Luxury hotels in Copenhagen

Copenhagen guide

Copenhagen: Nyhavn, Tivoli and New Nordic cuisine

Coloured houses on the canal, a 19th-century amusement park and some of the world's best restaurants.

Nyhavn, the seventeenth-century canal lined with brightly coloured townhouses and wooden boats, is Copenhagen's most cited sight, and a canal tour from here passes the Opera, the Little Mermaid and Christianshavn. Tivoli Gardens, opened in 1843, is magical at night and at Christmas.

Copenhagen is a capital of New Nordic cuisine, with several restaurants among the world's best that need booking months ahead. Cycle like the locals, visit Rosenborg Castle and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on the coast, and come from May to September for long, light evenings.

Tivoli Gardens

Tivoli Gardens, opened in 1843 in the centre of Copenhagen, is one of the oldest amusement parks in the world and among the city's most cited sights; Walt Disney is said to have found inspiration there. Its gardens, wooden rollercoaster and pantomime theatre are lit by thousands of lights at night.

Tivoli opens in seasons, for summer, Halloween and Christmas, when the park becomes a winter market. Concerts, ballet and good restaurants are part of the experience, and the park is next to the central station.

The Louisiana Museum and the Danish Riviera

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, in Humlebæk about forty minutes north of Copenhagen, is one of the most cited museums in Scandinavia, with works by Giacometti, Calder and Kusama in buildings and gardens that open onto the Øresund. Its café terrace looks across to Sweden.

Further north, Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, the Elsinore of Hamlet, is a UNESCO site. The coastal road, the Strandvejen, passes the villas and beaches of the Danish Riviera, and the train makes an easy day trip.