I had the best time in Copenhagen, and absolutely fell in love with the pretty city in the weekend that I was there! I expected Copenhagen to be beautiful, but it exceeded my expectations. Copenhagen is a completely walkable city, but hiring a bike in Copenhagen would be an even better way to get around! I was able to see everything I wanted in my weekend in Copenhagen just by walking around.

I started at Røsenborg Castle, which is a pretty summer palace with lovely gardens. I didn’t go inside because I’ve seen a lot of castles throughout Europe and I often find the exterior prettier and more impressive than the interiors. And I loved strolling around the gardens around the palace. There are huge fish in the moat around the palace, and there were children feeding the fish.

Next I strolled down past the Round Tower to Strøget, which is the main shopping street in Copenhagen. The buildings are old and beautiful, the streets are wide and clean, and the shops are amazing! I fell in love with a few of the design stores, like Illums Bolighus, which is a big home store full of Danish design!

I wandered on towards Nyhavn, or New Harbour, which is the beautiful little harbour with all the coloured buildings. It was really busy with tourists but there is still places to sit along the harbour and admire the buildings, watch the boats and people-watch. Plus, it’s so instagrammable!

From Nyhavn I decided to walk to the Little Mermaid statue, which is about a 20 minute walk from the harbour. I love walking and seeing places as I go so I didn’t mind the long walk. As I expected, the Little Mermaid statue is a bit of a tourist trap – it’s just a statue surrounded by a lot of tourists taking snaps. But, of course, I got my own snap, before wandering back, past the Kastellet.

I walked back towards Nyhavn and then across the bridge to the Copenhagen Street Food market. I absolutely loved this place! It doesn’t have as many vegetarian options as I had hoped, but you can always find a good falafel at a food market and I wasn’t disappointed. I got a giant falafel salad bowl and chips for 100kr, which is expensive but I wasn’t surprised by the high prices – Copenhagen is expensive!

I wandered around Freetown Christiania, which is completely not what I was expecting at all. I didn’t realise before going that Copenhagen had this kind of place. I thought Copenhagen was all clean lines and slick design, but Freetown is like a wild nonconformist paradise, with street art, weed dealers, vegan and vegetarian food, and a real community feel. The streets and canals on Christiania are also really pretty. I love walking along the streets with the canals, with all the boats and houseboats parked.

The next day I went to Amalienborg to see the changing of the guard, which happens every day at midday. It’s a fun thing to see, but of course it feels quite touristy, and it’s not really exciting (compared to the Buckingham Palace changing of the guard, for example), so if you don’t have time you can just wander past the palace at your own leisure.

I then of course went back to the shopping streets at Strøget, to explore the Danish department stores Magasin du Nord and Illum. It was really sunny, so for an afternoon drink we tried to avoid the tourist places along Nyhavn and instead walked North from Strøget, where we found plenty of bars with seating spilling outside.

I loved Copenhagen so much that within a week of coming home from Copenhagen I’ve already booked a trip back, to go for another weekend. The Airbnb we stayed at: