Must-see places in Copenhagen

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Some weeks ago I travelled to Copenhagen, to visit this beautiful nordic city. If you want to know where I´ve stayed - check out my blogpost which is called Moxy Copenhagen Sydhavnen, where I tell you everything about my stay at the hotel.

The only nordic city that I´ve travelled to before was Stockholm and I literally LOVE Stockholm. It´s my favourite city right after London. But with having been to Scandinavia before I already knew some facts about the northern countries, like the high quality standard in the big cities, the very expensive prices (also in the supermarkets), and more.

My trip to Copenhagen was very spontaneous, so I didn´t have that much time to plan my stay there. Luckily someone that I know borrowed me a travel guidebook of Copenhagen, so I basically read that guidebook and looked up for the necessary information in the internet.

One option when you visit Copenhagen is the Copenhagen Card which offers you get free entry to many sights. As we just had 2 days to really explore the city, we decided not to buy the card, as we wouldn´t have enough time to use it. For everyone who has 3 or more days and who knows that she or he wants to see a lot, the Card can be a great option (public transport is included).

We stayed for 3 nights and in my opinion we visited all imporant sights during our stay. So today I want to tell you more about the places that we visited and that I would recommend to see. Sadly some of the pictures are a little bit dark, but there were some difficult light conditions as it was partly very cloudy and partly extremely sunny, but I hope that you can still get a good impression of the city.

Amalienborg Castle

Amalienborg is the home and the winter residence of the royal danish family. This castle originally wasn´t built for the royal family, it was built for 4 aristocrats, that´s also the reason why it consists of 4 similar looking castles. The royal family lived in Christiansborg Castle until 1794 but after the castle burnt down, the royal family decided to live at Amalienborg.

At Amalienborg Castle you can visit one of the castle buildings, where you can see the rooms of former kings and queens and also get information about the life of the royal family nowadays.

I am very happy with my decision to visit this castle inside, because I love to visit castles during citytrips and it makes it super special for me to know that the royal family lives so close to the exhibition rooms.

The prices are a little bit expensive, especially because the exhibition area is not that big, but it was okay for as to pay that price as we really wanted to visit this castle.

Price for adults: 105 DKK (= around 14,06 €) , for students: 70 DKK (= around 9,37 €)

The castle of Amalienborg is directly located at Amaliehaven, so it´s just a few steps away from the sea, where you can sit down and enjoy the sun.

The fountain at Amaliehaven with view to Amalienborg and the marble church

Every day at 12:00 a.m. there is also the Changing of the guards happening in front of the castle. It depends on the presence of the royal family, especially the queen, how big the changing is. When no member of the royal family is at the castle, you only get to see the little change, with less guards and no music.

Rosenborg Castle

View to Rosenborg from the park

Rosenborg is located in a big park area, which is perfect for strolling around or resting a bit.
At this castle you can see royal crown jewels, some exhibitions, the royal art treasures and more. As I haven´t been inside the castle I can´t tell you a lot about it. But what comes to my mind at first when  I think of the castle is definitly how beautiful it looks from the outside, that is for sure a great reason to visit the castle. I only visited the park area, which was a good decision for me, because all of the trees and flowers were blooming.

Pretty trees everywhere

Price for adults: 115 DKK (=around 15.39 €), for students: 75 DKK (= around 10,03€)

A part of the big park area

Christiansborg Castle 

I already mentioned Christiansborg castle above, when I told you more about Amalienborg. Christiansborg originally was the home of the royal family until 1794, but then it burnt down. Nowaday you can visit the royal stables, the reception rooms, the royal kitchen, the palace chapel and more.

Standing at Marmorbroen, right next to the palace

Price for exhibition for adults: 160 DKK (= around 21,41 €), for students: 140 DKK (=around 18,73 €).

Besides the royal rooms which still get used today for represential activities, the executive, the legislative and the judicial state powers are located at Christiansborg castle.

Christiansborg palace

The highlight at the castle for sure is the tower, from where you have an amazing overview over Copenhagen city. And the best thing about the tower is, that you can visit the tower completely for FREE! You don´t need a ticket to visit the castle or something else, you can just go to the entry of the tower, which is located right underneath the tower, and after a little security check, you are allowed to take the elevator to the top of the tower. and I promise - you will LOVE the view.

View from the tower

Stroget

This is the main shopping area in Copenhagen. It´s a pedestrian zone and a very big area, with many different shops, restaurants, coffee shops and more. So if you want to go shopping, this is the place to visit in Copenhagen. But also if you don´t want to buy something it is very nice to walk through the area of Stroget. It leads from the town hall square to Kongens Nytorv.

Standing at Gammeltorv

Kastellet

Kastellet is one of the best preserved fortresses in Europe nowadays. It´s still a military basis, but you can visit some museums and exhibitions there. We decided to just walk around the big park area, which is open for the public and can be visited for free. So it´s a great place to find some peace or to relax. From Kastellet you are super fast at the statue of the little mermaid.

Nyhavn

Nyhavn is maybe the best known area of Copenhagen. If you are searching for Copenhagen online, you will at first get to see pictures of the colourful houses at the Nyhavn area.

Nyhavn is a central harbour in Copenhagen and also one of the most important sights. You can stroll around the harbour, enjoy the sun in summer, have a drink or something to eat at one of the restaurants or you could bring a drink with you and enjoy it while your are sitting at the harbour walls, you can go on a tourist boat tour and so much more.

Important to mention in my opinion is, that all of the restaurants there are very expensive, so think about if it´s worth it to buy something there. I would recommend to just stroll around and take a drink with you when the weather is nice, because that´s for sure the cheaper option and you can go and enjoy a less expensive meal somewhere else (my blogpost with my food and restaurant tipps will follow!).

We also went on a boats tour and absolutely enjoyed it! It´s a great way of exploring Copenhagen, especially when you have never been in this city before. The boats start at the beginning of Nyhavn, which starts directly at Kongens Nytorv. The main provider is "Canal and Harbor Tours" and we originally thought that we would book the boats tour there, but then we found out that just a few steps away there is another provider called "Nettobadene", which offers the exact same tour for half of the price. So in the end we booked at Nettobadene, had a great boats tour and only payed around 7 € instead of 12 €.

View from the sea to the royal danish playhouse

Little Mermaid

The famous statue of the Little Mermaid can be found close to the Langelinie pavillion and the Kastellet. It´s way smaller than most people think and gets displayed on a rock. The statue is based on the fairy tale of Hans Christian Andersen and was built by Edvard Eriksen.
You get the best view from the waterfront area, but also nearly all of the boats tours are visiting the statue. From the waterfront you see the little mermaids front side, from the boat you can only see her back.

So these are my must-see places in Copenhagen, which shouldn´t be missed during your stay in this city. Sadly it was very cold during my stay, so I couldn´t totally enjoy all the outdoor activities, but I liked the city a lot.

Have you ever been to Copenhagen? What are your must-see places there?

Yours, Nina