A very safe city with plenty of cultural things to do.
Main Tips
- Ride the metro from the airport to the city and back, it is much cheaper than a taxi, even for four people.
- Despite it being a very walkable city, I would suggest to rent a bike (usually hotels have some) to get around. It will speed up your travel and you will be able to fit in more activities. This city is often ranked highly for bike-friendliness, experiencing this should be part of your trip.
- The cost of goods and services here are approximately 1.5x that of London – so save beforehand.
Activities
The Home of Carlsberg
I experienced both the ‘Exhibition’ and ‘Exploring Carlsberg’ Tour. The former is a self-guided interior tour which sequentially takes you through various rooms about the history of Carlsberg. Most rooms had a large screen where videos of actors portraying the founders of the company are played – it really complemented the exhibits which would have otherwise be sparse. You also get a free glass of Carlsberg at the end!
The ‘Exploring Carlsberg’ tour is a 60-min walking employee-guided tour around the grounds of the Carlsberg area. The tour-guide explanation delved deeper into the personalities of the main people of Carlsberg and offered the opportunity to ask questions. During my tour, there were a couple of Danish men who grilled the tour guide which made things interesting. One of the interesting things I learnt is that Carlsberg used the swastika as a symbol on many things (their statues and even bottle labels) prior to the desecration by the Nazis.
War Museum
If you do not like museums, I am unsure that you would like the war museum. It would be a bit boring for the normal folk.
However, if you are a museum fan then you would enjoy it here, the first floor has countless model wooden ships (around the size of a human) and takes you through the Danish war history including weapons and different uniforms. It also had an interesting exhibit of Afghanistan and the less-known contribution of Danish forces there.
Hop on Hop off Bus Tour
I think this is something you should do in any city you visit. It makes sure that you do not miss anything and can be used as transport to the main attractions. Red sightseeing operate in this city which also has an app to track the busses, so I would recommend it. For only £5 extra I went on a boat tour operated by a sister company which took me on a lovely cruise of the canals.
Swim in the River
Swimming in the river is a normal thing to do in Copenhagen for the locals, and if you are lucky enough to have a hotel on the riverside, you won’t have to go very far to get back to the warmth!
Walking by the river there are numerous public places where you are free to swim, even the hotel ones are not restricted to only hotel guests. There are usually posts with a green or red sign that indicates the water quality.
Despite it being around 10 degrees ambient, I could see numerous people enjoying the cold water, I may have even got an eye full!
Places of Interest
The Little Mermaid
This famous statue is situated quite north of the Copenhagen river. I would recommend to get here by bus – since it is quite a distance away from other attractions. There are other sculptures in the same area within the 2 minute walk of each other.
Danish Houses of Parliament
This building has a ruins section and viewing of reception rooms, although when we walked by we discovered that is is closed on Mondays.
Frederiksberg Palace
This palace has beautiful surroundings with perfect spots for picturesque photos. The landscaped gardens also feature an artificial river. There is also a zoo or a palace tour if you’re into that. You could spend countless hours here, maybe less on a bike.
Copenhagen City Hall
This magnificent building also offers tours. The square where this is situated is very large and the surrounding shops are include worldwide well-known brands (KFC, hard rock café, McDonalds etc). Close by is Tivoli gardens – one of the oldest theme parks in the world.
Dantes Plads
This sculpture was built by the locals as a sign of opposition to the government that planned on building a car park there. This is best viewed at night as it is the stuff of nightmares! Across the road is the Carlsberg Glyptotek, and adjacent is the restaurant ‘Karla’ which is very authentic.
Food
The famous cuisine here is ‘smorgasbord’ which are open sandwiches with many toppings on. I liken it to sushi on bread as many toppings include fish. NOTE: these are only available in the lunch menu of all restaurants (12 – 5pm).
The most common toppings included breaded plaice, shrimp (with boiled eggs), salmon (with cream cheese), marinated herring (with salad) and beef slices. They vary in price from restaurant to restaurant from around £8 to £20 a sandwich. The bread they use for the base is a dense rye seeded bread, which does fill you up but is still expensive.
Other than smorgasbord, like in the restaurant ‘Karla’, you will find traditional ‘homely’ dishes like schnitzel, plaice, pork etc all with potatoes and vegetables. Although I had trouble finding these sorts of places, as most restaurants weren’t of domestic cuisine or smorgasbord.
Breakfast here included a plethora of Danish pastries. There are many coffee houses and bakeries about so these are not hard to find.
Copenhagen in General
Compared to other countries, Denmark is ranked highly on the level of English spoken in the world. Thus, communicating was not an issue, and pretty much every sign or notice with writing had the Danish and English language.
Unlike other cities where I took my lovely night photos, Copenhagen was not at night which prevented me from getting a nice night shot on the river. Nonetheless, streets are lit up sufficiently.
The people are very friendly and want to help. Despite being tourists, no response to ‘Excuse me’ was met with a sour face.
Safe safe safe! I would not feel unsafe walking in this city at night. There did not seem to be any suspicious activity going on such as groups of youths in hoods, and I only ever experienced one whiff of marijuana (close to the hotel) in my entire trip. When compared to London at night, it is a completely different place. I only saw one or two bikes out of the thousands parked up that had locks on them, and even then they were locked to their own frame. I did not encounter any homeless person (since I hear there are many shelters) and no beggars.