After a trip to Amsterdam, my fiance and I spent three days in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is a city neither of us had visited but were super excited to explore. After a quick one-hour flight with Norwegian Air, we landed in Copenhagen late in the evening.
Read on for the ultimate Copenhagen, Denmark travel guide, including what to eat, see, explore and do.
Day 1:
Breakfast at The Coffee Collective: Grab coffee and pastries or other breakfast item at this Copenhagen chain, which is super cozy and serves up great food and drinks. There are several around the city to choose from.
Rent Bikes: Like Amsterdam, Copenhagen is a city made for bikers. After we checked into SP34 Hotel (more on that in a separate post), we rented bikes from the hotel for the entirety of our stay. It allowed us to get around quickly, cheaply and see so much more of the city than if we had taken cabs. (To get from the airport, we took their rail which was pretty easy since cabs are very expensive. It is just under the airport.)
Nyvahn Harbor: When you picture Copenhagen, chances are that the scene that comes to mind are the colorful shops along the Nyvahn Harbor. This 17th-century waterfront houses boats, sailboats and is home to brightly colored restaurants, bars and shops. This is a great spot to get some photos, grab a coffee and get acquainted with the city. It is also the best spot for some quintessential Copenhagen Instagrams.
Little Mermaid Statue: From the harbor, we rode our bikes to find the famous “Little Mermaid” statue. Copenhagen was home to fairytale author Hans Christian Andersen, so tributes to the writer and his works can be found all over the city. The statue is one of the most visited attractions in Copenhagen, but in all reality, it isn’t that impressive. It’s worth the obligatory picture, and then get back on your bikes for some real exploring. Nearby is a great park to ride your bike through called Churchillparken, if you want to see some beautiful scenes.
Walk Down Stroget Street: Next, head to Stroget Street, Copenhagen’s high street where you can find high-end shops such as Chanel, Gucci, etc. This a great place to check out Copenhagen’s retail scene and do some shopping.
Lunch at Royal Smushi Cafe: In the middle of Stroget Square is Royal Smushi, a delightful cafe and restaurant that had been Michelin-ranked. I fell in love with everything about this restaurant, from its charming cobblestone-courtyard where you can eat, to the Vogue magazines they provide while you wait for your meal, to the warm blankets on the back of the chair if you want to get your hygge on.
The inside of the restaurant is just amazing, and everything I think I would want a restaurant to look like if I had owned one of own. It is different shades of pink, with chic items for sale, making it part retail. The counter has cakestands topped with the most delicious looking cakes fit for a tea party in Wonderland.
Now, onto the food. We went for lunch, and they had a beautiful selection of smorrebrod, which is an open-faced sandwich that Copenhagen is known for. This would be the first of very many smorrebrods throughout the trip. They suggest two to three smorrebrod each, so my fiance ordered the beef brisket with horseradish one, smoked salmon with egg yolks, roe and chives and roast pork with crackling, sweet potato and parsley. I can’t stress how beautiful these sandwiches were. Each was very colorful and elaborate and looked like little works of art.
I opted for the special of the day, which was a quiche with veggies and a salad. We both had amazing coffees and glasses of Pinot Noir to toast our first full day in Copenhagen.
While we were pretty full by the end of the meal, our minds kept wandering back to their cake selection, so we had a pistachio layer cake with white chocolate icing drizzled with nuts to share before heading back to sightseeing.
Assistens Cemetery: I know you’re thinking it’s a bit morbid to suggest that you visit a cemetery, but hear me out. This cemetery is more like Central Park than a gloomy place to bury the deceased.
This historic cemetery is visually stunning and perfect for a walk or bike ride. It is lined by tall trees and in the summer, people lay out to sunbathe. Many famous Danes, including Hans Christian Andersen, are buried here, so you can visit their grave sites while in the cemetery.
Meyers Madhus Cooking School: One of the most memorable parts of the trip was a cooking class we took at Meyers Madhus, which is just a few minutes from Assistens Cemetery. This cooking school was started by Claus Meyer, one of the original founders of Noma, which is ranked the world’s top restaurant right now. We signed up for a fish cooking class, since it is the ingredient I am least confident cooking, and over the course of the 5-hour class, we learned SO much.
We arrived at the cooking school and were greeted with glasses of prosecco before the class started. Once it did (it was entirely in Danish, but we were able to follow along nada ask questions in English) we watched a demonstration of the chef butchering and cooking a fluke fish two ways before we were given flukes of our own to experiment on. We dutifully took the fish back to our stations and fileted, deskinned and followed as many of the directions as we could retain from the chef’s trial.
We then battered one set of filets and cooked the other in a sauce. Next, we went back to the table to learn the next fish. Over the course of the night, the fish became harder. We cooked cod, octopus (having to remove the squid ink) and two other fish, totalling five in five hours. We then feasted at a table with nice wines and sides prepared by the chefs before having dessert.
We loved that the class was equal parts informative, hands on and also very communal. I know we would have enjoyed it even more had it been in English, but that really wasn’t too much of an obstacle.
Day 2:
Freetown Christiania: We got up early and took our bikes to a part of town called Freetown, which is basically a hippie commune that is self governed and does not identify with Europe or the rest of Denmark. This area doesn’t allow any cars, and has spray paint everywhere and homes in different sorts of disarray. The area was inhabited in 1971 by hippies who took over abandoned military barracks and has operated in this way ever since.
Even with the graffiti and drug dealing, it felt pretty safe and opened my eyes up to a different part of Copenhagen. There are restaurants and bars if you want to stay longer, but we kept our trip to a half-hour bike ride through the neighborhood.
Breakfast at 108: We rode our bikes along the water to have breakfast at Restaurant 108. This cozy restaurant and bar opens early for breakfast, so we sat at their beautiful wood bar and ordered coffees and yogurt with fresh granola and berry compote as well as some sausage and eggs for my fiance. It was great and casual, and provided enough food until lunch.
Hey Captain Canal Cruise: You can’t explore Copenhagen without getting out to sea. So, we scheduled a canal tour with Hey Captain, a hip canal tour company known for embracing hygge. The boats have blankets for each passenger and they serve champagne and wine as you cruise the water at a leisurely pace learning about the history of Copenhagen. We got some really nice photos and got to interact with other tourists, exchanging travel tips. It was a great way to get more acquainted with Copenhagen.
Lunch at Kompasset: By the tour the time ended, it was time for lunch. We went back to Nyvahn Harbor for lunch at a beautifully hygge restaurant called Kompasset.
We opted to sit outside and face the harbor, its ships and brightly colored buildings, but the inside of this restaurant is so beautiful. You really can’t go wrong whether you sit inside or outside.
We ordered two glasses of red wine and then looked at their menu which featured lot of gourmet smorrebrod. For lunch, we had two smorrebrod each, and they were very sizeable. We had the following to share: beer-braised pig shank with kimchi mayo and pork crackling; chicken in herb cream with mushrooms; grilled flat iron steak with bearnaise and caramelized onions (my favorite one!) and beef tartare with wasabi aoli.
These smorrebrod were super flavorful and hearty and warmed us up on a brisk day in Copenhagen on the water. The waitress also picked a beautiful wine to accompany what we ordered, which was much appreciated.
Tivoli Gardens: You cannot go to Copenhagen without visiting their absolutely charming amusement park, Tivoli Gardens. Founded in 1843, Tivoli is what was Walt Disney’s inspiration for Disney World. But, having visited, it is so much more elegant and charming that the American amusement park experience that I can’t even compare the two.
The park has beautiful rides, many wooden including Europe’s oldest roller coaster, as well as great places for food and drink. We went in October, so it was all decorated for Halloween, and was just visually stunning. They even had a haunted house we went through. (We are told Christmas at Tivoli is just as beautiful).
We rode a number of rides a the park and loved it so much that we even decided to come back in the dark after dinner with friends. Tivoli is known for its light display, which is worth seeing all lit up, and it also has fireworks shows each night. It was a delightful experience all around and a part of the trip I know both of us will cherish.
Inderhavens Broens Gadekokken: For dinner, we met friends from Copenhagen at an outdoor foodhall that had a great selection of foods (and bars) to eat at communal tables on the water. I opted for a Mexican burrito bowl and my fiance had Korean ribs while we all sipped wines and causally caught up about our days. They also had a burger spot, a healthy food spot, a place with soups, etc. Apparently the vendors change out pretty frequently.
Cocktails at Lidkoeb: After the park, we headed to Lidkoed, a great bar with stiff cocktails and bartenders who aim to please. The inside of the bar was very Scandinavian in design. Think blonde woods, cozy fireplaces and fur throws. It was the perfect place to unwind over drinks and recap a rather eventful day.
I had a vodka drink with lime, apple and dill, while my fiance had whiskey-based drinks that the bartender concocted specifically for him based on his preferences. Both were delicious! Fun note: Lidkoeb has also been voted one of the world’s best bars!
Day 3:
Breakfast at Torvehallerne Food Hall: We had an afternoon flight out, but wanted to do a few last things before headed to the airport. We stopped first thing in the morning at this great food hall (Good job, Scandinavia on all of your food halls!).
This food hall had great eateries and coffee shops, as well as an outside area where the most beautiful plants and flowers were on sale. There was even a separate building with gourmet meats, cheeses and other ingredients to cook with.
Statens Museum for Kunst: We visited this Danish Museum which houses rotating exhibits as well as a great wing dedicated to Danish classic paintings and is considered Denmark’s national gallery.
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