We spent two days in Copenhagen as part of a long weekend, with a third day spent crossing the Øresund Bridge to visit Malmö in Sweden. It was my second visit to Copenhagen, so we combined some past favourites with things that I’d missed first time round.
There is plenty to see and do to fill a weekend in Copenhagen (we didn’t visit any of the royal palaces, for example) but if you only have two days, I would recommend using one day for the 30 mile trip up the coast to Helsingør, famous for the stunning Kronborg Castle, which was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. If you have an extra day, then a trip across the bridge to Malmö is well worth a visit.
Itinerary
| Fly to Copenhagen Train to Malmö | |
| Day 1 | Malmö Train to Copenhagen Accommodation – SleepCPH |
| Day 3 | Day Trip to Helsingør Train to Helsingør Helsingør Harbour Kronborg Castle Bus to Rungsted Karen Blixen Museum Train to Copenhagen |
| Day 4 | Copenhagen Amagerstrandpark The Little Mermaid Gefion Fountain Kastellet Glyptotek |
Fly to Copenhagen
We fly to Copenhagen, then catch a train across the Øresund Bridge; a five mile long bridge which crosses from Denmark to Sweden, via an artificial island.
Train to Malmö
It sounds spectacular, but it’s a double decker bridge with the railway running beneath the motorway, so in reality there isn’t much to see, just little glimpses of Malmö through the gaps in the ironwork.
Day 1 – Malmö
You can read more details about our visit to Malmö here.
Train to Copenhagen
From here, we catch the train across the Øresund back to Copenhagen.
Accommodation – SleepCHP
Once we have arrived back in Denmark, we check into our hotel; SleepCPH. As the name suggests, it’s a place to sleep, but that’s about it. I feel like I’m in a 30 year time warp and back in student halls. The room contains a bed, table and clothes rail. At the end of the corridor are a communal kitchen and bathroom. And this basic provision, three miles from the centre of town, costs £92 a night.
The hotel’s main selling point – its proximity to parkrun. The receptionist says many of their guests are parkrunners. In fact, in the kitchen is a three metre long photo of the route for guests to visually feast on.
It’s another scorcher of a day, so I go to the shop to buy drinks. There are signs around the hotel stating that no alcohol is allowed on the premises. The only decoration in my sparse yet expensive room is a Warholesque picture of James Dean. I ask myself ‘what would James do?’ And I buy beer.
In the evening, the old man takes a walk into town. I opt for a more leisurely evening, drinking my beer and watching tennis on my phone (£92 a night doesn’t get you a TV).
Day 2 – Day Trip to Helsingør
Today, we’re taking a trip up the Zealand coast to Helsingør, home of Kronborg castle.
Train to Helsingør
First, we need to purchase 24 hour travel cards from the ticket machine. The old man requests two tickets plus a receipt and the machine issues two cards; one ticket and one ticket with a receipt. However, he is convinced he has been issued with one ticket and one receipt. He calls the helpline to complain that he has paid for two tickets and only received one. Eventually, a lady who had been waiting patiently in the queue steps in and clears up the confusion. Once we have ascertained that we do, in fact, have two tickets, we catch a train to Helsingør.
Helsingør Harbour
We start with a walk along the harbour. There are some interesting sculptures, including The Little Merman and a thought provoking fish made with rubbish from the harbour.
Kronborg Castle
We continue with a walk around the castle. We’re too tight to pay the £35 to go inside, so make do with a circuit around the edge and a trip to the gift shop.
Then we take a walk through the town of Helsingør, buy provisions and picnic by the waterfront, which is pleasant apart from two facts; 1) we are relentlessly circled by an enormous seagull and 2) it’s so windy I keep accidentally eating my own hair.
Bus to Rungsted
We return towards Copenhagen by bus. Lonely Planet recommends the bus because it runs along the coast and is, therefore, more scenic than the train. They’re not kidding – if we were any nearer the coast we’d need snorkels and flippers. And nose-clips; in places the smell of sewage is overpowering.
Karen Blixen Museum
We alight in Rungsted to visit the home of Karen Blixen; (“I had a house in Africa…”). You can take an audio guide of the home where she lived as a child and where she returned to die after Robert Redford gave her syphilis.
You can also visit her grave in the garden.
Train to Copehagen
After visiting the grave, which is a ten minute walk from the house, I notice a short cut to the station. But we still have our audio guides. So the old man takes pity on me and returns to the museum while I hobble off towards the station.
We return to our hotel room, which is just as we left it; £92 a night doesn’t get you housekeeping. It’s probably just as well. The stairs to the fire escape have already been transformed into an obstacle course by bags of laundry. I dread to think what it would look like if they changed the sheets regularly. Never mind, we check out tomorrow – unless there’s a fire, which will probably lead to the ultimate check out.
Day 3 – Copenhagen
Amagerstrandpark
It’s Saturday, AKA parkrun day and we are going to Amagerstrandpark. It starts at 9 am, but we are awake by 5 am thanks to a group of Chinese tourists replicating stormtroopers in the corridor. It’s raining heavily and my waterproof is in a car park near Stansted, so I am going to get rather wet.
The Strandpark is on a small Island in the Øresund; the strait which separates Denmark and Sweden. We walk the mile to the start, then hide out in a shelter as long as possible.
The route consists two laps along the island, across a bridge, along the prom and back across another bridge. To complicate matters, the first lap is anti-clockwise and the second lap is clockwise. Luckily, I don’t get lost despite being too slow to see the next slowest runner. I fight my way through the wind and rain and the pain in my knee to finish in 37 minutes, which I consider a triumph.
We return to the hotel and, once suitably clean and fed, check out. Another thing you don’t get for £92 a night is a manned reception. We finally locate a staff member and explain that we are checking out, but would like to leave our bags until this evening.
We set off for Copenhagen. It’s not our normal sightseeing routine of hours of aimless wandering. We buy a travel card and take buses between locations to spare my injured knee, which has already had a hard day.
The Little Mermaid
First stop, unpredictability, is The Little Mermaid. Although we do get slightly waylaid by another sculpture in the harbour, next to a fountain containing a worm with a large penis smoking a cigar.
Back on track, I’m surprised by the throng of tourists round the little mermaid. Last time I were here, 30 years ago, we had the place to ourselves and were able to clamour over the rocks to the statue. Now, bus loads of tourists are disgorging onto the quayside.
Gefion Fountain
Next, we take a little wander past the Gefion Fountain.
Kastellet
Then around the Kastellet, before boarding another bus to the Glyptotek.
Glyptotek
The Glyptotek contains the private art collection of the founder of Carlsberg, who made a few quid flogging beer. The bulk of the collection is sculptures, mainly ancient statues with no noses. But there are also paintings; most of the big European names are represented; Van Gough, Degas, Monet, Picasso, Cesanne etc.
Much of the gallery is dedicated to The Changing Collection – currently the work of Pierre Bonnard. It’s not my cup of tea and it feels slightly offensive to read his narrative on searching for the perfect colour, considering that it was WWII and most people had much more pressing matters to contend with. So we head instead for the roof, from where there are great views across the city.
Then it’s time to head for the airport. We return to SleepCPH to collect our bags. The entrance is locked and we have a plane to catch. After a stressful few minutes wondering what the hell to do next, we discover the bags hidden behind a chair in the hallway. Luckily, our passports are still there. After a classy picnic in the park by the tube station, we depart for the airport.
I hope you found the above information useful. For more guides from other destinations in the 50+ countries we have visited, check out my full Travel Guides list here.
- Trip taken: June 2019
- Updated: May 2022
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