Copenhagen, Denmark:
Copenhagen is an eco and green friendly city, it rivals Amsterdam for how many people use bikes for transportation daily. In fact, Copenhagen estimates that over 55% of its residents use bikes daily for commuting, and that 68% use a bike 3 days a week in the city center. Copenhagen is striving to become Zero Carbon by 2025. I believe it can be achieved. Most of the city’s energy supply comes from wind power and wind farms. The city is also completely flat. Making biking everywhere very easy and very inexpensive. This would not work in Pittsburgh! There are plenty of museums and palaces to visit for tourists, and the shopping in the city is wonderful. Tivoli the amusement park is a nice visit for both children, families and adults alike. At night there is either a fireworks or light show happening every night. Tivoli is located right in the heart of the city center. While the city is spread out, walking around the city center itself is very easy. Denmark has a monarchy and one of the popular things to see is the family’s royal summer and winter palaces. At times a very small changing of the guard could be seen. The highlight of our tour would probably be the fairy tale castle of Frederiksberg, which was an additional excursion and outside the city, but it was an amazing castle to see and visit.
Odense, Denmark:
We stopped in Odense home of Hans Christian Andersen, and his museum.
I personally was not impressed with this little museum of his life and found the museum to be unexpected and uninteresting. I would’ve hoped it would be focused on his fairy tales, but instead it was about his life growing up and his sketches. This is a secondary Danish city, and while I found the locals friendly and the shopping good. It did not scream out to me that a stop here was necessary. But you know how escorted tour companies break up the day when in route. So, I can understand why they stop here. It was at least nice to visit for a bit and have lunch.
Arhus, Demark:
I liked what I saw of Arhus, another secondary Danish city. They have an open air, time period park here called Den Gamle By. In this park (which you must buy tickets for entry). You will see houses from 1600-1700’s, people dressed up in time period outfits walking down the streets doing their daily errands and shop in the local artisan shops of the time period. If was very interesting and we really got into the visit for a few hours. An enjoyable touristy but fun afternoon. Then in the evening exploring the shopping streets which were thriving and much more impressive and modern than in Odense. I would recommend clients traveling through Denmark to stop in Arhus for a night. It’s worth a short visit.
My comments on the hotels.
Radisson Blu Scandinavia, Copenhagen: A very good 4 star modern hotel. It’s about a 15min walk down the main street right off the hotel & into the heart of town. We could walk right to Tivoli Gardens in about this time. The area around the hotel itself is kind of limited, as you are not right in the core of the historic district of Copenhagen, but close enough. A lovely park with a lake is right across the street from the hotel and we also saw locals jogging and walking along the lake in this park. The hotel itself has a very good Italian and Thai dining venues, and the breakfast buffet was quite good. This is a big high-rise hotel with 544 rooms. While I have nothing negative to say about this hotel, I would lean towards a bit more central when visiting Copenhagen for leisure.
Scandic Aarhus City, Arhus: I liked this hotel. Scandic is a Scandinavian chain that has that Scandinavian style of simplicity but trendy. The hotel is right in the heart of charming Arhus. Right on one of the main streets of the city center, and just down the street (half block) from the main shopping strip.