but it’s an example of the whimsical style at Tivoli.
The park also has a few playground areas for the younger tykes to play in, rounding out its wide variety of attractions. Slides, climbing structures, and walking bridges abound in Rasmus Klump Legeplads, where children can make-believe grand adventures in their imaginations.
The Galley Ships is another family-friendly spinning ride with a bit of a Peter Pan inspiration.
The Dragon Boats occupy a scenic closed off pond area separated from the rest of the lake at Tivoli. Kids can motor their own little crafts for a few minutes and take in the scene. The leafy atmosphere, flowery planters, and multiple framed view make for just an refreshingly relaxing vibe. And not too far away, on the other side of Dæmonen, The Flying Trunk is a charming dark ride that takes guests on a storybook tour of some of Hans Christian Anderson’s famous fairytale scenes. One dark ride not enough? Try The Mine, which takes guests on a hunt through a mysterious grotto in search for treasure. Just avoid the dragon that guards it all!
Dragon Boats, located near the Japanese Tower, offer a tranquil ride onto the pond for the little ones.
Since the time these photos were taken, Tivoli has also added a couple of family-friendly roller coasters as well! Mælkevejen (Milky Way), a powered roller coaster, opened just late last year and takes on the form of a fantastical flying machine of H.G. inspiration. Kamelen is a very small kiddie coaster that replaced an older Zierer model from before.
Thrill Rides
Don’t let everything thusfar suggest that Tivoli Gardens has nothing for adrenaline seekers, however. The park includes several awesome roller coasters and thrill rides that are worth a visit just by themselves!
The modern crown jewel, of course, is Dæmonen—The Demon—a compact B&M sitdown coaster boasting three inversions within a tight and relentless layout. Located in the East Asian area at the back of the park, this coaster takes guest up a very modest 92 foot lift hill, then sends them down a helix drop into a vertical loop, an Immelmann, and an arching zero-G roll in quick succession, finishing up with a couple more twists and turns before returning to the brake run. Despite its short length, it’s a tremendously fun roller coaster!
Dæmonen—The Demon—is a short and sweet B&M sitdown roller coaster.
This thing packs a punch, and its compact layout was the type of ride that many Knott’s fans were clamoring to replace Boomerang once upon a time.
We ended up getting HangTime, which is definitely a very fun ride, but Daemonen is pretty awesome in its own right!
Once it gets going, it doesn’t let up!
Tivoli has a great assortment of flat rides too—though many of them aren’t technically that. Vertigo is perhaps the most intense and insane ride in the park. A Flying Fury model from Technical Park, this absurd looping attraction puts guess on one of two airplane carriages that loops a full 360° as its arm swings around through the air. At the same time, the airplane spins across its axis, doing barrel rolls as the larger arm takes it around in vertical loops. It is, without a doubt, a freaky but thrilling ride!
Another intense thrill ride—the multi-rotating Vertigo. Aptly named!
Tivoli has a collection of other tower rides too. Fatamorgana takes guests up a 150 foot tower, spinning them around in one of three unique rotating carriages. The Golden Tower is a straightforward S&S Turbo Drop that plummets riders from over 200 feet in the air. And the tallest attraction in the park—the Star Flyer—swings guests over 260 feet above the ground. This Star Flyer isn’t the tallest in Europe—there’s a taller one not too far away in Tivoli Gröna Lund in Stockholm, Sweden that towers 400 feet and is among the tallest in the world—but when I rode it, the ride operating despite a relatively brisk breeze that caused the swings to snap back and forth as they were spinning around. It ended up being freakier than anticipated, that’s for sure!
Himmelskibet—the Star Flyer—rises over 260 feet in the air and is one of the tallest such attractions around!
Down on the ground, I should also point out Tivoli’s bumper car attraction, fittingly named Bumper Cars. There are actually two variants in the park—one for little kids. But it’s the adult one that is giddy with entertainment. Americans used to the tameness of U.S. bumper cars (toned down to avoid more jarring collisions that could result in lawsuits) would be shocked to see that the Tivoli Bumper Cars operate at breakneck speed, and the ride ops encourage guests to ram hard and create violent crashes! On my visit six years ago, the ride op even let us ride multiple times, coming up with different games and layouts that would yield creative collisions. He even offered pointers on the best parts of opposing cars to target! This would never happen in America, but at Tivoli, everything is fair game!
The Star Flyer is visible just down the way from Rutschebanen—Danish for Roller Coaster.
Last but not least, we have Rutschebanen—Danish for “Roller Coaster”—the most popular ride in the park. This 1914 L.A. Thompson Scenic Railway Company side friction roller coaster is one of the few remaining of its kind! Unlike the majority of all roller coasters around the world, this type of woodie doesn’t have an underhook safety wheel. As a result, it very literally can fly off the tracks if running too fast! As a safeguard, each train has a manual brakeman who knows the ride layout forwards and backwards and applies the brakes at strategic times to limit the momentum of the roller coaster.
This side friction wooden roller coaster has been operating since 1914, making it one of the oldest roller coasters around!
You might think that this would result in a very tame ride, but you would be absolutely wrong. Remember the precedent and complete disregard for American-style liability fears? Well, Rutschebanen is very similar. The roller coaster absolutely hurtles around the track and over its many hills, generating plenty of airtime throughout the ride! The brakemen in the middle of the train are highly experienced, knowing just the right touch to keep the coaster safe enough to complete its circuit, yet wild enough to thrill generations of riders.
From the first drop-in into a mountainous cavern to emergence out the top of a lift hill and through the multitude of camelback hills and tunneled headchoppers and even a little drop in the dark, this ride runs fast all the way through. It only reaches a top speed of 37mph, but it feels a lot faster as guests hurtle through and under and around the mountain structure that houses it! It’s an amazingly fantastic, bucket list level thrill ride that no one who visits Tivoli Gardens should miss!
It still utilizes the services of a brakeman to make sure the trains don’t actually come up off the track. And yet, it still has plenty of airtime!
That, then, is one of the world’s most enchanting parks in a nutshell. Tivoli Gardens is a positive gem in the amusement/theme park world and a cultural highlight of Copenhagen! The park is the most popular attraction in the city for good reason, and you can understand from this guide how indelible it can be for its guests.
Tivoli Gardens uses ride tickets in addition to a general park admission, though unlimited ride passes are available for the parks over 30 rides. Another great amenity is the fact that the park is included in the Copenhagen Card, a tourist card sold in 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 day increments. The card actually functions in multiples of 24 hours, meaning city visitors can strategically wait for first use and use it across the following morning or even afternoon past the last “day” of use. Even better, guests can go to each attraction once per day, which means with,s say, a 72 hour version of the Copenhagen Card, guests could visit Tivoli Gardens three times—once a day! That’s actually what I did when I was there, turning the card into a bit of a season pass and stopping in for sometimes just an hour or two to take photos (these daytime photos were taken over a longer visit of several hours, though).
Suffice to say, I highly recommend the Copenhagen Card for anyone visiting the city and wanting to be touristy. Not only does it offer free admission to the most popular attractions throughout the city, it also includes free public transportation on the local metro and trams, plus free access to select regional trains in order to visit some of the attractions located outside of Copenhagen and further north up the country!
Beautiful Tivoli Gardens is a can’t miss in Copenhagen and a bucket list locale for any amusement park enthusiast!
Even if you’re not antsying to check out every museum or church or garden or castle in Copenhagen, Tivoli Gardens is still a must-see. It’s beauty, grandeur, and sense of history weave a romantic and unforgettable experience. Its location next to the main train station makes for even passing visits convenient. It’s no surprise that Tivoli Gardens is the second most popular seasonal amusement park in Europe!
TIVOLI GARDENS AT A GLANCE
Name: Tivoli Gardens
Address: Vesterbrogade 3, 1630 København V, Denmark
Web Site: https://www.tivoli.dk/en/
Admission: 135 Danish Krone (adults 8+ yrs), 60 Danish Krone (children 3-7 yrs), FREE (children 2 yrs & under, disabled guests)
Hours: 11:00am - 11:00pm Mon. - Thu., 11:00am - 12:00am Fri. - Sat. (subject to change), spring through Christmastime
Metro Stop(s): København H (serves M3 & M4 Lines), Copenhagen Central Station (serves A, B, Bx, C, E, and H Lines)
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
