My complete Copenhagen Itinerary
The fashion outlets, the sceney places to eat, a rare Airbnb find and a tour that will take your breath away
I love Copenhagen. I love the way the light hits the canals in the morning. I love all those long limbed Danes cycling around with their assassin-style black coats and hooded tops. I love the way the school runs (undertaken on some sort of penny farthing bike with a shopping trolley attached to the front) are almost always undertaken by Dads in New Balance trainers. I love the way they say ‘Hi!’ when you walk into anywhere- shops, restaurants, the train station- as though they have been waiting to see you their entire lifetime.
But also I love the stuff- the design, the bakeries (oh the bakeries!); the tea towels in every stripe imaginable, the beauty products which feel fresh and clean.
You get the idea. I love Denmark’s capital city. So much so that for the last few years I’ve been taking myself off their completely alone. It’s the perfect city for a sole female traveller- safe, smallish, lots of restaurants with those hip counter tops which are a God send for those travelling alone.
And I think cities are a very good place to spend time alone. Because alone doesn’t always mean solitude. Sure there are those trips where all you want is rest and space to think and feel and just be. But then there are other times when you simply want to sit and watch and be surrounded by thousands of others. For me, this was one of those breaks.
Anyway I went to so many good places. I also borrowed a lot of very cool people’s itineraries who kindly shared their favourite bakeries, bars and so much more with me. So thank you to the
team especially , Danish food queen and .(Incidentally I’m off to Amsterdam next week and our Chat channel- which is fast becoming the best travel concierge in all of Substack- has set me up for my entire trip. Thanks so much to everyone, especially The Dam locals!)I spent four nights in Copenhagen, which I think is a very good amount of time, but I’ve also done fabulous trips here for just a weekend.
Anyway if you get there-enjoy. I’m jealous already…
Fx
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Copenhagen Guide
I swear I come to this city mainly just to have the spicy ramen soup at this hipster joint. I have banged on about this place before but the good news is they just opened a second outpost with more seats, an actual toilet and it’s much nearer to the centre of town. I still think the original Slurp is best if you’re after the true hipster experience, by which I mean a room filled with lots of people with finger tattoos and grimy baseball caps. Honestly…just go. You will thank me.
If you’re looking for an under the radar trainer brand that is suitably on-trend with those big, ugly rubber soles that somehow look very good with jeans and oversized jumpers, then look no further than Arrk. It’s on the cheaper side for a pair of trainers (£99 for a decent pair) and they are typically very hard to find outside Denmark. Big thumbs up from me.
So, I tried to get an appointment with this woman, who rumour has it does the best facials in Denmark. Alas she was fully booked for the next 6 months. So instead I sent myself off to The Nimb Hotel’s spa which was a complete revelation. The Nimb is one of Copenhagen’s smarter hotels but if you can’t stretch to a room there then I would definitely do what I did and venture to the spa. I had a 90 minute massage because I barely get time to look after myself when I’m back in the UK and I think all solo trips away should involve some form of massage.The Nimb is luxury but not scary luxury if you know what I mean. It’s very pretty with lots of black and white marble and smells delicious. The staff are deliciously down to earth and helpful (they couldn’t fit me in for a pedicure so they tried to find me one elsewhere in the city that would- I mean who does that?) And the treatment was exactly what I hoped for, one and half hours of Balinese-inspired massage that soothed everything. I am something of a massage fanatic and trust me, this really was something.