Welcome to my home town Copenhagen or København!
It is the capital of Denmark and I love it! It doesn't always provide nice weather but it always offers something to do.
If you havn't been to Copenhagen and Denmark before I suggest you come for a visit between May and August. These are the warmest months and have the best weather. When I say warm I mean between 16 and 32° Celcius! So bring both your sunglasses and your raincoat!
Sightseeing
If you just have a couple of days you might want to try the sightseeing buses. I haven't tried them myself but I have heard that they are expensive. Instead, I suggest to go down to Nyhavn and catch a sightseeing boat. The journey takes an hour and shows you a bit of Copenhagen. Netto-bådene they are the cheapest by the way and just as good as the rest!
Visit the tourist information center close to Tivoli and Hard Rock Café. They will provide you with any information you need. Take a free map and go sightseeing by yourself.
Irene's Copenhagen Tour
Start on Østerbro at the Little Mermaid (It's very little so don't be disappointed). If the sun is shining you have to by an icecream here!
Walk by the water down to Amalienborg, the Queens castle. I think you can see the guards change at 14:00 every afternoon, but ask the tourist information to be sure.
Continue down to Nyhavn. During summer it's packed with people. Try a sightseeing boat and rest your legs. Do the whole one hour sightseeing tour and then ask to stay on board and jump off on Christianshavn. If you get off where you started, then continue to Amager over bridge. In the summer you can hire row boats on Christianshavn and have a bit of a laugh! The reason why I think you should continue all the way to Amager is to see Cristiania.
Cristiania is a type of different sightseeing. It's an area of Copenhagen hard to describe but worth a look. I guess you can call it an alternative community. About 30 years ago some hippies decided to take over an old military base and live there. You can still see hippies, but also all sorts of people, kids, dogs you name it.
Cristiania is famous for 2 things, a free place without too much government interference and for soft drugs. For 30 years Cristiania has been fighting with the police and the government, mostly because they are not allowed to be there and because they don't pay tax on Cristiania.
But it's an interesting place, have a walk around, look at the houses and people, catch a concert at night.
And just for the record, drugs are not legal in Denmark!!!
What to do in Summer
The Beach
Copenhagen is best in summer. Take bus number 12 or 13 to the beach on Amager or bus number 6 to the beach next to Charlottenlund Fort. If the weather is good, it will be packed with people but they are the only beaches around!
Outdoor Concerts and Movies
During summer there will be heaps of music festivals all over Denmark. The 2 biggest are Roskilde and Midtfyn. Roskilde is 30 kilometers from Copenhagen and usually the first weekend of july. You need to book tickets in advange for this 4 day-long festival which is HUGE! People come from all over Europe to enjoy the music from the 6-7 stages.
Maybe this page can help with tickets:
www.roskilde-festival.dk
The outdoor Free Film festival is another great thing. Bring a warm sweater, a blanket and a bottle of red wine and ask the tourist information where and when the next "Free Film" is.
Copenhagen has some good parks to have picnic in. Try one or more of these:
Frederiksberg Have, Fælledparken (Østerbro)
Dyrehaven next to Bakken (Klampenborg north of Copenhagen)
Assistens Kirkegården (Nørrebro).
What to do in Winter
December is a beautiful month to arrive in. It will be cold - around 0° Celcius, but beautifully decorated for Christmas.
Tivoli Garden is usually open doing December and has a big market with all sorts of things and ideas for Christmas presents and some of the rides might be open.
Forget about skiing, Denmark is way too flat. However, a fun thing to do is ice skating. At the end of Strøget in front of the Royal Theater there is an ice skating place. It's free and you can rent ice skates there. The same goes for the ice skating place close to Kellerdirk (bus 28 from the city) in Frederiksberg. Both places are artificially frozen, if its really cold you can also skate on the lakes between the city and Nørrebro, but you must have your own skates.
I hope that all this can help you to enjoy Copenhagen. If you have plenty of time then I suggest you explore it on your own. Most Danes speak English so you should not have a problem communicating with the locals.
Have fun in "Wonderful Copenhagen"
General Info
Countrycode: 45
Currency: Danish kroner
Language: Danish
Geography
Click here to see all of Copenhagen's distinct areas.
Useful web sites
www.aok.dk
(in Danish)
www.aok.dk/Copenhagen/
Visiting_Copenhagen
(in English)
www.woco.dk
(in English)
Accommodation
Need a place to stay???
Well this is the city I live in so I don't know any of the hostels, but if you are on a budget you might want to check out this web page:
www.aok.dk/Copenhagen
/Turist/Vandrehjem
I think you have to be prepared to pay from 80 dkk and up for a place to sleep.
Transport
Click here to learn more about how to get around Copenhagen.
Eating Out
I bet you can find all sorts of restaurants, African, Italian, Mongolian,
fastfood - You name it.
If you want to try traditional Danish food and you're not too fond of the Red Danish Sausage, there are a lot of restaurants.
I don't know any of the Danish restaurants because if I want great traditional Danish food I visit my grandmother.
Since I cannot list her here, I suggest Restaurant "Gråbrøder Torv 21" in the City or "M.G. Petersens familie Have" in Frederiksberg.
I am vegetarian and can highly recommend Cascabel in Store Kongensgade 80 and Den grønne kælder in Pilestræde 48, both located in Københagen K.
But check out this link and you can find anything you like:
www.aok.dk/Copenhagen/
Restauranter
Out and About
Click here to find out where to go for cafes, bars and dancing in Copenhagen.
Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Europe Insiders page.
