Part 1. Arriving to Kastrup Airport and Using Public Transportation
When you arrive to Kastrup Airport (CPH) , you will already start being amazed by Scandinavian design elements such as interior designs , furnitures and small tools that can make your life a lot easier. Kastrup Airport is extremely well designed and despite being a very busy airport it still gives you a very cosy and warm feeling when you walk through terminals. Navigation in the airport are quite easy and if you are familiar with English (which is even stupid to remark this since you are already reading an English blog) you will be just fine.
If you want to use public transportation you can find a lot of ticket kiosks along your way in the terminal to buy your preferred tickets. There are a lot of different type of tickets and depending on your stay you can select the one that fits you the best. For our visit we have selected 72 hours pass for 2 main transportation zones. Yes , Copenhagen has transportation zones and you will be just fine if you choose the 2 main zones guided by the machine. (that basicly covers all central parts along with communes that close to central and also airport lines.) This ticket costs 200 DKK per person (more or less 27 Euro)
Once you are done with your ticket transaction, you can follow your way through metro station. As i said it is quite easy to find your way in the airport. Please be advised, train and metro stations are almost next to each other so be careful with the signs in the terminal.
Copenhangen metro system is quite good and automated.(means no tram drivers) It goes to and covers most parts of the city with different connection points. If you know which neighborhood you need to go beforehand you can easily trace it in the stations and see which connections or which stops you need to take. Metro ride from airport to central part of the city takes around 25 minutes. We have taken the metro around 6 pm on Friday and it was not even close to crowded inside.
Part 2. Accomodation
Before we start to discuss your preferences i think we should be on the same page about you are reading this blog so far and aware that you are about to travel to rather expensive city. Of course i can never know your budget and your preferences but i will be only sharing my experience to help you get some extra guidance.
When i was looking for accomodation options i have found that hotels are rather expensive than other European cities. Of course i was aware of that since we are travelling to Scandinavia after all. There comes Airbnb into the play. I have booked a nice room from Frederiksberg commune for 60 Eur/night for 2 persons. Which was quite reasonable for my standards and i believe also for most of the people too.
Staying in the hotels are also good since you might have breakfast options with better facilities and so on but we are there to discover the city which we have never seen before so why would i choose to have breakfast in the hotel while i can discover the tastes for breakfasts in local places.
So in the end it is up to you to decide. If you prefer to take it easy and have open buffet breakfast by paying more in a hotel or compensating the difference that you save from the hotel with Airbnb and spend it on breakfast or discovering other things. For us it is all about the experience and we did have breakfast in hotels before we came to Copenhagen. I am sure you can figure the rest yourself.
Part 3. Exploring the city
As i said on the previous part we have booked a nice room on Godthåbsvej (that is the street name) in Frederiksberg. For those who are looking for Airbnb or hotel , we strongly suggest to have a look on this street. It is not close to attraction points so it is very calm at night but has a lot of restaurants and cafes and also buses or metro to central part of the city is very frequent (Bus 2A)
We started discovering right after we put our luggages in Airbnb. It was already 7 pm and since it was October it was already dark so we started to look for a place to eat. You can't discover around when you are hungry right? As we walk on Godthåbsvej we have found a burger bar which seemed reasonable to eat because of limited time. Oh my , oh my. This burger bar turned out to be a very good one. Their burgers were extremely good and prices were reasonable on Scandinavian standards. (almost every meal we had, we paid 18-25 Eur per person regardless what we eat) Ah i almost forget to mention the name of the place. It is `The Bronx Burger Bar`.
After a very pleasant dinner we decided to go and see Nyhavn (means New Harbour in Danish) since it was in our list of places to see. Here comes a very important tip. If you are visiting Copenhagen in cold season , we suggest you not to go to Nyhavn at night. You practically do not see the coloured buildings even with their lights because all the bars are putting their orange shiny heating machines outside and only colour you see apart from darkness is orange. All the bars were open but there were nobody walking by the street and we decided this was definitely not the time to visit and enjoy Nyhavn. I am sure if any local Danish people read this will be like `oh yeah`. But ok because we are here for the experience bad or good. We have found a nice Irish pub and turned our bad experience into a good one with couple of Guinness beers.
Next morning it was relatively sunny day so we decided to take a walk around Godthåbsvej and see if we can find a nice coffee place with breakfast options. And guess what? We have found a perfect place again on Godthåbsvej. (i told you this street is something) Ok the place is called `The Coffee Collective`. I am giving the links so you can check it out if it fits your taste or not. They have very nice home made recipes with eggs and breads along with Croissants. They have great coffee according to my wife because unfortunately i am a tea person and they have great tea options as well. Prices are again the standards i have mentioned above.
After our breakfast we took the bus to central zone of the city. Our next target on the list was Freetown Christiania.
Christiania is a autonomous area with around 1.000 inhabitants in the middle of central zone. When you walk your way through Christiania it only feels like you are just turning around the neighbourhood and you definitely do not feel like you are entering another place until you see the sign on the photo. Other side of the sign says `You are now entering Europe` make you realize how serious this is. This place is heaven for people who are fan of handmade materials, nature, street food and weed. (yes you can buy weed in Christiania, it is called Green Light District and it is forbidden to take a picture) This town has a self sustaining economy which means all inhabitants are producing something either a product to sell or a service to offer. You can find every kind of art workshops along with artists. Street foods are relatively cheaper than the standards but not a significant difference to come back here and eat just to save money. It is a big area so you can easily spend more than half a day just by walking the area and eating, drinking or visiting the crafter shops. It is an attraction point so you may see a lot of people here than other parts of the center. But we never felt overwhelmed because it is well balanced with nature.
After Christiania we decided to give another chance to Nyhavn on a day light because it was a sunny day and it was worth it. From Christiania there is a 3-way butterfly bridge for pedestrians and bikes that leads to Nyhavn. We strongly suggest you to take that because you pass by a bridge where you can find a really nice sunset along with a wide 360 degrees Copenhagen view. You can also see the Paper Island from here because it is literally next to it.
Nyhavn was surrounded by people and colours of the buildings were present. We did not take a boat trip since it was 5 C and windy but there were people doing that. Bars and restaurants were almost full and it was a Saturday afternoon so everybody was enjoying the sunny day. Unfortunately cold weather combined with strong wind did not let us walk around more so we decided head back when it started to get darker. We took a bus back to our Airbnb but before we do that we took this picture.
When we arrived to house we were already feeling hungry for dinner and as you can guess by now we had found another great place on Godthåbsvej. This time we wanted to go for sushi and there it was. The place was `LETZ SUSHI`. I am putting the link you can decide which one to go 😎 Prices were again in line with standards.
Since we are also tango dancers we have found a local milonga (tango dance night) on Saturday to experience Danish dancers and also meet some old friends. We loved it and stayed until 2-3 am in the morning.
Wow the next morning was already Sunday and it was our last day. We were thinking about seeing The Little Mermaid which is most known monumental spot of Copenhagen but honestly we have seen some pictures and it really did not impress us so we could do that visit if it was a sunny day without wind.
We wanted to go to Paper Island for two reasons.
First we wanted to visit Copenhagen Contemporary Museum. (it is not really my type of art but as Jaime Lannister quoted `Things i do for love`. Since there is a big chance that my wife reads this `i love you baby and i really enjoyed that museum and you know it`)
I don't know a lot about contemporary art but my wife does. Luckily there was a exhibition of special artists like Bill Viola and Yoko Ono along with a VR exhibiton from different kind of artists and their stories. So i was really amazed by my first official contemporary experience. Here is a collage for you. Entrance fee was around 9-10 Eur per person.
And of course second reason was food. Sorry but you are reading a blog of foodies. You will read a lot of food in this blog.
On Paper Island there is a big warehouse that turned into a street food market and called `Copenhagen Street Food`. If you love food, this place itself can be a reason to come to Copenhagen. Expect extremely crowded atmosphere but it is totally worth. Prices were again in line with standards.
After we were all satisfied with our tummies we needed a walk and decided to find a coffee place. As we walked through Nyhavn we ended up being on Bredgade. And found a really small but extremely good coffee place named `Original Coffee`. After my wife had her coffee and i had my tea, we hit the street and just in between 2 buildings we have found `Marmorkirken`. Architecture of this church really impressed me and picture on the left is our own capture. But you can find other pictures on the link.
Oh my! It is almost 4 pm already and we have a flight at 9 pm. That means we only have 2 hours more to enjoy this beautiful city. We were very close to `King's Garden and Rosenborg Castle`. It was lovely to be there on an autumn afternoon and see the sky with purple red sunset along with the yellow to orange leaves all around the garden. It was like a feast of colours green grasses, blue lake, purple red sky and from light yellow to dark orange leaves. We could not help ourselves and we started playing in the garden like children. Jumped high from stones and threw leaves in the air and took our time with super calm natural surroundings before we depart.
Part 4. Tips and Thoughts
I will try to write down small tips or inspirations that maybe it will sound like pros and cons but here they are :
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and got something for yourself.
Next destinations are Geneva, Lausanne and Montreux.
Serdar
When you arrive to Kastrup Airport (CPH) , you will already start being amazed by Scandinavian design elements such as interior designs , furnitures and small tools that can make your life a lot easier. Kastrup Airport is extremely well designed and despite being a very busy airport it still gives you a very cosy and warm feeling when you walk through terminals. Navigation in the airport are quite easy and if you are familiar with English (which is even stupid to remark this since you are already reading an English blog) you will be just fine.
If you want to use public transportation you can find a lot of ticket kiosks along your way in the terminal to buy your preferred tickets. There are a lot of different type of tickets and depending on your stay you can select the one that fits you the best. For our visit we have selected 72 hours pass for 2 main transportation zones. Yes , Copenhagen has transportation zones and you will be just fine if you choose the 2 main zones guided by the machine. (that basicly covers all central parts along with communes that close to central and also airport lines.) This ticket costs 200 DKK per person (more or less 27 Euro)
Once you are done with your ticket transaction, you can follow your way through metro station. As i said it is quite easy to find your way in the airport. Please be advised, train and metro stations are almost next to each other so be careful with the signs in the terminal.
Copenhangen metro system is quite good and automated.(means no tram drivers) It goes to and covers most parts of the city with different connection points. If you know which neighborhood you need to go beforehand you can easily trace it in the stations and see which connections or which stops you need to take. Metro ride from airport to central part of the city takes around 25 minutes. We have taken the metro around 6 pm on Friday and it was not even close to crowded inside.
Part 2. Accomodation
Before we start to discuss your preferences i think we should be on the same page about you are reading this blog so far and aware that you are about to travel to rather expensive city. Of course i can never know your budget and your preferences but i will be only sharing my experience to help you get some extra guidance.
When i was looking for accomodation options i have found that hotels are rather expensive than other European cities. Of course i was aware of that since we are travelling to Scandinavia after all. There comes Airbnb into the play. I have booked a nice room from Frederiksberg commune for 60 Eur/night for 2 persons. Which was quite reasonable for my standards and i believe also for most of the people too.
Staying in the hotels are also good since you might have breakfast options with better facilities and so on but we are there to discover the city which we have never seen before so why would i choose to have breakfast in the hotel while i can discover the tastes for breakfasts in local places.
So in the end it is up to you to decide. If you prefer to take it easy and have open buffet breakfast by paying more in a hotel or compensating the difference that you save from the hotel with Airbnb and spend it on breakfast or discovering other things. For us it is all about the experience and we did have breakfast in hotels before we came to Copenhagen. I am sure you can figure the rest yourself.
Part 3. Exploring the city
As i said on the previous part we have booked a nice room on Godthåbsvej (that is the street name) in Frederiksberg. For those who are looking for Airbnb or hotel , we strongly suggest to have a look on this street. It is not close to attraction points so it is very calm at night but has a lot of restaurants and cafes and also buses or metro to central part of the city is very frequent (Bus 2A)
We started discovering right after we put our luggages in Airbnb. It was already 7 pm and since it was October it was already dark so we started to look for a place to eat. You can't discover around when you are hungry right? As we walk on Godthåbsvej we have found a burger bar which seemed reasonable to eat because of limited time. Oh my , oh my. This burger bar turned out to be a very good one. Their burgers were extremely good and prices were reasonable on Scandinavian standards. (almost every meal we had, we paid 18-25 Eur per person regardless what we eat) Ah i almost forget to mention the name of the place. It is `The Bronx Burger Bar`.
After a very pleasant dinner we decided to go and see Nyhavn (means New Harbour in Danish) since it was in our list of places to see. Here comes a very important tip. If you are visiting Copenhagen in cold season , we suggest you not to go to Nyhavn at night. You practically do not see the coloured buildings even with their lights because all the bars are putting their orange shiny heating machines outside and only colour you see apart from darkness is orange. All the bars were open but there were nobody walking by the street and we decided this was definitely not the time to visit and enjoy Nyhavn. I am sure if any local Danish people read this will be like `oh yeah`. But ok because we are here for the experience bad or good. We have found a nice Irish pub and turned our bad experience into a good one with couple of Guinness beers.
Next morning it was relatively sunny day so we decided to take a walk around Godthåbsvej and see if we can find a nice coffee place with breakfast options. And guess what? We have found a perfect place again on Godthåbsvej. (i told you this street is something) Ok the place is called `The Coffee Collective`. I am giving the links so you can check it out if it fits your taste or not. They have very nice home made recipes with eggs and breads along with Croissants. They have great coffee according to my wife because unfortunately i am a tea person and they have great tea options as well. Prices are again the standards i have mentioned above.
After our breakfast we took the bus to central zone of the city. Our next target on the list was Freetown Christiania.
 |
| Photo source can be found here |
After Christiania we decided to give another chance to Nyhavn on a day light because it was a sunny day and it was worth it. From Christiania there is a 3-way butterfly bridge for pedestrians and bikes that leads to Nyhavn. We strongly suggest you to take that because you pass by a bridge where you can find a really nice sunset along with a wide 360 degrees Copenhagen view. You can also see the Paper Island from here because it is literally next to it.
 |
| Nyhavn |
When we arrived to house we were already feeling hungry for dinner and as you can guess by now we had found another great place on Godthåbsvej. This time we wanted to go for sushi and there it was. The place was `LETZ SUSHI`. I am putting the link you can decide which one to go 😎 Prices were again in line with standards.
Since we are also tango dancers we have found a local milonga (tango dance night) on Saturday to experience Danish dancers and also meet some old friends. We loved it and stayed until 2-3 am in the morning.
Wow the next morning was already Sunday and it was our last day. We were thinking about seeing The Little Mermaid which is most known monumental spot of Copenhagen but honestly we have seen some pictures and it really did not impress us so we could do that visit if it was a sunny day without wind.
We wanted to go to Paper Island for two reasons.
I don't know a lot about contemporary art but my wife does. Luckily there was a exhibition of special artists like Bill Viola and Yoko Ono along with a VR exhibiton from different kind of artists and their stories. So i was really amazed by my first official contemporary experience. Here is a collage for you. Entrance fee was around 9-10 Eur per person.
And of course second reason was food. Sorry but you are reading a blog of foodies. You will read a lot of food in this blog.
 |
| Photo source can be found here |
Oh my! It is almost 4 pm already and we have a flight at 9 pm. That means we only have 2 hours more to enjoy this beautiful city. We were very close to `King's Garden and Rosenborg Castle`. It was lovely to be there on an autumn afternoon and see the sky with purple red sunset along with the yellow to orange leaves all around the garden. It was like a feast of colours green grasses, blue lake, purple red sky and from light yellow to dark orange leaves. We could not help ourselves and we started playing in the garden like children. Jumped high from stones and threw leaves in the air and took our time with super calm natural surroundings before we depart.
Part 4. Tips and Thoughts
I will try to write down small tips or inspirations that maybe it will sound like pros and cons but here they are :
- Architecture and interior design is everywhere in the city.
- Food was delicious.
- Practical way of living amazed us. Minimalist but still super comfy.
- We found statues (historical or modern art) almost every corner of the city.
- It is a bike city so you have to care when you cross the street for bikes more than you do for cars.
- Transportation is very good. And you can walk from one place to another because central zone is quite small and attraction points are very close to each other.
- City is not overwhelmed by people or tourists so you always feel relaxed. And no heavy traffic.
- You can give this city another chance in summer time might be another experience.
- People of the city are very fluent with English so there are no communication problem at all.
- This can be a trip for a weekend or can be combined with a longer one if you want to go visit Sweden or Norway along with Denmark.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and got something for yourself.
Next destinations are Geneva, Lausanne and Montreux.
Serdar
