Copenhagen?

[jobob]

Jobob, um, anything? Honestly, I know nothing. I knew someone whose sister married someone from there and when he'd (my friend) go back to visit her he just raved about it. Is there a time of year I should avoid? I don't mind, in fact I prefer, off-season.

Well, you definitely want to avoid winter.

I think May-September would be good. The summer months are lovely (and the days are quite long!) but naturally you'll run into the high season so if you could shoot for early May or late Sept you'd be better off price-wise.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Copenhagen (and Denmark in general) are freakin' expensive nowadays. It had always been fairly pricey in general but with the exchange rate the way it is now, yech. Just sayin'.

As for my favorite things to do when I was there:

Walk around town. Seriously, it's great just to get a tourist map and meander about, along the canals, the downtown pedestrian-only shopping street (Strøget), and of course stop at the occasional bakery for a snack. *Real* Danish pastry is to die for.

I loved to wander through the Botanical Gardens. Across the street there's Rosenburg Castle where you can check out the crown jewels.

A canal tour by boat is always fun.

Hanging out at one of the outdoor restaurants along Nyhavn canal and doing some peple-watching. If you like mussels, you're in luck, they do them really well there. A meal of mussels & bread & white wine (or beer), heavenly.

Tivoli is one of those "must-see" attractions, but if you go I'd suggest going in the evening, it's very pretty all lit up.

You can take a train and do a day trip to the to the Louisiana Art Museum, north of Copenhagen. It's situated along the coast and I enjoyed wandering the grounds as much as wandering amisdt the artworks indoors.

Danes tend to be moderately-to-very fluent in English, so you generally won't have a problem getting around or getting information. However, if you're looking for a specific place or street, write it down - words in Danish often do not sound remotely they way an American would pronounce them! I learned to write down street addresses for cab drivers in particular. I'd say the name of the street, they'd look at me quizzically, I'd give them the piece of paper or card with the address, and they'd go "oh, blah-blah-blah!" and I'd say "huh?".

As for where to stay, I'm not going to be too much help with that since I only stayed at a few places - mainly the Marriott and the Nyhavn 71, which are both fairly pricey (tho our company had a cut rate at both places). But if you plan on booking at a specific place I could probably find out about it for you, or I might know about the area. The Nyhavn canal area was really nice, there are a lot of hotels around there. The Mariott was kind of in the middle of nowhere.

The thing to keep in mind is that most hotel rooms in Demark are pretty small by American standards. The Marriott was decidedly "American-style" though.

I used to go to Copenhagen a lot for my job but unfortunately the Denmark division is shutting down so I won't be going there anymore.

[Duck on Wheels]

Oooooh! I love Copenhagen! Good biking town too. But, yeah, Scandinavia is pretty expensive, 'specially with the dollar at an all-time low. So for your second European city, maybe somewhere a bit less expensive? My favorite is Amsterdam. And yes, Spring is a good time. Early May, or even late April. Spring comes earlier down there than up where I am (Trondheim). For a hotel tip, try the Fox -- http://www.hotelfox.dk/. You get to choose your room decor, which can be very colorful. And the breakfast in the lobby is kinda designer-fancy too. Yet not as expensive as, say, the Marriot. Or simply go to the Sentralstasjon (main railway station) booking office and ask for a room at a B&B. My folks landed us a room with a graphic artist once, many years ago. Nice place, nice people, and we bought a print as a souvenir.

[Trek420]

My folks landed us a room with a graphic artist once, many years ago. Nice place, nice people, and we bought a print as a souvenir.

Which I now have in the hallway

[teigyr]

Thank you! I am starting to investigate. I think this won't happen until late fall/early winter just due to budgetary constraints. We recently decided we must Be Good and we travel a lot just due to the fact we can. I wish we could go in the spring but I think I'll start pricing stuff out for fall. We are going to attempt to curtail silly travel until then.

It looks so great there! DH says not to get all worked up but I think planning early is better than not.

Though I suppose in the late fall/early winter there won't be the topless women?! Ah well, his loss.

[Trek420]

Though I suppose in the late fall/early winter there won't be the topless women?! Ah well, his loss.

Oh, they are a hardy bunch. But go in Spring/summer.