Jutland with kids – one week in Denmark itinerary

If you’re considering a family holiday in Denmark, chances are your first choices are going to be Copenhagen or Legoland Billund, especially if you’re visiting Jutland with kids. Both get my vote, but there’s far more than Lego alone for your Jutland itinerary.

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After our trip towards the end of August, discovering Vikings, historic towns, a wartime bunker in the dunes and spectacled bears – plus Lego galore – I’ve pulled together my suggestions for one week in Jutland with kids, as well as ideas if you’ve got a bit longer to spend.

Because if you’re looking for ideas for a week in Denmark, as this itinerary shows, there are few places with quite as many kid-friendly activities crammed into such a small space.

Check out my complete guide to Denmark with kids here

We never went beyond a 50-mile radius and rarely drove for longer than an hour (great if your kids aren’t fans of car journeys) but we never came close to running out of things to do.

Jutland itinerary: Day 1 – arrive in Billund

Billund is around three to four hours’ drive from Copenhagen, or around an hour from Aarhus, so it’s easy to combine both into one trip.

But with cheap flights from the UK to Billund, including British Airways and Ryanair out of London (both of which worked out at similar prices when we flew), most people fly straight there.

And Legoland is practically next door to Billund airport (really, you can see the planes land from the Polar Land area), with a lot of the other attractions very nearby too.

Stay at: Legoland Castle hotel

I could start by telling you all the practical reasons to stay at the new Legoland Castle hotel, which opened in spring 2019… but the biggest one is that it’s SO much fun.

Lego dinosaur roaring outside as you walk in? Yep. Lego dinosaur asleep by the fireplace with boxes of bricks to entertain the kids as you check in? Another yep.

And that’s before you check into the themed rooms – 142 across two buildings, designed for dragon knights, wizards and princesses, with Lego characters on the wall, a Lego cat above our bed, and more bricks by the bunk-beds in my daughter’s separate sleeping area.

Plus a locked treasure box, each containing different Lego goodies for your kids to find – there’s a trail around the hotel and play area to get the code.

When my husband told me the shower head in the bathroom was also made of Lego, I genuinely believed him for a few moments. It still wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually work out a way to do this.

There are daily Lego building challenges, and all the staff wear minifigures on their badges which you can swap.

Back to that practical note, your stay includes access to Legoland which is just a few minutes’ walk away, plus you can skip the queue through a separate entrance.

There’s an outdoor playground, designed to look like a Lego style castle, and big family restaurant: breakfast is included, the evening buffet had some good choices if (as a lot of Denmark) slightly pricy

We stayed for two nights: if your flight arrives earlier than ours did, leave some time to get building and generally enjoy the fun.

Jutland itinerary: Day 2 – Legoland, Billund

The original Legoland park, it opened in 1968 and has expanded over the years to include nine different areas, lots of rides – including some to suit younger/more cautious kids – plus some shows and live events, especially during the summer.

Legoland Billund opens at 10am and closes at 8pm, although rides finish at 6pm – another big bonus of staying so close to the park is that when my daughter was flagging from our late arrival the night before, we could head back to the play area and room, and leave my husband to go on a few final faster rollercoasters.

There’s easily enough to fill a day – start with a wander around Miniland, with its Lego landmarks and recreations of different countries, including a little representation of the airport, using more than 25 million bricks.

Or Duploland is perfect with littler ones including a little monorail to pootle around and take in the sights.

For more views, the Legotop is a circular gallery which rises up 36m and rotates slowly around. As you’re looking down on Miniland, where everything’s already tiny, it feels as if you’re even higher.

Past the Star Wars models, my daughter’s wishlist featured Atlantis by SeaLife in the Imagination Zone – spot the Lego submarine among the fish.

But there’s also Ninjago World, Legoredo Town – a cowboy/Wild-West style experience – Pirate Land, Knights’ Kingdom, Adventure Land and Polar Land.

The height restrictions are always clearly marked, and despite being a couple of centimetres under 120cm, my seven-year-old could still go on the vast majority of things (and didn’t fancy the more adrenaline-fuelled options anyway).

If you’re not sure how much your kids will enjoy rollercoasters, this is definitely the place to tempt them – after trying out The Dragon, Minnie insisted we went straight back to queue up and try it again.

The water rides in Pirate Land were a hit (although she was a bit more nervous about the drop in the Viking River Splash in Adventure Land), loved shooting the lights inside the Temple, panned for gold in Legoredo Town and spotted penguins in Polar Land.

There is an app to download so you can plan your day, check live ride times and get extra tips. We managed quite happily with a paper map if you don’t have it.

You can also get Q-Bots to skip the queues at Legoland but we certainly wouldn’t have needed one.

The end of August is term-time for Danish schools, and we never had to wait more than five or 10 minutes for anything – even in holiday time, I’ve heard it’s quieter than Legoland Windsor.

The park is closed on some weekdays outside the main summer season, as well as during parts of the winter months, so it’s worth checking before you visit.

Not all the restaurants will be open outside peak months as well, even in late August: you can take picnics and if we went back, I’d definitely do that – our pizza buffet was fairly standard theme park fare, and not the cheapest option.

Jutland itinerary: Day 3 – The Lego House, Billund and Givskud Zoo

Legoland might be the famous name but the Lego House, where you go to get your own hands on the bricks, was one of my own favourites.

Opened in 2017, the building – designed to look like piled up bricks itself, with a few huge colourful ones near the entrance – has a museum on the history of the brand downstairs.

But the rest is entirely dedicated to getting creative: no-one sits out here, there are staff to help, inspire and encourage all ages to pick up a few bricks. There’s also an app with more ideas, although you won’t be short of inspiration as you wander.

My husband and daughter followed the instructions to build one Lego craft and test if it could fly, while I played around with a heap of Lego designing my own.

In another area, you could make a Lego fish and scan it to appear digitally in an onscreen aquarium, design your own creature or try your hand at a stop motion video.

There are intricate models too, making up an entire Lego world – including quite a few scenes from movies, including (rather fabulously) the set-up from Back to the Future – as well as the chance to add squares to a town and garden simulation, with your own creation changing life for the digital inhabitants.

And at each point, you can scan your wristband to save information, videos, photos and more so you’ve got a souvenir record.

Even lunch has a Lego link: in the MiniChef restaurant, you use specific bricks from the bags on the table to choose your order which you then scan and after a rather fun video of Lego people preparing your meal, is delivered by conveyor to a pair of robots (Robert and Roberta) nearby in a box that looks like an oversized brick.

As you wait to collect your food there’s Lego to play with: staff suggested a couple of ideas for games until we got sidetracked trying to build the tallest tower. Along the way, the table next to us, which had been having their own family building competition, donated a small pyramid.

The final oversize Lego behemoth ended up on display in the restaurant. This is a world where adults (and one small girl) spending half an hour constructing a gigantic tower is both perfectly normal and worthy of recognition.

I could quite easily have stayed all day… and if you have time, I recommend giving yourself plenty here.

But there were spectacled bears waiting for us, so having watched a machine making the Lego bricks and picking up our own free souvenir, we headed off to Givskud Zoo.

The zoo, around a 20-minute drive away from the other Billund attractions is a lovely combination of safari park and walk-around enclosures – and the four spectacled bears from South America are the newest additions, helping celebrate the zoo’s 50th birthday.

Their home has so much space, the zoo is hoping to add a few more furry inhabitants to the sleuth.

The inspiration for Paddington, and the only bears that live in South America (including darkest Peru), I discovered that they’re rather bigger than their fictional counterpart, prowling and padding past pools and through the undergrowth of their home, occasionally menacing a (cleverly protected) tree or two.

That was only the start – there are lions (two prides, one on the safari route, the other on the walking route plus a pair of brothers) along with giraffe, elephants, rhinos, gorillas, giant otters, lemurs and countless other animals. There’s even a guinea pig collection!

If you don’t have your own car, a safari bus runs at certain times around the route, while if you’ve got a hire car you can park at various points along the way to break up the safari section. A really nice way to do it with kids, so everyone can stretch their legs without getting savaged.

There’s also a CD to listen to – unless your husband upgrades the hire car and gets one without a CD player, of course! You can also download the app which has details of activities, as well as times for safari buses, restaurants and shops plus a map.

Between the animals, there are also a couple of themed areas – an Ice Age world and a fabulous collection of dinosaur models, imposingly life size and towering above us among the trees… and the signs asking visitors not to feed the dinosaurs.

Minnie was in her element here – it’s a tricky decision whether animals or Lego top her list of favourite things, so a day which combines both is hard to beat. Although (again) if you have longer to spend, it’s easy to fill a whole day exploring and wandering here.

Stay at: Lalandia Billund

This holiday park, a Lego brick’s throw from Legoland is a lovely place for families to relax – set in lots of green space with little playgrounds and jumping pillows, the holiday cottages sleep up to 10 (or 8 if your kids are over two).

They’re self-catering and there’s a supermarket with a good selection on the site (or a couple of other bigger ones within a few minutes’ drive) plus a lovely patio to sit out on, as well as dining and living space, a proper kitchen, bathroom with shower, not to mention a washing machine and drier.

One thing to note is that as well as hiring bedlinen/towels (unless you bring your own), you also have to pay for electricity and water. Anyone staying also gets free entry to Scandinavia’s largest waterpark, which we checked out the following day.

Read my full review of Lalandia Billund here

Jutland itinerary: Day 4 – Lalandia, Billund

You want at least a day to explore Lalandia – our big focus was on checking out the Aquadome and relaxing, but there’s so much to do here that you could happily spend several days exploring.

And as well as the waterpark, there’s a soft play for younger kids with added activities, plus bowling, an ice rink, arcade, climbing walls, mini dry ski slope, sports, mini golf and a high ropes course as well.

The majority is tucked away inside the main Lalandia building – as you go through the revolving door, you’d never expect to see this mini piazza inside with its restaurants and cafes, plus all the activities and facilities as well.

From skiing slopes and climbing walls to a bowling centre, ice rinks, sport halls, and a Monky Tonky Playland, Lalandia offers much more than its famed waterpark.

A lot of the activities do have an extra charge, even if you’re staying on site as we were – you can charge money to your wristband and pay that way though.

We also discovered an outdoor mini golf just between Lalandia and the Legoland Holiday village – this is definitely more in the crazy golf style than the one inside Lalandia which looked more like an indoor golf course in miniature.

And despite a few hilariously impossible holes, we had a lot of fun. There’s an honesty system if no-one is manning the ticket booth (with a warning of fines if you play without paying and get caught) and you can pay in both krone and Euros.

But the Aquadome is the highlight. For starters, there’s a wave pool and lazy river.

My daughter and a few other kids didn’t get the hang of the lazy bit and decided they wanted to swim around in the current… I reclined very happily in my blow-up tyre and let them.

There are also smaller slides and a few shallow pools for kids, plus a gigantic splash zone – watch out for the warning alert siren here too… they really mean it, and if you’re not under cover, you’ll get deluged.

Then plenty of faster slides as well – quite a few are for 120cm or over, which meant Minnie was just too small (to her relief) but quite a few of those are for two people or more.

Which unfortunately meant that neither my husband nor I could try them, as we couldn’t leave our seven-year-old on her own but couldn’t slide alone either.

Despite that, there were enough fun flumes featuring more than enough chances to be accidentally submerged along the way, plus an outdoor Jacuzzi which I retreated to at one point. If your wristband is charged, you can also use it to pay for drinks inside (as well as to lock the lockers).

As someone who enjoys waterparks but can’t imagine spending all day there, staying at Lalandia is a big bonus as you can pop in for an hour or two every day if you wanted, rather than paying upfront and spending the entire day there.

Parking is free for the first hour – or you can leave your car by your holiday cottage if you’re staying and walk or get the land train.

If you have longer than a week in Denmark, add an extra day staying at Lalandia in order to spend a full day at the zoo and a full day at the Lego House (as above), or add an extra two – or more! – days for a more chilled-out break enjoying the facilities. Check out my review of a stay at Lalandia Billund.

Jutland itinerary: Day 5 – Kongernes Jelling and Koldinghus to Ribe

It’s easy to spend a whole week in Jutland with kids around Billund – from the Lego to the zoo to Lalandia’s family attractions, you won’t quickly get bored.

But that really is only scratching the surface of what there is to do in this part of Denmark, with royal history, the country’s oldest city and its official birthplace to discover.

Only 30 minutes away is Kongernes Jelling, with one of the best interactive museums I’ve come across for kids (and adults) plus some fascinating Danish history – and great if you’re looking for free things to do with kids in Denmark.

The inspiration is two ancient rune stones, which still sit outside (now in glass cases) next to the museum itself.

One contains the first mention of the name Denmark, created during the 10th century reign of the first Danish king, Gorm the Old (my daughter, a big fan of the How To Train Your Dragon books was delighted by his name!).

The second was created for his son Harald Bluetooth (yes, the name behind the phone technology) who helped unify the tribes in the area.

It’s best to explore the museum itself first, where the staff solemnly told my seven-year-old that she could touch any of the exhibits… with one exception.

Anything marked orange wasn’t optional, she absolutely had to touch it, to bring the exhibits to life.

Her face lit up as she scampered off, determined to fulfil those instructions (not even slowing down to savour the fact a robot was drawing in chalk behind the welcome desk).

There’s a fantastic mix of information, with recordings telling more about Norse mythology as well as the chance to virtually walk the path to Valhalla.

We also got to discover more about everyday Viking life. Despite the pillaging and plundering reputation (a well-earned one, let’s be fair), the Vikings were also farmers, traders and town-builders.

But because sailing out and striking terror into the hearts of your enemies was a fairly major part, there was also an exhibit showing the various weapons you might like to use, how lethal they were and how fast you might kill off an opponent with them.

After gazing down from the roof onto two burial mounds flanking a small church and the famous rune stones, we headed down to see them close up, as well as the white flagstones marking the outline of where a ship was once buried.

For some great books on Vikings for kids, check out this post

Then more chance to get hands on at Koldinghus castle, over 750 years old and a 40 minute drive away.

The former royal residence in Jutland was partly destroyed in a fire in 1808, and is still being restored, with structural supports that are done cleverly enough to be almost a design feature in themselves.

It now houses collections of silverware, ceramics and historical artefacts, as well as temporary exhibitions.

Easily my daughter’s favourite part was the chance to dress up in 17th century costume, the height of royal style from 1610, right down to gloves and tiara.

She took this very seriously, hunting out the finishing touches for my outfit – I’m rather glad ruffs have since gone out of fashion! – and picking out two separate ones for herself.

I had to remind her not everything else was quite as touchable as Kongernes Jelling, although there is an activity trail called In the Footsteps of the King to try, as well as a viewing tower to look down on the pretty town, a courtyard where they were setting up for a medieval banquet and some fascinating exhibits.

One British-made gilded silver dressing set has passed from London to Denmark and Germany, to the USA and back to Denmark, linked to a royal scandal before falling into the hands of the Nazis along the way.

Its first owner, Caroline Mathilde was the granddaughter of George II, married off to the mentally unstable Danish king Christian VII – accused of an affair, she was later divorced and banished.

Our final stop was Ribe, Denmark’s oldest town and a ridiculously picturesque spot which dates back around 1,250 years.

Once home to a tenth of the country’s population, a lot of the buildings date from the 1500s – the imposing cathedral and a few others are older but after fire, flood and plague, many were destroyed and the town rebuilt in the 16th century.

At the same time, Ribe started to become a less important centre: happily for visitors today, as those historic and often crooked beamed houses weren’t later demolished to make room for modern replacements.

Arriving not long before my daughter’s bedtime, I took the opportunity to explore a little on our first night by taking the free Night Watchman’s tour.

The post itself is almost as ancient as the town, going back centuries as they kept the peace and warned of floods.

The official duties ended in 1902 but during the 45-minute walk around Ribe’s cobbled streets, the Night Watchman revealed some of the history of the role as well as points of interest: Scandinavia’s oldest school for example, the City Hall, and one building so wonky, there seemed to be barely a straight line in it.

Done in Danish and English, there were kids on the tour too, plus you hear a few snatches of the Night Watchman’s song along the way.

Stay at: Ribe Byferie resort

We checked in to the Danhostel Ribe, just a few minutes walk from the city centre – and if you’re looking for a relatively budget option, it’s worth considering.

However, if there had been availability, I’d recommend the Ribe Byferie resort, a similar distance from the city centre on the opposite side, with self-catering holiday homes that are perfect for families.

Nichola from the blog Globalmouse and her family stayed there in 2018 – check out her review.

Jutland itinerary: Day 6 – Ribe to Tirpitz and Esbjerg

Spend a little longer exploring Ribe itself, including a look inside the cathedral – if you have time, you can also climb the tower – as well as the waterwheels, waterfront houses and ornate doors among the colourful old buildings.

But set aside some time to head over to the coast as well. Wild and windswept, the dunes line the seafront, hiding their own more recent history.

At the Tirpitz museum, you can step inside a Second World War bunker, built during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. Designed to be part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall defences, it was never actually operational.

Atmospheric and occasionally eerie, I’d wondered how this darker period of history would work with a seven-year-old, but there’s actually far more to discover than just the wartime years.

And if you’re thinking that a concrete bunker doesn’t sound wildly exciting, as with the other Danish museums we’d visited, they’ve used every option to bring it to life, inside a state-of-the-art building tucked under the grass.

Along with stories from the occupation told by those on both sides, the museum also tracks the history of the Jutland coast, from its ancient people to Viking times, from traditional fishing village to seaside holiday destination.

There’s a whole area dedicated to ‘Baltic gold’ as amber was known, complete with insects frozen inside pieces of amber.

The audio guides are cleverly done, so you can simply point them at a sign and listen (or skip past areas you’re not interested in) as well as sensory boxes in one area – touching ‘mammoth fur’ was a bit of a surprise.

Hang around that gallery and you’ll also see the whole room transformed as a storm sweeps across the walls.

Then into the concrete bunker to learn more about the plans for it, as well as the day to day life of those based here: one news story showed a former German soldier returning for the museum’s opening, a thought-provoking mix of difficult memories and the banality of rediscovering everyday items.

After a quick walk on the dunes, head towards Esbjerg for lunch – Tirpitz is around an hour from Ribe, Esbjerg approximately half-way between the two.

Among the rich Jutland farmland, stretching out flat towards the horizon, wind farms dotted along the coast, you can also spot the imposing Man meets the Sea sculptures.

Just outside Esbjerg itself, the four huge white statues of seated men tower above the waves.

Our visit to the city, a taste of more modern Denmark, had ended up being on a slightly rainy Sunday so with a lot of places closed, we only stopped briefly to refuel but if you have longer (or better weather), save some time to explore.

There’s also the The Fisheries and Maritime Museum nearby, with an aquarium and ‘sealarium’ alongside the exhibitions on Denmark’s fishing and shipping history. Or for more animals, Blavand Zoo is also nearby.

Jutland itinerary: Day 7 – Ribe Vikingecenter and back to Billund

How to end your week in Jutland with kids? With more Vikings, of course. A visit to the Ribe Vikingecenter, just outside the city, was a fantastic way to step back in time and bring Viking life to life!

Based on three authentic archaeological sites from the area, you can discover a farm, town with a recreation of an early church and marketplace where people would have travelled by water to trade – in the summer there are still craftspeople selling their own creations.

We did manage to squeeze in a small sword fight and practised some archery, but also stamped a silver coin, watched glass beads being made, ground flour and tried wood carving (using special activity tokens), as well as looking inside houses large and small.

There’s a sacred bog to explore and you can check out the church, in the process of being painted.

We watched the weaver making his dyes, a Viking woman twining onions to hang for the winter, and eyed up Viking-style beds before trying to coax sparks from fire stones.

At each spot, there are volunteers (and some staff) in character to chat to – many actually live on site during the summer, sticking to a Viking way of life as far as possible.

The animals on the farm are breeds which would have been similar to those of a millennium ago, even the food on the tables (although less strictly in the cafe!) is what people of the time would have eaten. Without a time machine, it’s hard to think how much more authentic it could be.

My daughter also made herself comfortable in every chief’s chair that she could find, looking mildly imperious. Actually make that very imperious.

And that’s where our own week in Jutland had to end – tempting though it was to head south towards the German border, around an hour away. But with our flight leaving from Billund later that day, it was time to return north.

We decided to take the scenic route back to the airport, along Jutland’s west coast, having spotted the Ringkobing Fjord on the map during our visit to Tirpitz, a thin strip of land between the water and the sea.

More of an inland lake than dramatic scenery like Norwegian fjords, it was still a very pretty route.

Wind surfers and kitesurfers were making the most of the last of the late summer sun, and I spied isolated cottages and more clusters of holiday accommodation to fire my imagination for another trip.

Despite cramming a lot into a week, it felt that nowhere was ever very far from anywhere else, and all so family-friendly that it was fun rather than frantic.

Not venturing beyond Legoland, when you can see so much coast and history in a few extra days, would be missing out.

If you have longer to spend, pretty Vejle on the eastern coast is known for its art – including a floating sculpture trail.

Or former capital of culture Aarhus is Denmark’s second city and a tempting option for a city break in its own right, especially if you’ve already visited Copenhagen, with history buildings and modern architecture on the cobbled streets.

For ideas of things to do in Aarhus with kids, check out these tips from Museum Mum. 

Check out my complete guide to Denmark with kids here

PIN FOR LATER: ONE WEEK IN JUTLAND WITH KIDS

Disclosure: My trip to Jutland was courtesy of Visit Denmark and the attractions and accommodation mentioned. All opinions are my own, including a love of clever interactive museums and being allowed to play with Lego for hours on end.

Images copyright MummyTravels

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