Welcome to Copenhagen! Did you arrive in the airport? Then the first thing to do is to take the train or the metro to the city center depending on where you are staying. Getting around in Copenhagen is a bit pricey – it is in the top five most expensive cities in the world – but there are ways to get around. For one, you can buy a “klippekort”. It provides you with ten trips in a different number of “zones” in Copenhagen. The price differs on the “klippekort” depending on how many zones you will use it. From the airport to Copenhagen you will go through zone 1,2, and 3, so it could be an idea to have a “klippekort” for either two or three zones, leading to a price of about 200 DKK for ten trips.
Now you are in Copenhagen and you need a place to drop off your things. For one you can
leave them at the central station if you pay, or you could go directly to the place where you will be spending the night. As a frequent traveler you might already know to use Hostelworld to find cheap prices for where to spend the night, but we do have a good advice regarding where to stay. “Sleep in heaven” sounds both lovely and a bit cheesy but it is a nice hostel, close to the city center and one with the best price. Another good hostel would be one of the Dancity hostels – there are a couple of them with a reasonable price. Last piece of advice would be to look into Omena hotels – an “apartment” hotel in the city center with reasonable price as well – if you travel with at least three other people because the rooms come with bed space for up to four persons.
Now that you are settled in, it is time to look around. Copenhagen and Denmark are famous for their bikes and if you did not choose the “klippekort” option from the airport then it could be an idea to look into bike rentals depending on the length of your stay, because there are plenty of possibilities to get around and experience some culture in the Danish capital. When you exit the central station in Copenhagen you will be “faced” with Tivoli – a nice place to have fun in roller coasters, take a stroll and enjoy life. Entering the Tivoli gardens is a particularly nice experience if you visit Denmark around Christmas. However, if you choose not to visit Tivoli then you can move on to the next nearby location, “Rådhuspladsen”, where the big city hall is located and which marks the beginning of “Strøget” – the central place to shop. Strolling along “Strøget” you will find cool shops, nice places to buy either an ice cream or a Belgian waffle – depending on the time of year. By the end of Strøget you will get to Kongens Nytorv which is a nice place to go ice skating during winter time, and during summer time you will see people drinking beer in Nyhavn which is a must-visit place in Copenhagen, and especially Rajissimo is a 
perfect location to buy icecream or churros to enjoy. After the treats you can either visit the royal palace nearby (which is not open to the public) or take off in the Canaltour which will take you around interesting places such as the famous Danish opera house and that famous mermaid. A mermaid that you also can visit by taking the bus to “Langelinje” because let’s face it – who goes to Copenhagen without visiting the little mermaid? Not so far from the little mermaid you can enjoy possibly the best ice cream in your life – the little shop “Lydolphs Isbar” always has a long queue outside, but it is definitely worth the wait!
But enough about ice cream – it is time for some more culture! The national museum of art located near the “Kings garden”, which is a perfect spot for a picnic during summer time, and the royal palace “Rosenborg” (open for visits), is free to enter everyday as well as the national museum and many other museums in the Danish capital.
At night you cannot and will probably not visit any(more) museums. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, and has a lot of students
AEGEE-København ladies at Australian bar
and therefore a nightlife scene broad enough to please everybody. Studenterhuset is the place where AEGEE-København has its board meetings but it is also a place where many students party. Then we have Christania, the alternative choice to more “pop” themed places such as Kulørbar and Australian bar “A Bar” where early birds can get free beer for one or two hours before midnight. Next to A Bar you will find “Frøken Nielsen” where you pay for the entrance (usually between 100 & 250 DKK) and then the drinks are on the house for the rest of the night. In the end, there are many different places to party in Copenhagen, and it is easy to assure that it is possible to party in Copenhagen.
A nice way to cure a hangover is to find the nearest bakery. “Hej, hvad skulle det være?” will be the question the nice girl behind the desk will ask you and if you want something really Danish then the answer would be “en spandaur med crème”. Then afterwards, you can head out to visit places such as “Rundetårn”, the oldest observatory in function in Europe, see “Christania” by day, or any of the other cultural visits that would still be on your to-do-list before heading back home or towards your next location.
It all sounds good, doesn’t it? And now you are not sure when to visit Copenhagen. There is always something going on in Copenhagen, but it is especially crowded in June where the street party “Distortion” goes on for a week, in July the big music festival “Roskilde festival” is organised in a city near Copenhagen and in October the cultural night “Kulturnatten” brings tons of people to the city center to visit free museums and more. However, there is no need for a big event to visit the Danish capital, it is safe to say that there is always something going on in this wonderful city.
Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København