Start from 66 curated places around Copenhagen, DK, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Selma
A Bib Gourmand-recognised lunch spot in Indre By doing modern smørrebrød — Denmark's open-faced rye-bread tradition — with the kind of precision usually reserved for tasting menus. The herring preparations change with what's running; the beef tartare with crispy rye croutons is a fixture. Fills up with local office workers and food-literate tourists from midday onward.
Restaurant Palægade
A proper Danish brasserie near Amalienborg doing smørrebrød at lunch and a more substantial Nordic dinner menu. Everything is made in-house — rye bread baked daily, remoulade made from scratch, curry blend for the herring developed specifically for the kitchen. The room has a black-and-white tile floor and brass fixtures; it reads as classic without being stiff.
Trails & outdoors
Kastellet Loop
A 3.9-kilometre walk around and through the star-shaped 17th-century Kastellet fortress, taking in the moat path, the grass ramparts, the interior cobbled roads, the 1847 windmill, and the small garrison church. Extending north along Langelinie promenade adds the waterfront and the Little Mermaid statue on an easy extra kilometre. Completely flat, good at any time of year.
Copenhagen's Inner Lakes
The three connected city lakes — Sankt Jørgens Sø, Peblinge Sø, and Sortedams Sø — form a 6.4-kilometre loop around central Copenhagen's western edge, used daily by runners, cyclists, and walkers as the city's main outdoor exercise circuit. Flat, paved, and busy on sunny weekends; an essential piece of Copenhagen's public life rather than a tourist route.
Things to do
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
An extraordinary collection of ancient Mediterranean and 19th-century French and Danish art inside a Beaux-Arts building with a central winter garden — an indoor tropical atrium with a domed glass ceiling, palm trees, and sculptures where locals come to read on rainy days. The Rodin collection, the French Impressionists, and the ancient Egyptian rooms are all strong. The winter garden alone justifies a visit.
SMK – Statens Museum for Kunst
Denmark's national art museum in a large building adjacent to King's Garden, holding over 260,000 works spanning seven centuries of European and Danish art — the Danish Golden Age collection is the strongest single section, and the Matisse collection is one of the best outside France. A free-entry policy applies to the permanent collection.
Landmarks & sights
Nyhavn
Copenhagen's famous 17th-century harbour canal lined with brightly painted townhouses and wooden sailing ships — it is genuinely worth seeing, though the canal itself is the attraction, not the restaurants on it. Walk the north side for the best light in the morning, when tour groups haven't yet arrived. Best done as a short wander en route to Kastellet.
Rosenborg Castle
A small Dutch Renaissance castle from the early 1600s sitting in the middle of King's Garden, housing the Danish crown jewels and royal regalia in its basement treasury. The gardens surrounding it are free, flat, and beloved by Copenhageners for picnics and afternoon runs. The interior is densely packed with 400 years of royal objects across three floors.