Visitors to Copenhagen can join a local guide for a free walking tour of central Copenhagen.
There is a choice of tours from a three hour guided walk starting on the steps of the City Hall and finishing near the Royal Palace (Amalienborg Palace) to a shorter 90-minute orientation from Christianshavn to the entrance of Christiania.
The Copenhagen card
The Copenhagen card is an inexpensive way to explore the city providing free admission to more than 70 museums and attractions.
There are also discounts on restaurants and free public transport by bus, train, harbour bus and Metro and the DFDS canal cruise.
Up to two children under 10 are also included free of charge
Images : www.www.visitdenmark.co.uk
Sights from on high
To see the city from a completely different viewpoint.
Anoverview of the city is available from the top of the 17th century Round Tower or from the top of the Taarnet, Copenhagen's tallest tower at the Christiansborg Palace. The city on foot
Copenhagen is relatively compact and easy to navigate on foot to take in the free sites such as The Little Mermaid, Christiania, Nyhavn, Børsen (the beautiful old Stock Exchange building) and The Botanical Garden.
There are many public parks to enjoy on a warm afternoon with huge and colourful flower beds at Rosenborg Castle in the Kings' Garden.
There's the chance to visit the final resting place of famous Danes, such as fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in the Assistens Cemetary in Nørrebro.
Swimming
Copenhagen has four outdoor swimming areas in the heart of the city with its newest 'The Coral Baths' at Sluseholmen designed to look like a coral reef.
The lakes
Copenhagen's lakes are a popular urban hangout for families, couples and joggers and Dronning Louise's Bridge, which is also known as the hipster bridge, is close to some of the best coffee shops as well asvintage and second hand shops.
The GoBoat
Renting a GoBoat on the canals allows up to eight people to get around in these solar cell powered vessels, which are equipped with a table in the centre for a group picnic on the water.
On two wheels
It's said there are more bikes than citizens in central Copenhagen and it's easy to rent a bike from any of the docking stations around the city.
These can be used on the extensive network of cycle paths, including the 190 metre long Bryggebroen bridge (known as the Bike Snake) which links Havneholmen to the Islands Brygge.
Then there is the new pedestrian Cirkelbroen (The Circle Bridge), which opened this summer to connect Christiansbro and Appelbys Plads.
Designed by Danish-Islandic artist Olafur Eliasson, this new architectural landmark resembles the rigging and masts of a majestic ship by the quay.
Attractions and Museums
Museums with free access include :
The National Museum, which charts Danish history from the Stone Age and the Vikings to the modern day
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum on a Tuesday for free access to its winter garden and over 10,000 pieces of artwork with Scandinavia's largest collection of ancient art and French impressionist pieces. Other places that require a fee but are well worth the entry are :
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which is set by the sea about 45 minutes by train from the city centre and houses a permanent art collection of over 3,500 contemporary pieces as well as hosting six to ten special international exhibitions each year.
The Tivoli Gardens, dating back to 1843, and the second oldest amusement park in the world. It provided the inspiration for Walt Disney's theme parks.
Restaurants, cafes and markets
The new Copenhagen Street Food Market opened in 2014 on Paper Island to serve imaginative, sustainable and cheap street food from all over the world at food trucks and stalls.
Other street food can also be sampled each weekend throughout the summer at Kødbyens Mad & Marked in the city's Meatpacking District where up to 70 stalls serve diners at communal tables.
Festivals and Music
Copenhagen has free festivals and music across the city and throughout the year including the street festival Distortion in June to the free Friday Rock in Tivoli concerts held every Friday from April to September.
The Copenhagen Jazz Festival transforms the Danish capital into the world's largest jazz club for the first week of July each year and the Vanguard Festival presents hip hop, soul, R&B, funk and reggae.
WakeUp Copenhagen
WakeUp Copenhagen offers two centrally located hotels by the Danish architect Kim Utzon which are both characterised by modern, minimalist yet supremely stylish and high quality modern design features.
Alternatively, there is the Generator Hostel in Copenhagen, part of the chain of European city centre hostels.
The facts
Climate
Copenhagen, as the rest of Denmark, has four distinct seasons. The best time to visit is the warm period from early May to late August. The current weather forecast can be checked at the Danish Meteorological Institute website
Spring, while a bit risky, as no one knows quite when it sets in, can be the best time to visit the city. On the first warm day, usually in early May, locals come out of hibernation and flock to the city streets, parks, and outdoor cafes in a veritable explosion of life, relieved that the country's dreary and dark winters are finally over. Many locals consider this the high-point of the year.
Summers in Copenhagen are usually warm with an average temperature of some twenty degrees, and the days are long — reaching the a peak of eighteen hours on the 21st of June.
If the weather becomes too hot, you can jump in one of the free pools in the cool harbour waters near the centre. Copenhagen's harbour is often considered the world's cleanest urban waterfront. Most of Copenhagen's annual events are held during June and July, and when the sun is out there is always life in the streets.
Autumn and winter have a profound effect on the city.
The vibrant summer life withers and the streets go quiet, as most locals go directly home from work. This is where the Danish concept of hygge sets in, roughly translating into cosiness. It is the local way of dealing with the short dark days. Friends and families visit each other for home cooking and conversations by candlelight with quiet music on the stereo.
Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and what a million Danes call home.
This "friendly old girl of a town" is big enough to be a metropolis with shopping, culture and nightlife par excellence, yet still small enough to be intimate, safe and easy to navigate.
Overlooking the Øresund strait with Sweden just minutes away, it is a cultural and geographic link between mainland Europe and Scandinavia.
This is where old fairy tales blend with flashy new architecture and world-class design; where warm jazz mixes with cold electronica from Copenhagen's basements. You'll feel you've seen it all in a day, but could keep on discovering more for months.
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By plane
Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport [4] (CPH) on Amager is the hub for Scandinavia's largest international carrier SAS — Scandinavian Airlines [5]. Kastrup Airport consistently gets high marks for both design and function.
Consider Sturup Airport (MMX) in Malmö, Sweden as well — it's only 40 minutes by bus from central Malmö, and from there 30 minutes by train to Copenhagen Central Station.
By train
Links between the capital and the rest of the country are frequent and excellent. There are several trains each hour to Malmö and further to Lund and Gothenburg. There are 12 daily connections on weekdays to Stockholm. Further train services exist in the direction of Karlskrona and Kalmar. There are six fast connections to Hamburg and one to Berlin.
From the rest of Denmark connections are frequent and numerous.
Danish is the national language but English is widely spoken
Although Denmark is a member of the European Union, the currency is still the Danish Krone, which is pegged to the Euro.
In Copenhagen, Nyhavn, Tivoli, and many of the major restaurants and hotels frequented by tourists accept Swedish Kronor and Euros, although it is not yet common practice elsewhere.
Credit cards are widely accepted, although this is usually limited to Visa and/or Mastercard. Many supermarkets and small shops will normally only accept the widespread local Danish debit-card, also known as the Dankort.
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