When you go on a tour or cruise with Tauck, one of the fun parts is you get a little “surprise” here and there. Last summer, we ended a wonderful Baltic Small ship tour with Tauck in Copenhagen. Our hotel happened to be across the street from an amusement park called Tivoli. We were surprised to see this park right in the center of town. We didn’t really give it much thought, and didn’t plan to spend time there. Amusement parks are fine, but something to do with our kids, not on our own, we thought. However, as a surprise, our Tauck guides gave us tickets for entry on our first night in Copenhagen, so we decided to enter, quickly look around and leave. We had no idea how charming and magical this place was! Incidentally, this is the second oldest amusement park in the world, built in 1843. The oldest is also in Denmark, I am told.
It rained on and off while we were there, but that didn’t make it any less charming. When the rain got too heavy, we would duck into a pub, or grab a bite to eat. There were many very nice restaurants and pubs scattered throughout the park. We sat under an awning at one, and the photo above shows our view. Even in the rain, it was so beautiful and romantic, in a way.
There were fun touches all through the park, including this cute concessions stand.
While walking around the park, we were struck with how much this place reminded us of Disney World and Disneyland. It turns out that makes perfect sense. Walt Disney visited Tivoli several times in 1951 and used this park as his inspiration to build his own Disneyland in California four years later.
Tivoli is filled with beautiful gardens and lakes. There are several entertainment venues as well and music is all around you.
We highly recommend a visit to Tivoli Gardens for folks of all ages. It was one of those fun surprises that you have when you don’t really know what to expect!
Tivoli wasn’t high on my to-do list when I was in Copenhagen, but I really enjoyed it once we’d ventured in. Doesn’t surprise me that Disney used it as his inspiration, great park!
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