Copenhagen: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Christian the Fourth ruled for sixty years and built more than any other Danish king — towers, canals, whole quarters and an exchange. He also bankrupted the country in two wars he lost. His Copenhagen burned twice in the eighteenth century and was shelled by the British in 1807, and what survived is what you will see. Two hours.
A short history of Copenhagen
In 1167 Bishop Absalon fortified a small fishing village on the shore of the Øresund, and the name Copenhagen means "merchants' harbour". It has been the capital of Denmark since the mid-15th century. In the early 17th century King Christian IV built Rosenborg Castle and the Round Tower here. Great fires in 1728 and 1795 and a British bombardment in 1807 destroyed large parts of it. In October 1943, when the Germans planned to deport Denmark's Jews, the Danes smuggled them to Sweden in fishing boats, and about 7,000 were saved. In 1913 the Little Mermaid statue was placed in the harbour.
The ten best sights in Copenhagen
1AmalienborgFour identical palaces, and the queen lives in one
2Rosenborg CastleThe crown jewels are in the basement, and still in use
3ChristiansborgParliament, supreme court and royal reception in one building
4Round TowerA spiral ramp, not stairs — a tsar once rode up it on horseback
5Vor Frelsers Kirke400 steps, the last 150 outside, on a spiral around the spire
6National MuseumFree. The Sun Chariot is 3,400 years old and was found by a plough
7Ny Carlsberg GlyptotekA brewer’s collection, and the winter garden is the best room
8Statens Museum for KunstFree, and the Danish Golden Age rooms are the reason
9Designmuseum DanmarkA corridor of a hundred Danish chairs, in order
10Thorvaldsens MuseumOne sculptor, one building, and he is buried in the courtyard
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Copenhagen →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Copenhagen:
Free walking tours in Copenhagen
The King Who Built It Twice
Christian the Fourth ruled for sixty years and built more than any other Danish king — towers, canals, whole quarters and an exchange. He also bankrupted the country in two wars he lost. His Copenhagen burned twice in the eighteenth century and was shelled by the British in 1807, and what survived is what you will see. Two hours.
- Round Tower · There are no stairs — a spiral brick ramp two hundred and nine metres long winds to the top, built so that horses could haul instruments up to the observatory. Peter the Great rode up it in 1716, and his wife followed in a carriage.
- Rosenborg Castle · Christian the Fourth built it as a summer house outside the walls and died in it in 1648. The crown jewels are in the cellar and are not museum pieces — the queen still wears them, which is why they cannot be lent to anyone.
- Kongens Have · The oldest park in Copenhagen, laid out in 1606 as the king’s kitchen garden and opened to the public in the 1700s. Two and a half million people a year walk through it, which is more than the population of Denmark’s three largest cities.
- Amalienborg · Four identical palaces around an octagonal square, built for four noble families in the 1750s. When the royal palace burned in 1794 the king simply bought all four, and the family has lived in them ever since.
- Nyhavn · Dug in 1670 so ships could unload in the middle of town, and for three hundred years it was sailors, tattooists and brothels. Hans Christian Andersen lived at numbers twenty, sixty-seven and eighteen, in that order.
- National Museum · The Sun Chariot — a bronze horse pulling a gold disc, made about 1400 BC — was turned up by a farmer’s plough in 1902 and nearly sold for scrap. It is free to see, like the whole museum.
Across the Water
Christianshavn was built on land added to the sea — the king wanted a Dutch-style merchants’ quarter, so he dug canals and raised it out of mud. At its far end, in an abandoned barracks, a few hundred people moved in in 1971 and declared a free town. It is still there, and still arguing with the state. Two hours.
- Christianshavn · Christian the Fourth had Dutch engineers lay it out in 1618 on reclaimed ground, with canals instead of streets, because the Dutch were the best at building on water and he wanted a trading quarter that worked. People live on the boats in the canals legally.
- Vor Frelsers Kirke · Four hundred steps, and the last one hundred and fifty spiral around the outside of the spire with a handrail and nothing else. The architect is said to have jumped from it when he realised the staircase turned the wrong way, which is not true.
- Christiania · Squatters took the empty barracks in September 1971 and declared a free town of eight hundred people, and after fifty years of court cases the residents bought the land in 2012. Photography is forbidden on the main street, and that rule is enforced by everyone.
- Refshaleøen · Burmeister and Wain built ships here for a hundred and forty years and employed eight thousand people. It closed in 1996, and the empty halls are now food markets, climbing walls, saunas and a harbour bath you can swim in.
- Copenhill · A waste-to-energy plant that burns the city’s rubbish for heat and electricity, with an artificial ski slope on its roof, a climbing wall up its side and a hiking path to the top. The architect promised the chimney would blow smoke rings, and it does not.
- Islands Brygge · The harbour was an industrial sewer until the 1990s. The city spent fifteen years cleaning it, and in 2002 opened a public swimming bath in the middle of it — you can now swim in the centre of a capital, for free.
Nørrebro
Outside the old ramparts, on ground where building was forbidden so the city guns could fire across it — so when the walls came down in 1856 the densest and poorest quarter in Copenhagen was built here. Today it is the youngest and most mixed district in Denmark, and thirty per cent of its people were born outside it. Two hours.
- Torvehallerne · There was a vegetable market on this square for a hundred and seventy years until 1958, and then a car park for fifty. The two glass halls opened in 2011 and the square went back to what it had been.
- Dronning Louises Bro · Forty thousand bicycles cross this bridge every day, which makes it one of the busiest cycle routes in the world. In summer people sit on the parapet with a beer and watch them, and that is an evening.
- Assistens Cemetery · Opened in 1760 for the poor who could not be buried inside the walls, and it is now a public park where people sunbathe and eat lunch between the graves. Andersen and Kierkegaard are both in it, a few minutes apart.
- Jægersborggade · Four hundred metres of street that was a drug market in the 1990s and that the housing association deliberately let only to independent shops — no chains at all. There are forty of them and every one is a single owner.
- Superkilen · A park made of objects brought from the sixty countries the residents of the surrounding streets come from: a fountain from Morocco, swings from Iraq, a bull from Spain, soil from Palestine and Israel. Every object has a plaque saying where it is from.
- Grundtvigs Kirke · Six million yellow bricks, all the same handmade kind, built between 1921 and 1940 by one family of masons. The west front is a village church organ blown up to forty-nine metres, and there is nothing else like it anywhere.
Getting to Copenhagen and getting around
- Kastrup Airport · The metro is thirteen minutes to the centre, and it is driverless
- Central Station · Trains to Malmö cross the bridge in 35 minutes
- Nørreport · The busiest station in Denmark, and it is mostly bicycles
Cheap eats in Copenhagen
Eight counters where Copenhagen eats standing. A hot dog stand by the station that is a Danish institution and not a joke, a basement that has served open sandwiches since 1877 with a handwritten menu, and a bakery queue that starts before it opens because the cardamom buns run out.
- John’s Hotdog Deli · Around 45 kroner, standing, by the station
- Schønnemann · Lunch only, booked ahead, and closed at five
- Juno the Bakery · Go before nine, and bring cash
- Hart Bageri · Started by Noma’s baker, and the bread is the point
- Hija de Sanchez · Tacos by a former Noma pastry chef, in a market stall
- Slagter Lund · A butcher who grills you a sausage over the counter
- Torvehallerne · Sixty stalls, two halls, and lunch under 100 kroner
- Reffen · Shipping containers by the water, April to September
Museums in Copenhagen
- Louisiana Museum · 35 minutes by train, 145 kroner, and allow four hours
- National Museum · Free, and the Egtved Girl is still in her oak coffin
- Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek · 140 kroner, free on Tuesdays, closed Mondays
- Designmuseum Danmark · A corridor of a hundred Danish chairs in chronological order
- Statens Museum for Kunst · Free, and the Danish Golden Age rooms are quiet
- Thorvaldsens Museum · One sculptor only, and he is buried in the courtyard
- Viking Ship Museum · Five ships sunk in 1070 to block an invasion route
Parks and gardens in Copenhagen
- Assistens Cemetery · A park with graves in it, and people sunbathe between them
- Kongens Have · 1606, free, and a puppet theatre in it every summer
- Botanical Garden · Free, and the 1874 palm house is worth the 60 kroner
- Amager Strandpark · Free, and the metro goes straight there
- Dyrehaven · Free, 25 minutes by train, and the deer are everywhere
- Superkilen · Sixty countries in one park, with a plaque on each object
Things to do in Copenhagen with kids
- Tivoli Gardens · 145 kroner to enter, and the rides cost extra
- Den Blå Planet · Northern Europe’s largest aquarium, shaped as a whirlpool
- Experimentarium · Everything is touched, and there is a pipe maze to crawl
- Copenhagen Zoo · 1859, and the elephant house is by Norman Foster
- Bakken · The oldest funfair on earth, 1583, and entry is free
- Copenhill · Ski down a power station roof, all year, on plastic
Live music in Copenhagen
- Vega · Two halls, tickets from 200 kroner
- Loppen · A warehouse inside Christiania, and the ceiling is low
- Jazzhus Montmartre · Where the American jazz exiles played in the sixties
- Royal Danish Opera House · A shipping magnate paid for all of it and chose everything
- Culture Box · Electronic, open until eight in the morning
- Det Kongelige Teater · 1748, and the ballet company is one of the oldest anywhere
Nightlife in Copenhagen
- Kødbyen · The meatpacking halls, and the cold stores still work
- Ruby · A cocktail bar in an old consulate, with no sign on the door
- Mikkeller Bar · Twenty taps, all their own, and the brewery has no brewery
- Blågårds Plads · A granite square in Nørrebro, and everyone sits outside
- Sankt Hans Torv · Cafés on all sides, and the sun until ten in June
- Dronning Louises Bro · Sit on the parapet with a beer. It is free and it is the city
Frequently asked questions about Copenhagen
What is there to see in Copenhagen?
The top sights in Copenhagen are Amalienborg, Rosenborg Castle and Christiansborg. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Copenhagen?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Copenhagen without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Copenhagen?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Copenhagen, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The King Who Built It Twice.
How do you get to Copenhagen and get around?
The main ways are Kastrup Airport, Central Station and Nørreport. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Copenhagen, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Copenhagen that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Copenhagen for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.