Don’t miss the our top ten!

This is the Latin quarter of Copenhagen. There are trendy fashion boutiques and cool second-hand shops, plus busy bars and a lot of laid-back student life. The old houses lend the quarter a charming village atmosphere, only a minute and-a-half’s walk from Strøget, the busiest pedestrian street in the city.

If you don’t mind crowds of people and long queues at the beer tent, your reward will be free rock concerts at Tivoli Gardens. “Friday Rock” draws thousands of Copenhageners to the recreation gardens every Friday at 22.00. The programme includes major Danish and international names. You will need an entry ticket to Tivoli Gardens.

To see the city through the eyes of native Copenhageners, you need to do it from a cycle track. All over the inner city, you’ll find special racks for free cycles, or “city bikes”, which can be borrowed for a deposit of DKK 20.

If you’d rather see Copenhagen from the water, alone and without a boatload of other tourists, you can hop into a rowing boat or kayak and be your own captain. Rowing boats can be hired from Christianshavns Rowing Boat Hire, and kayaks from Kajak Ole at Gammel Strand.

It isn’t a particularly “Danish” or “Copenhagen” thing, but you shouldn’t miss the bar at the Plaza Hotel. There, you will find a luxurious English library setting with stylish live jazz in the evenings. The bar was voted one of the top five in the world.

While we’re on the subject of hotel bars, they just don’t come with much more frontline design or big-city hip than this. Bar Rouge is in the five-star Hotel Skt. Petri, located in a former discount warehouse. The escalators have been kept, but the music has been switched for lounge DJ music and world-class cocktails.

Having trudged, sailed, and cycled around Copenhagen, it’s time to disappear into a world of timeless, ground-breaking experiments. Experimentarium at Hellerup north of Copenhagen is a giant activity centre for playful children and adults. This summer, you can test which sex is strongest, cleverest, and quickest.

Drive rain and cold out of your body at DGI-byen, just behind the main railway station. This leisure complex offers steam baths, hydromassage baths, aroma baths, mud packs, facials, and massage, and is used by many Copenhageners to survive the winter and year’s end. All for DKK 135 per person. Please note that it can get very busy on Saturdays.

The largest English language theatre in the Nordic region is the London Toast Theatre, performing at Glassalen in Tivoli Gardens. Particularly well-known and popular is the Theatre’s annual Christmas presentation in December and January, under the name of The Crazy Christmas Cabaret, in which the audience plays a central role. And don’t miss Christmas at Tivoli from mid-November, when the entire gardens are decorated and in full swing.

From 1st December, a series of skating rinks are erected in central parts of Copenhagen, where you can skate free. You can bring your own skates, or hire some from the venue. The most eye-catching skaters come in the evening. It looks as though this year’s most central rinks will be at Trianglen in Østerbro, Blågårds Plads in Nørrebro, and Kongens Nytorv. Also see www.fritidkbh.