If you watched season two of The Bear on Hulu, then you probably have some wanderlust over Copenhagen like we did. It’s super doable as a long weekender and we loved every minute of it.
Day 1:
First, hop on the Metro from the airport and check in to The Huxley. We loved how easy the Metro is. It comes every 5 minutes, it’s safe, clean and easy to navigate. It took us to our hotel’s stop (Kongens Nytorv) in 15 minutes and the walk from the station is only two blocks. There aren’t many cars in Copenhagen, which means not many taxis, so the Metro, cycling and walking are the way to navigate this city. We loved the location of this hotel because it is in a quieter part of the city but walking distance to Nyhavn! The hotel was clean, the room was quite big for a European hotel and they have a continental breakfast every morning for a small fee. They also have bikes you can borrow for the day. The staff was really friendly and helpful. We emailed them in advance to let them know our flight was landing early in the morning and we would love an early check-in. Although they told us it wasn’t guaranteed, they were able to accommodate it and we got our room at check-in. We had a great experience! If you have the same luck with a ready room, definitely take a power nap like we did and then freshen up and get ready to hit Nyhavn.
Nyhavn is a quick and scenic walk along the canal from the hotel and it is gorgeous. A total must-do! It is exactly what you picture when you think of Copenhagen with all the colorful buildings on the water. We stopped for lunch at one of the many restaurants along that strip (there are also restaurants/bars on boats which was so cool to see) and then walked around and explored. We took the canal cruise which is a 60 minute boat ride around the canal. It was really informative and amazing to see all the buildings from the water. They give everyone a headset to plug in so you can select your language and follow along with the audio which was great. We also walked to the famous Little Mermaid statue based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairytale and explored the cobble stone streets, shops and beautiful churches in this area. John tried the famous frankfurters from the street carts and raved about them. We ended our day with some appetizers and drinks at the Broens Street Food area, which is a fun area with all different food and drink stands set up from renowned restaurants and chefs. I will say as someone who doesn’t really eat meat, this was a hard city to find good vegetarian options but John was loving everything. Then, we walked back over to Nyhavn to enjoy the view again from one of their restaurants for dinner.
Day 2:
Explore Sweden! One of the things I love most about Europe is how easy it is to hop around to different countries. Sweden is easily accessible from Copenhagen by ferry, train or car so obviously we had to add in a visit on this trip! We did a great tour that you can book here (full transparency if you book through this link, I will get a commission but I only post recommendations that we really loved and recommend!). Our tour guide, Per, was great and they gave us headphones so we could follow along in our own languages. We really learned a lot on this tour so if you love History like I do, you will enjoy it. The tour took us to Sweden with a stop in the town of Helsingor, home to Krongborg Castle that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and is also a really cute beach town with colorful homes in Old Town Helsingor. As a huge fan of Hamlet, I was most excited for this part of our trip. We loved exploring the real life Elsinore. They had music from the time period playing and even someone dressed as a jester juggling outside. They offer free tours of the castle that give you both the history of the real people who lived there and which rooms inspired scenes in Hamlet. My favorite part was exploring the dungeons!
Next, you will take the ferry to Sweden! The ferry is only 15 minutes and has a snack stand and tons of seating if you choose to get out of your car/tour bus. You can see Sweden from the town of Helsingor, making for a scenic ride. Our first stop was Lund, which is a college town full of shops, restaurants and cobblestone streets. John tried the Swedish Meatballs at the highly recommended Grand Hotel and loved them. We liked this little city! Then, we hopped back on the bus and headed to Malmo! Malmo is Sweden’s third largest city and is fun to walk around! We were lucky because a food festival was going on so we got to try a bunch of different food as we walked around. The buildings were super cute in this city and we loved checking out the famous Malmo chocolates. We also got to check out the famous Turning Torso skyscraper!
When we got back, the bus dropped us off in the city center, which felt a lot like their version of Times Square with restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe. This was another area with a lot of restaurants and shops so we walked around for a bit and then ended the night with dinner.
Day 3:
Take a walk over to Freetown Christiania. It is a really cool neighborhood to visit. It started out as a military base but when it got boarded up, hippies took it over and made it their home. Even though it is in Copenhagen, it operates as its own sovereign state and is independent of Danish law. Weed is illegal in Denmark, but this area (specifically Pusher St) is known to be the place to buy it. Although, they had a sign up when we went that they are cracking down on that. The residents of this neighborhood also sell things like artwork, food and drinks. Photography is not allowed and the residents ask that if you visit, you respect their space. It’s a quick walk from the hotel and we highly recommend checking it out.
Then, hop on the Metro (only two stops) and spend the rest of your day at Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is a gorgeous amusement park that actually inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland when he visited with his wife, Lilly. It is the second oldest amusement park in the world. We are big Disney people so it was fun to see all of the similarities to Disneyland (and there were a lot of them!). There are a bunch of great rides, tons of restaurants with cuisine from all over the world (like Epcot), boardwalk style games, arcades and a real casino for adults (which I loved). They even have a ride that featured Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytales! You really could spend a whole day here!
Day 4:
We checked out after breakfast and hopped on the Metro to head to the airport. The airport was a lot bigger than we thought so try to get there on the earlier side. There were a ton of restaurants and shops at the first few gates but once you clear customs to get to the international gates, there aren’t any! So make sure you grab food or plane snacks before you go through customs. We flew Scandinavian both ways and their food/snack game was weak. I was bummed because I called the airline in advance to let them know that I am a vegetarian and they told me to just tell the flight attendant. However, once on the flight, they told me they don’t have any vegetarian meals and I had to let them know in advance or I could pay for a pasta pot (which was terrible and insane since a meal is included with your ticket) or extra snacks. So, missing out on the airport snack selection was tragic.
We really did have an amazing time and highly recommend this itinerary for your next Europe weekender!
