My guide to Copenhagen
An incomplete, 3 day guide to everything I did in Copenhagen as a food obsessed, coffee obsessed gluten free girl who has been getting Copenhagen related Pinterest pins since 2010.
Over the festive period, I spent three glorious days in Copenhagen. You may have read a little bit about my time there if you read my Scandinavian itinerary post.
I think it’s too difficult to pull together a full and complete itinerary of a city like Copenhagen in 3 days. There’s so much to see and so many places to eat that I wouldn’t feel right calling it a complete list.
Copenhagen is truly a magical city and one that I’d love to visit over the summer (actually, I’d love to live there!). That said, it is EXPENSIVE. We did a lot of walking to avoid the costs of the metro or ubers. It is a great way to save money and make extra space for more food, but it does make the itinerary a little slower going.
To make it easier to walk places, we stayed centrally at 25 Hours hotel. It was essentially across the street from the Rundetaarn so it was walkable to almost everything we wanted to see. The hotel definitely had some quirks but it was a good solid base and I have no regrets.
Day 1
On our first morning we walked straight to Atelier September for breakfast. It had been on my Pinterest feed and my mind for years so it felt deserving of the first breakfast. I have to say, I thought it was a bit overrated! Yes it’s cute and aesthetic but the vibe was not very welcoming and the system was all over the shop. People without a seat had to wait outside, but different staff members would go out to bring people in so there was no order as to who got seated first. The food was good and the coffee was good but I had better elsewhere.
Next was the magical H.U.G bakery! A gluten free bakery which was more towards Norrebro, they make delicious gluten free croissants and pains au chocolat. I absolutely recommend it if you are gluten free in Copenhagen - nay, I insist.
Today’s itinerary was a bit all over the shop - we bought so many baked goods that we walked back to the hotel. From there, we had coffee at La Cabra (around the corner from our hotel) and walked to Nyhavn to explore.
After Nyhavn, we got a taxi to Tivoli Gardens to go to the Christmas market. I saw a tip that suggested arriving during the daylight hours to see both daylight and night. We got there around 2.30-3pm on December 18 and the sun sets around 3.30-3.40pm at that time of year. I highly recommend seeing it both in the daytime and nighttime - it is a totally different vibe. The tickets cost us around $100 Australian dollars, so I recommend planning to be there for a while. You can either buy a ticket only or a ticket with rides included.
We stumbled upon a gorgeous greenhouse coffee shop/wine bar setup at Kilden I Haven in the Tivoli gardens. Sitting there with a wine as it got dark was absolutely gorgeous and I highly recommend it.
If you’re on the hunt for dinner plans, Tivoli Food Hall is right next to the gardens and you can pass in and out with your ticket to Tivoli gardens.
We had managed to snag a dinner reservation at Apollo near Nyhavn, so we hooned back to the area in a taxi to make the reservation. The food was absolutely delicious and it was a gorgeous evening. This was my favourite dinner in Copenhagen.
Day 2
This morning we had breakfast at Studio X Kitchen. If you have TikTok, you may have seen the swirly eggs. I can confidently confirm that they are worth the hype - they were absolutely delicious.
After breakfast, we walked to April for coffee. It was great coffee and the staff were lovely. I will say though, it was $30 Australian for an espresso and a latte. Probably the most expensive coffee we had all trip, so it might not be the spot if you’re just after a caffeine fix rather than something highly specialised.
We got a 10.40am Stromma canal boat tour from Nyhavn. Even in cold weather I highly recommend this - it is such a great way to see more of Copenhagen in a short space of time. I would try and choose a nice day for it in terms of cloudiness or rain, but there is indoor seating as well as outdoor. Hot tip: bring a headband or pins if you have a fringe and it’s a windy day.
After the boat, we decided to walk to Norrebro. It’s a bit of a trek, but I do love me some holiday step counts. We explored Torverhallen and I got an espresso at Coffee Collective which was very nice. Apparently the smorrebrod at Toverhallern is highly recommended if you can eat bread.
Further on, I stopped at Land Bageriat and had a delicious little gluten free fruit studded bread roll. Not everything is gluten free - they have lots of vegan stuff too.
We walked onwards and stopped for coffee at Impact Roasters. I have to say this was the worst espresso I had all trip, but I suspect the barista might have been new. People in coffee Reddit threads always recommend this place so I am choosing to assume I got unlucky.
Wine time! We went to Pompette for a lunch wine which was a very cute little space. Poulette, the Dua Lipa Chicken sandwich shop, is right next door if you are so inclined. There is also an Anderson Maillard on the corner, so we stopped to get a pastry for Mum (my travel companion). By all accounts the coffee is pretty good at Anderson Maillard, but I had already reached my caffeine limit.
We walked back to our hotel and had a bit of phone time before heading over to Bar Vitrine for lunch. The food was absolutely delicious, as was the glogg (mulled wine). I will say the lunch menu is small, so I would try and go for dinner.
We finished the day with a bit of hotel mooching before I met up with a friend who lives in Copenhagen for dinner.
Day 3
This morning I inhaled some leftover pastry from H.U.G bakery (yes, stale by now but still delicious) before we ubered over to Lille Bakery. I had seen this place online for years and was very excited to visit. The menu is short and not very gluten free friendly which is absolutely fair (it is a bakery, after all). The coffee was also not machine coffee, more like a pre-prepared thermos of coffee. Cute to see, not necessarily a must-eat. If I had my time over again I would have gone to Apotek 57 before getting the Uber to Lille.
Lille Bakery is on the Christianshavn side right near La Banchina. La Banchina is a wine bar and little cafe on the water. In the summer, the dock is filled with gorgeous tanned people drinking wine and swimming. In winter, there were 1 or 2 people doing a cold plunge and sauna combo. I will say that La Banchina looked more run-down than I expected! It always looks so shiny and swish in the photos, but it was a bit more ‘Brunswick-esque’ than I anticipated. Still great to see and I would still absolutely go in summer.
We walked towards Christianshavn and stumbled upon the Noma Projects shop en route. Cue a very expensive espresso and a small mortgage spent on gifts (still worth it though).
Onwards we walked through Frederiksholm to Prolog coffee. I had a very good espresso and it was a nice little spot.
We wandered around Christianshavn before making our way back for lunch at Apero. If I had my time again, I would have stayed in Christianshavn all day and explored Freetown Christiana as well. Apero was nice but expensive and tiiiiny weeny portions. Very cute interiors so I would just go for a wine personally.
We spent our afternoon meandering around the city centre and ended up walking to the Mermaid statue that we had seen on our boat trip the day before. It is underwhelming as a tourist attraction but fun to see and the walk is nice on a nice day. It was fun to walk back through Amalienborg too.
We walked back into town and fancied a veggie heavy dinner that wasn’t ‘fancy’, so we went to Cholon Vingardstræde. It was yummy, reasonably priced and the staff were lovely.
Day 4 (departure day)
I got up super early this day to go and get coffee and pastries for Mum from Hart Bageri. It was a Saturday morning and my god! I was amazed at how much mess was all over the streets. For such a clean city, it was such a shock. Bottles, glasses, beer and even a hypothermia blanket lol. I think they love to party!
I got a very good espresso from Hart Bageri and went back to the hotel for a last minute breakfast. The hotel breakfast at 25 Hours Copenhagen was not worth it if it’s not included, in my opinion. It was around $60 Australian per person (so $120 for us) and that didn’t even include real espresso (just machine stuff). If you can avoid it, skip and go to brunch somewhere better for less money.
We got an uber to the train station for $28 Australian which I thought was reasonable enough. Onwards to Oslo via Gothenburg!
Coffee in Copenhagen
I have written a post on my website about this (going live soon) but here is my list of coffee shop suggestions for Copenhagen. This includes some spots I didn’t manage to get to.
La Cabra
April
Coffee Collective
Anderson and Maillard
Wild Horses
Prolog
Lokal
Hart Bageri
Darcy’s Kaffe
Breakfast and brunch in Copenhagen
Studio X Kitchen
H.U.G Bakery (for gluten free croissants and goodies)
Apotek 57
Amator
Atelier September (see my notes in the section above)
Doomsday Deli (not gluten free but looks delicious)
Auren’s Deli (not gluten free but looks delicious)
Mad and Kaffe
Dinner (or lunch) in Copenhagen
Apollo
Bar Vitrine
Cleo
Delphine
Come Rice Kitchen
Alle Tiders
Locale 21
Pluto
Fabro
Bars in Copenhagen
Ruby
Balderdash
Bird
Duck and Cover
K Bar
Gensyn
Lidkoeb
Union Local
Pulp
1656
Tips for Copenhagen
I recommend sitting down properly to decide where you really want to eat. Things book up and we didn’t book ahead so we missed out on some things.
I love pinning all my locations to a map so I can see them as I wander around. Might sound like such an obvious suggestion but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
Stay central! Honestly, this was a lifesaver for us. Transport is expensive so we did a huge amount of walking even though we were staying centrally. Wear comfortable shoes!
If money were no object, I could easily do a few weeks in Copenhagen (or maybe like, live there). If money is an object, I’d suggest 4-5 days. We could have done with an extra day to see the Meatpacking District. An additional day and I would have gone to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and/or Glyptoteket.
Yes, Copenhagen is expensive but I daresay it could be done in a more budget savvy manner than we did it. The hotel wasn’t astronomical for the location (we booked a twin share in the smallest room) but the food does add up. If you’re not a foodie you could easily do it for a lot cheaper. Added bonus? If you don’t drink coffee! At April, an espresso and a latte was $30 Australian. At Coffee Collective, an espresso was $9 Australian. It all starts to add up.
Thank you for this amazing guide 🙏🏻