3 PERFECT DAYS IN CPH

Copenhagen doesn’t try too hard for anyone. It took about four hours on the ground to understand that completely, watching the cool girls gliding past on bikes, the locals who are polite in a way that somehow still reads as flirtatious, a food scene that manages to feel indulgent and virtuous at the same time.

Everyone looks so healthy, glowing, effortlessly put together. There’s a natural style here that runs through the architecture and design, and into the people who live among it. And, somehow, it’s cool to be kind here. A genuinely radical idea, if you think about it for longer than a second.

Everyone has already written this city to death on Substack. I know that. I’m not going to pretend I’ve found some secret door into a city that’s been photographed, mapped and manifesto’d within an inch of its life. What I can give you is a easy itinerary that is actually great and gives you the perfect 3 days.

I went with my mother - less sexy stay, more the two of us becoming certified cultured chickas. Although it could easily be replicated for a lover or partner.

This is the itinerary we actually followed, written the way I’d tell it to you, a friend, over a drink. DM me if you want the long version: the full Google Maps pin drop, every plate and shop and hotel that didn’t make the cut.

As I strolled its streets, I couldn’t help but want to dig deeper on why this city is the way it is. I thought this super interesting, so I’m going to share it with you.

Copenhagen has been a fishing village turned trading post turned capital since 1167 – the name literally translates to “merchants’ harbour.” What that thousand-year head start actually explains is less the geography, and more the reason why this little seaside town has grit.

Design runs through this city as a thread, interestingly, by design. A man named Poul Henningsen spent a career building lamps engineered so the streetlights wouldn’t glare at you, on the theory that beautifully made, functional things belonged to everyone, not just whoever could afford to show off. It’s the same instinct that, after the 1973 oil crisis, had a third of the city marching on their own town hall demanding their streets back from cars, the actual reason Copenhagen cycles so beautifully today. Even the food follows the rule: the New Nordic movement that turned this into a culinary capital was built on a manifesto about what grows here, not what could be flown in to impress you as well as being championed by upcoming young chefs.

Good behaviour and good intentions built this entire city’s personality. This trivial background made me think harder and look deeper.

Anyway. Here’s how we did it.

Check in. We stayed at Villa Copenhagen… it was a bit corporate for me (although breakfast at Rug, its own bakery downstairs, was delightful and the rooftop pool was great) but it sits down by Tivoli, well out of walking range of everything below. Book Hotel Sanders instead: a 54-room jewel box just off Kongens Nytorv, owned by a former principal ballet dancer turned-hotelier, Alexander Kølpin, which puts you two minutes from everything that follows. 1 Hotel Copenhagen is the other good call, and boutique stay Hotel Hendriks.

Breakfast. The Roe Bar, tucked inside Louise Roe’s design gallery - its half concept store and half café. The pastries are from Juno, one of the best bakeries in the city. La Cabra also does great coffee.

Shop. Everything you need is within about five minutes of everything else: Toteme, Lié Studio, Tekla and Baum und Pferdgarten (they hand you a glass of champagne while you browse, which is how all shopping should be done).

Keep walking for New Mags, Vipp, Beau Marché, and Pico a really chic fun accessories store. I have a very long list of great vintage stores (send me a DM for them).

Cycle down to the water, past the old boatyards for a coffee at Apollo Bar, tucked into the courtyard of Kunsthal Charlottenborg. (Those are Poul Henningsen lamps hanging overhead) Then keep riding out to La Banchina: swim off the dock, sun yourself on the timber, have a small glass of something with some oysters.

Dinner. Go home, drop the shopping, start again.

Bar Vitrine first, around the corner from the hotel, for natural wine and the most delicious Indian inspired dishes. We actually made friends with a local who was dining with her mum and we ending up drinking a million drinks and smoking ciggies outside. Cool mums make the best wine bar partners.

If you want dinner I recommend Cleo – a neighbourhood restaurant with an easy tasting menu. Osteria 16 is the reliable backup if Cleo’s booked out.