3 days in Copenhagen: walking tours

Copenhagen is a popular touristy harbour city, with quite a price tag on it despite some cheap flights from other parts of Europe. After my short trip to Warsaw, I couldn’t wait to plan my next 3 day trip and I picked this Nordic city to spend another few days struggling with my thesis. This is a Copenhagen short trip!

On this trip in May, I went on 2 walking tours and spent the rest of my time working in the hostel or in cafes. These walking tours were run by Copenhagen free walking tours, which works on a donation basis.

Christiania walking tour

The first walking tour was to Christiania, the freetown that is known for pusher street where weed vendors have open stalls displaying their wares.

Freetown Christiania main entrance

Freetown Christiania

Freetown Christiania

Leaving Freetown Christiania, entering the EU

Classic walking tour

On my second day, I went on a more classic walking tour that took us from the city hall area, to the famous Nyhavn, and lastly to Frederick’s church.
Town squareWhile on the walking tour

Statue of Absalon

Nyhavn

Frederik's Church

All in all, I really like walking tours and these were no exception. On this Copenhagen short trip, I didn’t have much time. You do have to accept that you’ll feel like a tourist walking around in a big group with a guide, but you’ll get a lot of knowledge from it and you’ll get to see many parts of the city at the same time. If you are short on time, it is a good way to get a feel for a place before exploring a bit more on your own.

Tips for food and other things to do

Since it was quite an expensive trip for me, I didn’t do as much but tried to take advantage of any opportunities to save some money.

  1. To save a few dollars, check if your hostel has any deals or special events going on. Where I stayed, they did a free dinner every night for a limited number of seats. They also had a buffet breakfast, where you could pack some makeshift sandwiches for later if you wanted to.
  2. Walk! If you don’t have energy to keep walking after a walking tour, you can also rent a bicycle to get around. I found a nice cafe, that didn’t have any tourists in it all, but it was a little walk away from the main areas of attraction.
  3. Copenhagen street food market is a great place to get a good meal for less than what you’d pay in a restaurant. There’s a lot of different cuisines to choose from, and some really tasty things like an egg wrap filled with pulled pork. I paid about 80 Danish Krone, which is about 12 USD. Plates in a sit down restaurant may go for over 100 DKK.
  4. Hostels or walking tour companies often host pub crawls or drinking specials. My hostel gave us wristbands when we checked in that gave us a discount at the hostel bar. The walking tour pub crawl also came with wristbands for discounts at specific bars.

What’s the damage?

In the end for this Copenhagen short trip, I spent about 165 GBP or 235 USD for the whole trip (3 days, 2 nights) including the flight (20 GBP/28 USD) and accommodation (68 GBP/97 USD). Next time I’m there, I hope I have a real job so that I can do/eat a lot more!

Any tips for Copenhagen on a budget? Would love to hear them!

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Copenhagen, Denmark