Copenhagen?
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Anonymous
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Is it worth it?
Friends have said to pick either Copenhagen or Amsterdam, not both. |
Anonymous
| Museums and food are better in the Netherlands. |
Anonymous
| Nice for a couple of days, but not a large city and you may soon tire of it. There are relatively few tourist-type attractions, so visit mostly for the pleasant atmosphere. |
Anonymous
| Copenhagen is very pricey. |
Anonymous
| They're more different than you might think. Concur with previous poster that museums are much better in Amsterdam/Netherlands. On the fence about food, Copenhagen has better bakeries but for regular meals Amsterdam probably wins. Copenhagen is also quite expensive, but so is Amsterdam. On the flip side, while the canals are lovely in Amsterdam, on the whole we found Copenhagen prettier. A lot of Amsterdam's core was pretty tacky with the red light district. Nothing like that in Copenhagen. |
Anonymous
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Copenhagen was great for a family with young kids. We went to Tivoli Gardens, the zoo, did a private boat tour, took the train to go to a Viking ship museum and a tour a gorgeous castle, and then did couple days in Stockholm before flying home. Copenhagen is pricy but there are incentives that make it more affordable for families (if you go, get the Copenhagen Card -- you can get a free card for kids with the purchase of an adult card and it covers all public transit, gets you discounts lots of places, and covers the entrance fee for a lot of attractions including the ones we went to outside of Copenhagen itself). Even though our hotel wasn't cheap, it wasn't insane (around $250/night US, which is actually really decent for a city IMO) and the hotel was incredibly family friendly -- great breakfast spread every morning, included, bike rentals for the family, a play area for kids off the lobby, and the room was set up/designed for a family.
Amsterdam is also great but I think it makes more sense for teens or just an adult trip because to me Amsterdam is a more adult city. I think it could be boring for younger kids. Having Tivoli in Copenhagen is a huge selling point for travel with kids IMO. Agree I wouldn't try to do both in the same trip. |
Anonymous
| Neither are great food cities. Amsterdam should be better than it is. Copenhagen obviously has great high-end food, but most restaurants are disappointing. |
Anonymous
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I'm an urban baby exile and one of those lovely ladies tipped me off to this restaurant in copenhagen 9.5 years ago. We still talk about it.
https://cofoco.dk/en/restaurant-cofoco/ |
Anonymous
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The Copenhagen food scene is much better than Amsterdam. It is also much cleaner. The Danish people are amazing. I think anyone can appreciate Tivoli - lots of olds were using it as a dining destination.
Amsterdam is beautiful but in a different way. Walking among the canals is awesome. You also have it being a major destination for the spring break crowd, international stag parties, etc. The Anne Frank Museum is (not) a real uplifter. |
Anonymous
The deal with food in Copenhagen is that they actually pioneered a specific strand of high cuisine there. It's a lot of molecular gastronomy but with a focus on using the freshest possible ingredients, locally grown and sourced. The restaurant Noma in Copenhagen embodies this but a lot of other restaurants in the city follow this trend (and often have chefs who came out of Noma's kitchen). While I love food, and respect what Noma does, it's not really my thing. I'm just not into food that is prepared that way and looks that way, even as I can appreciate that it is an art form. I'm way more prosaic, and if I'm going to spend a lot of money on a meal, I am looking for like a really great steak or like the perfect rigatoni or something. It's who I am. So when we were in Copenhagen, we didn't actually go to any of these places with the molecular gastronomy even though we love food and those are definitely the most famous places in the city. But you know what I did enjoy? Popl, which is a burger joint run by the chefs at Noma. It's great! And right on the water with a fantastic patio. Not fancy but the burgers are delicious and the vibe is relaxed and fun. I'm throwing this on the thread just so people understand that you do not actually have to go to the Michelin starred restaurants in Copenhagen to enjoy the food, and it's okay to hit more middle brow spots. I love bakeries and Copenhagen has some of the best (Juno and Apotek were my favorites but honestly you can go in almost anywhere and get a cardamom bun that will knock your socks off). We also ate at a few great kebob and schwarma places. We did a day in Malmo (in Sweden, right across a bridge from Copenhagen) and had dinner at an amazing pizza place run by an Italian family that was delicious. You can also find great ice cream in Copenhagen. It's a city, it has a range of places to eat. You don't need to do the super high end fine dining to eat well there. |
Anonymous
Yeah, regarding Tivoli, it's helpful to understand what it is. It's technically an amusement park but you can go there and not get a rides pass and actually a lot of people go to just enjoy the gardens and the food. There's a food hall you can access without even going in the park that has a big variety of very decent food and you can sit on the patio that overlooks the Tivoli gardens. You can also buy an entry to the park without a ride pass and see concerts there or go to one of the restaurants. Plus even with rides, you can get a variety of different passes including individual ride passes if for instance you just want to ride one roller coaster as a way to kill time before dinner. Or you can get more extensive passes and ride a bunch of stuff. It's right in the middle of the city and is walkable or a short train ride from many of the neighborhoods you'd want to stay in (there are also a number of hotels right around or in Tivoli itself). In the summer Tivoli has a festive but kind of chill atmosphere. It's really unique and I've never visited another city with something like this. It's really great and I have wonderful memories of just grabbing beers and hanging out there after a day of sightseeing. It's this weird blend of Disneyland and Central Park that is somewhat hard to explain. |
Anonymous
I'm not sure why your friends gave you that advice. I went to both cities on a trio a couple years ago. Airfare is cheap between the two and I enjoyed the contrast between the cities. I loved both but felt there was more to do in Amsterdam. 4-5 days in Copenhagen felt like more than enough time. |
Anonymous
What was the hotel? Thank you. |
Anonymous
| They are both great...do both. |
Anonymous
| NP. Want to go to Copenhagen but have not yet been. So the tips here are very helpful. |