Copenhagen Travel Guide | Things to know before you go
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A helpful travel guide as you plan your trip to Copenhagen.
When most think of Europe, Italy, France or London usually come to mind first. Copenhagen is gaining popularity but for many it’s not the first city that comes to mind when planning a European vacation. My hope is that after reading this travel guide to Copenhagen and my 3 day itinerary for Copenhagen, that I can convince you to add a visit to Copenhagen to your travel plans soon!
Europe is a favorite destination of my two teens. They love traveling to cities in Europe, as we all know, Europe truly offers a variety of cities full of personality, history and activities. Copenhagen absolutely hit on all those points.
As a family, we’ve covered a good bit of central Italy, Paris, Portugal so we wanted to try something new.
We were looking for destinations that were a bit off-the-beaten path. We also had never explored any of northern Europe so our focus went there. In the end, we settled on Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London. Not remote, unknown destinations but ones that were new to us!
All three cities offered so much to do and each had their own unique qualities and personality. Copenhagen was a favorite among all of us and in this post, my goal is to share with you helpful tips and insights as you plan your trip to Copenhagen, as well as share our best finds and ways we made sure the teenagers had fun too.
If you are looking for a day by day breakdown, jump over to my 3 day itinerary post that shares all the details of what to do when in Copenhagen.
I hope this helps you plan a future trip to Copenhagen and as always, if you need help planning in any way, reach out, after all, that’s my day job!
A little bit about weather in Copenhagen
One of the reasons we opted for northern Europe was because of weather. Cooler temps coming from the Southeast US sounded dreamy to us. By June, we are the high 90s with 90% humidity. We’ll take 65-70 and low humidity any day!
But the catch is in Copenhagen, you might get cool rainy days too. In fact, days before we left the forecast looked a bit dreadful—50-60s and rain. Thankfully Mother Nature cooperated and we had great weather—60-70s and mostly sunshine and almost no rain.
My advice when planning a trip to Copenhagen in the summer, pack layers and a light rain coat and sunscreen. Also, don’t stress too much about the forecast, every day was better than we expected.
Here is a helpful link for average temperatures in Copenhagen.
Getting from the airport to the city center of Copenhagen
We considered taking the train into city center from the Copenhagen airport but we opted to grab a taxi since we each had medium sized luggage & a carry on. One of the nice things about visiting Denmark is everyone speaks English so it’s easy to communicate as Americans. The ride in was about 30 min (our driver was very slow!), in general I think it’s closer to 20 min without traffic.
Fun fact: most cars in Denmark are electric so a single-use car ride feels a little less guilty.
The train (known as the Metro) is definitely an option if you prefer public transportation and are packing light. You can get the train in the airport and it can take you to many stops within the city for a reasonable price. It’s a little cheaper than a taxi and will take about 30 minutes to get downtown. To find route and ticket information, head to their website.
Helpful tips to know before you get to Copenhagen
We truly found Copenhagen to be a family-friendly city, easy to navigate, we were able to communicate with the locals and everywhere we went, we felt safe. Denmark actually has very strict gun laws so that brought me a bit of peace of mind too.
Like Amsterdam, Copenhagen is a very bike-friendly city, in fact most locals ride their bike everywhere, in all weather! Being such a bike-dominate city, it is a very quiet city since the traffic is greatly reduced. But speaking of bikes…be sure to watch the bike lanes.
In some intersections, there can be hundreds of bikers and they often have the right of way. They even have their own traffic signals so do not cross unless you have the walk sign or you will get hit. The Danish are very friendly and polite but they are pretty determined on bikes! The cars are very mindful of the bikers as well—most don’t wear helmets because they are protected by laws and safety measures.
Personally, we did not feel comfortable riding bikes on the city streets of Copenhagen but would have tried it on the waterfront paths and parks if we had time. If it’s your first time riding on city streets, I’d recommend a helmet because it can get a bit hectic in the bike lanes and they ride fast! Occasionally you’ll see someone biking and texting, so as a pedestrian you have to stay aware.
Back to safety for a minute— in my opinion, Copenhagen is a great European destination for solo-travelers and women travelers, it also makes for a great city to visit for a first international trip.
Another thing we loved about Copenhagen was how clean the city is! Every street, park and public area was free of trash and debris. Every park bench was clean enough to sit on and we didn’t see any graffiti. Copenhagen is also a very green city—working hard to protect the environment with electric cars, recycling, discouraging bottled water use, public transportation and of course, riding bikes everywhere!
On our 10 day trip through Europe we tried to split our time evenly among the three cities we visited, so in Copenhagen we had two full days in between our arrival half day and departure day. For our full itinerary and all we saw during our visit to Copenhagen, check out the blog post with all the details.
Places to stay—a short list of suggested hotels.
There are so many hotels within walking distance to the sights and neighborhoods of Copenhagen. As you can see from our 3 day itinerary, Copenhagen is a very walkable city and cabs are very easy to find if you need one.
Below is my list of recommended hotels. We stayed at the first one (pictured above and I included a short review below).
As you may have guessed by the name, this hotel is at the end of Nyhavn, so location wise-it was amazing! Yes you had to walk down Nyhavn to get to the city center but we were never bothered by that—the crowds were never that bad.
In comparison, where we stayed in Rome years ago we had to walk past the Trevi Fountain every day sometimes multiple times a day and that was pure hell. So in comparison, Nyhavn was a breeze.
The hotel was very accommodating, rooms were clean, free wifi, daily breakfast (our favorite of the places we stayed), rooms were a decent size. Each room had a small refrigerator, couch, desk and closet. The lobby had lots of seating space and they even have bikes you can rent.
A few small cons—the elevator was slow but not terrible, the bathrooms were a bit small and the pillows were awful. Flat as pancakes. I learned later that the offer a pillow menu (in fact many hotels offer this!). Being able to switch out our pillows would have made a huge difference!
One of the biggest pros after the great location was the cost. It was a reasonable rate and we were able to get the teens a room to share so we weren’t all crammed in one space. Another bonus to the hotel, the local ferry was right outside the hotel was another big convenience factor.
I would give the 71 Nyhavn a 4.5 out of 5 stars and would recommend it for budget travelers and families who are open to booking separate rooms for kids. They do offer suite style rooms if you have little and prefer to share a room.
Other hotels I would check out next time we are in Copenhagen would be:
Just a quick shameless plug, as a travel advisor, I can help book hotels (or any other travel planning) but when I book hotels for my clients, I can set you up with free perks such as upgraded rooms, free breakfast, hotel credits and more. All the hotels above are eligible for perks when booked through me. Booking hotels through an advisor doesn’t cost you a dime extra!
Email me if you need help planning an upcoming trip.
Recommended restaurants during your stay in Copenhagen
Since we were only there for 3 nights and had breakfast at the hotel most mornings, our restaurant visits were limited but it’s worth sharing a quick list of places we went and/or places we had on our short list but didn’t make it. I marked the ones we didn’t go to (but wanted to) with an asterisk.
Gasoline Grill (multiple locations)
Leaving Copenhagen, a few tips before you head to the airport.
While the airport here wasn’t nearly as busy as Amsterdam, there are a few things that are good to know. When we arrived in Copenhagen from Amsterdam, we breezed through the airport—no customs, extra security or anything. Just grabbed out bags and we were off.
Leaving was a different story. There were three checkpoints in total before we got on our plane. First, a security check where we were asked about our bags, etc. then we checked our bags in.
Next and this was the biggest surprise, there was a passport control station before getting to the gates. This was a slow, long-ish line. It took over 30 min to wait for our turn…we totally picked the wrong line.
THEN, to get to our gate, there was another line to check credentials. Like at Heathrow, they don’t let you to the gate until they are ready to board so we had to stand in line in a hallway and wait and we were not allowed in until passport and boarding pass were verified again.
Two things to note—grab food before you get to gate but after you go through passport control (though in some terminals there are not many options) and give yourself extra time during busy seasons. The whole process took just over an hour.
Love podcasts about travel? Good news!
I was recently a guest on the podcast Destinations Beyond Expectations where I share all about our experience in Copenhagen. If you want to hear more about this great city, be sure to check it out. Bonus: it’s under 20 minutes!
Sharing a few, quick final thoughts
Copenhagen is one of those cities where you can easily make the most of the time you have there but it’s a beautiful city so the longer you can stay, the better. This northern European city is a city perfect for couples, friends trips or family trips.
Friendly, safe, easy to navigate and something for everyone. If it hasn’t been on your radar, I would strongly encourage an update to your bucket list! If you have more time to stay, I’d recommend exploring the countryside of Denmark to get a true feel for Danish life. I know next time, that’s my plan!
If you have questions about anything I shared or if you need helping planning a trip to Denmark, feel free to reach out. I’d love to help!
Celebrate summer travel, Explore Copenhagen!
Be sure to check out my full Three day itinerary for Copenhagen! It’s perfect for families.
If you prefer a digital version, you can download my free three day itinerary today!
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