Copenhagen is a city that's been on my 'Places To Visit' list for years now, so I'm delighted to have finally gotten to go there. While I will say it wasn't my most favourite European city that I've been to (Amsterdam, Budapest and Bruges would probably be my top 3), we did have a lovely weekend, and if you're planning a trip there soon, I have some great recommendations for you!
Where We Stayed: 25hours Hotel Indre By
I couldn't recommend 25hours Hotel Indre By enough if you're planning a trip to Copenhagen anytime soon. It's right in the middle of the city, the decor is absolutely gorgeous, and I think it's excellent value for money. We booked a large room, and had the most amazing floor to ceiling windows. The room even had underfloor heating, although it wasn't cold enough to use it yet. A big comfy bed, a lovely rainfall shower, and USB sockets beside the bed, it ticked all of the boxes for what I'd consider a perfect hotel room.
The hotel offers a breakfast style buffet, with the usual European breakfast options of cold meats, cheese and bread, but as the hotel is home to a NENI restaurant location (a fantastic chain of restaurants that serve the most delicious eastern Mediterranean food), there was also mango hummus and fresh olives in the buffet too.
One of our favourite parts of the hotel was the happy hour that takes places in The Boilerman Bar at 5pm daily, where delicious highball cocktails are free for guests of the hotel. There was also a record room, where you could pop on a record and sit back and relax. Like I said, I truly do recommend this hotel, and as 25hours Hotels have quite a few locations around the world, I'll definitely be booking another of their hotels soon.
Where To Eat:
There definitely isn't a lack of great places to eat in Copenhagen, but one thing I will say is that when everyone goes on about how expensive Denmark is, they aren't lying. Now, nothing was extortionately priced, but overall, things were a good bit more expensive than most European cities. It's hard to give an exact example but I would say when you convert the prices over to euro, everything has at least €3-4 added onto the price compared to what you'd pay in Dublin. Anyway, enough on that, below are some of the places we ate that I'd highly recommend saving for your next trip to Copenhagen.
- Cantina: I'd seen quite a few people recommend Cantina for delicious Italian food and it didn't disappoint. Anywhere with burrata on the menu is good in my eyes, and the rigatoni was also delicious!
- Apotek57: There's certainly no shortage of coffeeshops or bakeries in Copenhagen, and I think Apotek57 had to be my favourite. Amazing filter coffee (that was the only hot coffee option, and I appreciated the simplicity), and delicious baked goods, it's definitely one to pop into.
- La Neta Nørrebro: So some of you may have heard of Mikkeller, who make delicious beer, but they actually also have quite a few different restaurants (from ramen to tacos), and La Neta is one of those. My favourite food will always be Mexican, and I have to say, La Neta was one of my favourite taco places I've tried in quite a while. I'd highly recommend ordering the Chillakillers!
-Warpigs Brewpub: Another of Mikkeller's food offerings is Warpigs. This place isn't one for vegetarians or vegans, so I apologise in advance, but if you love rock/metal music, smoked meat and good beer, then Warpigs is the place for you. Served in a canteen style, this is a great place to go and try out lots of Mikkeller and Warpigs beers (they have loads of taps in the walls which is really cool), and eat good old southern American barbecue food.
Things To Do:
Usually on weekend city breaks like this I'd have a jam packed itinerary with a schedule for all the sights we're going to see each day, but as this trip was for my birthday, I wanted to take it a bit easier than usual and just enjoy the city. We did see quite a few cool things though, so I'll pop them below for you to take note.
- Studio Arhoj: A visit to Studio Arhoj is a must when in Copenhagen. You can actually see the colourful glass mugs and ornaments being hand-blown in the back of the studio which is very cool, and the designs are just so bright and lovely. A great place to get some gifts to bring home with you, or even just treat yourself!
- Kastellet: This was probably our favourite thing that we saw whilst in Copenhagen. It's an amazing fortress that you can walk through, and you'll find a picturesque windmill to the left hand side. If you walk through Kastellet to the north gate, you can then walk around to the famous Little Mermaid statue and back towards the city.
- Nyhavn: The famous harbour is definitely worth having a stroll along, we even stopped for a drink in one of the bars on the left hand side as there's lots of outdoor seating so you can people watch until your heart's content.
So there we have it, my definitive (not really) travel guide to Copenhagen. It's a fairly compact city, so we actually didn't use public transport all that much, but they do have a very handy app called DOTs that you can download and buy a travel pass on that works on pretty much all of their transport, and also includes journeys to the airport. I hope you've found this helpful, and if you are heading to Copenhagen anytime soon, enjoy!