Copenhagen is a lovely city and often on everyones Europe bucket list, primarily for the famous colourful canal of Nyhavn that is found in the centre of the city! The whole city itself is really cute, and has multiple castles which can make you feel like you’re living in a fairytale. Copenhagen is also often ranked as one of the safest and happiest cities in the world. If you are planning a trip to Copenhagen or thinking of going, I’m here to tell you 10 things you should know about Copenhagen before visiting this happy city.
1. More expensive than Europe in general
If you’ve been to London, you must haver noticed the prices of everything were expensive compared to the rest of Europe, or Canada; Copenhagen is well known for being an expensive Scandinavian country, but from my experience it was not that much more expensive than London. I found that in general things were not usually more than 2-5 more than London preferences. -is often voted one of the safest & happies tciities in the world
average food prices:
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2. Best time to visit is Christmas & summer
The best times to visit are Late November/December and June/May, depending on what you want to get out of your trip to Copenhagen. Copenhagen is known for its Christmas markets that are open in November & December, as well as the winter wonderland that Tivoli gardens becomes. Tivoli gardens is honestly a must at night, it looks so magical with all of the lights; you can even still go on the rides if you want and there are additional marketers within. The other markets can be found throughout the city, and all have unique things to offer such as glog (which essentially Denmark’s version of mulled wine), dutch fries, and lots of clothing and gift type items. If you go in the winter dress for the cold, as it gets extremely windy as well. If you are looking for a sunny & warm trio, I would recommend you visit in may-tune. You could also go in July/august, however the city gets more crowded due to all the tourists, and subsequently everything is more expensive as well. I personally would avoid January-april, as it is often cold and rainy.
3. Easy to get to city centre from airport: 15mins on the metro
I would recommend taking the metro rather than a taxi or uber from the airport, because it is really fast and way cheaper. You can get your metro ticket as soon as you exit the airport, and then hop on the metro from that exact location. They come every few minutes, and will get you into the city centre within 15 minutes! The trains are also really modern and clean, and easy to navigate.
Cost: €4.8
-you don’t need to rent a car
4. Don’t rent a car
If you normally rent a car whenever you travel, I would honestly suggest not renting one in Copenhagen. The city itself is not that big, and you can walk pretty much anywhere from any point within 30 minutes. The city itself is quite optimized for pedestrians, and has one of the longest pedestrian streets in all of Europe. You also likely won’t have the easiest time parking, so if you’re someone who would typically walk 15 minutes to get somewhere, you probably won’t even use the car much anyways! If you’re planning on doing day trips from Copenhagen of course that is different, but if you just want to stay in the city and explore, you are probably better off without one.
5. It feels way colder than it is in the winter & it gets dark really early
When I got to Copenhagen it was 4°C, but ti honestly felt like -10°C; I am from Canada, and so coming rom me if I found it cold… trust me. To be honest, I was way colder in Copenhagen than I was in Iceland in the middle of winter! As well as the cold, there is also quite a lot of wind due to its location, which makes it feel worse. We went to cafes for hours at a time when visiting just to warm ups! To combat this I would recommend bringing your warmest gloves & winter clothes and just be prepared for it; you will especially want warm clothes if you’;re going gin the winter to the night markets.
6. The city is not that big and you can easily walk everywhere
As I mentioned earlier about not needing a car, the city is completely optimized for pedestrians and you shouldn’t have any issues walking around. As I am from London, Copenhagen in comparison felt like 1/4 of the size of London. I spend 3 days here, and I am confident I covered the whole city. If you like waling especially, you will love Copenhagen as there are so many cute streets and canals to walk along as you get form destination to destination. Walking is also too course he best way to see the most of the city! They do have busses and a metro that cover the city as well, of you don’t want to walk.
7. Most places accept payment by card, but bring cash if you want to visit the markets
I personally didn’t bring any cash with me, cause typical me I never think of it but I was completely fine. All of the restaurants we visited accepted card, as well as all of the shops and cafes. If you want to visit the markets, I would recommend bringing cash incase they don’t accept card, but the stalls I visited all accepted card. If you are planning on taking pubs transit such as a bus or the metro, you can purchase you ticket with card as well. If you do want to bring cash, be prepared that they have their own currency but they accept euros.
8. There are streets for pedestrians, cyclists, and cars
This may seem obvious, but it is not the same as having a cyclist lane and a sidewalk next to the roads, as in other popular cities. The roads here are typically farther away from the pedestrians and cyclists; the cyclist/pedestrian street also does not always l.ook like a sidewalk, and may look like a two lane road where one lane is for pedestrians and the other is for cyclists. Watch out on Stroget street (the main shopping street & on elf the longest pedestrian streets in Europe) as it gets quite crowded and cyclists can go pretty fast haha.
9. Tivoli gardens amusement park, Walt Disney visited
if you like amusement parks, Tivoli gardens is a must! They have a mix of chill rides and really intense fast roller coasters. They also have tons of food stalls, games, and market type shops you can get souvenirs. It is also famous because Walt Disney used to visit. I would recommend visiting in the late afternoon, so that you can stay for evening & night; this is because the lights are absolutely gorgeous and worth a visit to see just themselves. that being said, even if you don’t like amusement parks, there is still so much to do! When I visited we didn’t go on any rides (we wen tin December for the Christmas lights) and it was stunning!
10. 3 days is enough
As I mentioned before, Copenhagen is not that big, but this makes it perfect for a weekend getaway! You really don’t need that much time here, and can easily see the whole city in two days. I would recommend visiting for three days so that you give yourself travel buffer time, and s that you have extra time to just chill. Although it is small, there is more than enough to do and see and that makes it that much cozier.
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