We visited around Thanksgiving, so everything was in full swing Christmas decor. The cold, sunny days were great for wandering through all these adorable open air markets set up around town. All with cute little Christmas trees, good food, and twinkling lights.
One thing I’ll definitely say about Copenhagen is people seem to be ACTIVE! Everyone bikes or walks, and even still, I saw more gyms and fitness centers in Copenhagen than I ever have in any other European city (and the gyms were full at every hour of the day!) When we saw these random trampolines near Nyhavn, we couldn’t resist!
Nyhavn is the main tourist strip, right on the main canal of the city. It has all of the beautiful colorful buildings your dreams are made of, and adorable old school boats lined up in front of them. It was so fun to wander around with a mulled wine and take in the eye candy.
We really enjoyed the canal tour we took, which was very affordable (less than $10 per person). Where cities like Venice rob you BLIND to take a little boat ride, this 1 hour tour took you over to Christiania which is just across the water and by all the major buildings along the water. Make sure you duck when you see a bridge coming… they are super low! And as a friend advised me “by the time they announce ‘low bridge’ in English, you’re toast”. Most people in Copenhagen spoke english, but there were a variety of other languages, too! Danish, Swedish, and German seemed to be everywhere, and the boat tours all announced in about 4 languages. I was impressed!
Glogg is the Danish version of mulled wine. Generally, I found Copenhagen to be more expensive than most places we’ve visited. However, the Glogg always seemed to be pretty cheap. $3-4 for a generous pour. I’m ok with it! We were drinking glogg around the clock to stay warm 😉
We found ourselves in winter wonderland after winter wonderland. The city had so many cute pop ups! It felt so festive. I love how European cities do this so well.
And the street food – OH MY GOSH the street food! It was time for the Christmas markets, so I think we lucked out in the mulled wine and delicious treats department, but the street food in Copenhagen was some of my favorite. I tried Spatzel with sauerkraut and it was DELISH! Matt had some kind of curried sausage something he loved. The food was amazing and my mouth is watering thinking about it now.
We stayed at the Generator Hostel in Copenhagen. It was very affordable (all hotels & Airbnb’s were reeeeeeeally steep!) and clean, but it was still a hostel. There may or may not have been a lot of drunken chanting in various languages throughout the night/wee hours of the morning. But all that said, it got the job done. Great location, close to trains, the water, and tourist attractions. It wasn’t the best night of sleep i’ve ever had, but I wouldn’t sleep very well spending $300 on a Holiday Inn Express by the airport, either. You feel me?
Tivoli is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world! The idea is Disney-esque, but the pricing is not. You pay to get in, then you pay per ride (more like a carnival). It has old school carnival games (think shooting targets and tossing balls into a jar) and rides, too. Every area was BEAUTIFULLY decorated for Christmas, and it was so festive! There were beer gardens, little booths, and twinkling lights everywhere.
We ate and drank our way around Tivoli and loved it. It’s what I imagine the real North Pole would be like 😉
I mean, come on. You didn’t expect this post to have NO photos of windmills – right? 🙂
Copenhagen, you were a gem. Full of eye candy and great holiday cheer.
Have you ever been to Copenhagen? I’d love to know where you stayed 🙂
xo
