We arrived at Copenhagen’s airport and the first thing I loved was how convenient the Copenhagen metro system is! While it is expensive (as is everything here) getting the Copenhagen card saved so much time and money because you can download it directly to your phone. It also gives you free or discounted access to hundreds of sites!
We had two short days in Copenhagen, not including the afternoon we flew in or the morning out, and wanted to make the most of what Copenhagen and greater Denmark had to offer!
Day 1
After finding our hotel and getting groceries, the next day we set off early to Frederiksborg Castle. This is called the Versailles of the North, and it lives up to the name! We took the normal Copenhagen metro 30 minutes and it ended up in a small, quiet town. Nothing screamed “this way to the castle” so we just started walking into town, and as soon as we turned the corner we saw this picturesque view!
There was a lovely lake in front of the castle surrounded by greenery, a walking path, and plenty of openings for pictures.
We followed the path around and finally got to see the full, unobstructed view of this massive castle.
While you can walk the grounds for free, paying to go inside the castle is worth the money; it is as well-decorated, if not better, than Versailles! The castle has its own church inside and almost all the furniture and decorations were intact. On top of the beauty, not many tourists were here so we really got to take in how it would have felt hundreds of years ago when it was used by Scandinavian royalty.
Outside of the castle are huge well-maintained grounds that are free to go into! If we had known, we would’ve brought a packed lunch.
After Frederiksborg castle, we headed home for lunch before heading to Copenhagen city center.
Copenhagen city center was much more packed than the small town Frederiksborg was in but it was full of life and so much to see! We started by exploring Christianborg castle and were rather underwhelmed compared to the castle we had seen earlier. In fact, for us, it was hard to make out that Christiansborg was an actual palace from the outside because it looked like any other government building!
We ended the day in Freetown Christiana, famous for having the Church of Our Savior. The church looks relatively normal on the outside, but it is renowned for its spiral staircase on the outside of the spire! You can walk up it, which we did, to see some fantastic city views. However, be warned, the railing gets low near the top and if you have a fear of heights, like my boyfriend, you might want to stay as close to the spire as possible.
Day 2
Everything in Copenhagen is pretty close together, so we were able to spend the morning soaking in the rest of the sights we had missed on day 1! we started in Nyhaven, a must-see and also the most quintessential Copenhagen postcard sight. It is a canal lined with brightly colored buildings and if you want to miss the bulk of the tourists, I recommend waking up bright and early and getting there before 8!
On our morning to-do list after Nyhaven was Rosenborg Palace, the Round Tower, the botanical gardens, and the Tivoli Gardens. Rosenborg palace had a wait time of over an hour, despite us arriving at 9 AM, because it is so small they can only let a certain number of people in the palace at a time. We paid and got our tickets with the time we had to be back for, and headed to the nearby Round Tower. We walked past the building a couple of times because we didn’t realize the “Round” Tower would not be round on the outside, but it lived up to the name inside!
You can also see the views from the Round Tower, but if you want the best views I think the Church of Our Savior had this place beat.
Rosenborg Palace looked really nice on the outside and had very nice public gardens, but it was quite small, very expensive to get inside, and didn’t have that much to see. Rosenborg Palace is still a must-see, I just wouldn’t recommend starting with Frederiksborg Castle because every place you visit afterward won’t live up to it.
We scarfed down a packed lunch in the Botanical Gardens, which was a great place to stop and take in the scenery, and then explored Tivoli Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is a large amusement park, surprising because of the name garden which you normally expect quiet greenery.
We didn’t spend long at the Tivoli Gardens so we could head to our afternoon destination: Kronborg castle! For those of you that don’t know, Kronborg Castle is the birthplace of Shakespeare’s Hamlet! (And if you can’t tell, I was very excited to visit.)
It is a little bit of a further train ride to Kronborg castle (45 minutes) but you are experiencing somewhere in Denmark beyond Copenhagen, and this city is right next to Sweden! You can actually see Sweden from Kronborg Castle.
Kronborg Castle lived up to every expectation I had of the place. While it was not as well-decorated as Frederiksboarg castle (like I said, starting first at the best castle was a mistake), Kronborg castle had all the history of Shakespeare’s Hamlet behind it. For a small fee to enter, actors reenacted scenes of Hamlet in the rooms, there were interactive objects, and even an outdoor setup to learn archery!
After two days of intense sightseeing around Denmark, we are off to Sweden! Until next time xx
