We landed in Copenhagen on Wednesday late morning after an excruciatingly uncomfortable and long flight. I hadn’t been overseas with my wife since 2004 before we had kids. We were all very excited to start our 2-week vacation. We had been planning this vacation for at least 10 months and could scarcely believe it was already starting. Last year for our anniversary my wife was in the hospital and the whole summer was completely shot with health issues. So this year we decided we should celebrate especially since it was our 20th Wedding Anniversary back in May.
My wife is the travel agent and usually takes care of all of our arrangements but for some reason, I wound up booking our hotel in Copenhagen. It was a modern hotel in the meat-packing district that was centrally located around a lot of restaurants. The hotel was called Scandic Kodbyen (pronounced Kohlben by the taxi driver). The Scandic hotel is a brand, they are a chain of hotels. At the time I didn’t know what area I was booking, but my criteria were: no pets allowed (wife and son are allergic) somewhat centrally located and I also booked it on a specific website through Delta Airlines. (I got triple miles booking through Delta on my Delta Skymiles credit card). Travel tip: if you’re not familiar with the city or area check with the airline’s website they will not put you in a bad area. Also, some people might wonder how much cash do you travel with? We both carried very little cash with us and used credit cards whenever we could. The good thing is that almost everywhere will take your credit card- without complaining.
When we landed we took a taxi to our hotel. I loved the way they had the taxi stand set up at the airport in Copenhagen. Just get in line tell the attendant how many people in your party and there’s a line of taxis, it was very well organized and efficient. I’m probably behind the times this is how cities have been running taxi stands for eons but I’ve just never used them. On a side note when we got back to New York I saw a taxi stand and there was no one online.
I was surprised at the size of the room at the hotel. It was quite large for a European city. It was straight out of IKEA, beds were mucho comfy and full-length mirrors to boot. The kids had a pull-out couch for their bed. After our nap, we ventured out for some local food. We walked into several of the local places and they had allergy warnings so we weren’t comfortable having our son eat there. As I’ve mentioned before my son has severe food allergies so it makes traveling a lot more challenging. We walked over to the Stroget district where there is lots of shopping and food. We settled on this burger place in an indoor mall area where my son and I ordered a couple of burgers, a beer and a water for $50!!?? My wife and daughter got a chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, and water for $25.00. I remember when we ate dinner that night it was very expensive as well. (Expensive and tipping is discouraged because they actually pay people decent wages). Denmark has its own currency called the Danish Kronor. We didn’t exchange money because all the shops and taxis took credit cards. I have several travel credit cards that don’t charge exchange rates or fees. Most of the place will take Euros but they will give you change back in their currency.
Tivoli Gardens opened in August of 1843, the second oldest amusement park in the world
Anyway, we walked outside the mall and directly next to it was Tivoli Gardens, which is the most unusual amusement park. If you live in the states most amusement parks have a feel that’s all the same. Opening in August of 1843 Tivoli Gardens is the second oldest amusement park in the world, the oldest also being in Denmark. It has gardens all throughout, and areas where you can just lounge! Souvenir shops are very European, not like the Corporate boring, sameness you see over here. The whole place was very colorful, playful, and quaint. They did have a small roller coaster and some other cool rides. There was one admission just to get in so you could walk around, eat, and shop, then if you wanted to ride the rides it was an additional admission. We decided just to walk around and have a look, which the kids were fine with. Plus we had to eat so we got a very large snow cone that was amazing and also had to try the bakery.
Lounging at Tivoli 
Carousel 
Gondolas
Interesting building 
walking around
That night, dinner was back at the hotel as we were in no mood to go back out again because we were beat. The dinner was very good but very expensive. I really enjoy people watching, so that night I observed several other tables of people and noticed that everyone was having a great time, laughing and talking amongst themselves and no one that I remember was on their phones. The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel as it was included. It was a fantastic buffet as breakfast buffets go. We took our time as we didn’t have to be picked up via taxi until 11 am. We needed to be at the docks to catch our Disney cruise around 12:00 pm. I remember getting on the cruise ship and realized that I was going to miss Copenhagen. Also from this point on the rest of our trip was going to be planned out for us. I wish we had more time there and I would love to go back there someday.
Reflecting back on Copenhagen, the little time we had there the whole family really enjoyed it. We got to tour the city on our own and go at our own pace. The one thing I really couldn’t forget was all of the bicycles around town. Most everyone got around via a bicycle. There were thousands and thousands of bikes- EVERYWHERE! I guess that’s why Copenhagen is nicknamed Biketown. The picture above is not a great picture, but up the wall is nothing but bicycles.