yeadonite

I am going to Copenhagen in May for 15 days, I am doing a home exchange. I am trying to decide if I should spend do a side trip to Stockholm. I have never been but would love to see the city. How many days would be wise to do? Any other suggestions are welcome.

Snoopy

Copenhagen is a GREAT city. Stockholm is merely wonderful.<BR><BR>What kind of interests do you have? Im not a big fan of the geography between Copenhagen and Stockholm so I'd probably fly rather than take a train. I've driven between Copenhagen and Stockholm and I'll never do that again.<BR><BR>I would think that 3-4 days in Stockholm would be plenty. You'd be able to see the major attractions there in that length of time.<BR><BR>There's so much to do in Copenhagen and the surrounding area . . . museums, castles, gorgeous squares . . .

Bird

I love Copenhagen and Denmark, but a couple of days in Stockholm would be nice. If you have a chance to see the Archipelago, do it. The Vasa Museum, Skansen, etc are all good places to spend the better part of a day. I thought Gamla Stan (old town) was a great way to spend a day in Stockholm.<BR><BR>Either way is a win-win. If you want a taste of Sweden, you could always go to Malmo from Copenhagen - it's just across the sound.

Cassandra

We packed both into 5 days last year, and I surely wish we'd had the luxury of spending 15 days. I love Copenhagen, and also the wonderful side trips possible -- don't miss Helsingor (=Hamlet's Elsinore) or Louisiana, a spectacular setting for a very nice modern museum. <BR><BR>Stockholm is a larger city with more to offer, depending on what you like, although I probably preferred the feel of Copenhagen. The parks, galleries, and museums are wonderful, and by all means take water-way tours. We stayed at a very nice, reasonable place right (I believe a Rica Gamla Stan) in Gamla Stan (old section), and found it mostly quite convenient and fun. <BR><BR>We took the high-speed train, which was interesting up to a point, although it goes so fast along some slightly wavy railbeds that I got a tad seasick (but it doesn't take much for me). Snoopy's right, though, in that the terrain isn't particularly memorable, so if you want to deal w/airports, go ahead and fly. BTW, I think Copenhagen's airport is one of my favorites and the hotel/train station complex is a marvel. <BR><BR>One last suggestion, we managed to be in Stockholm just at Walpurgis (?sp?) which meant many things were closed or had reduced hours, and then we were in Copenhagen for a &quot;bank holiday,&quot; which cut into shopping. You might want to check for holidays during that time of the year with someone, just for planning purposes.<BR><BR>Have a wonderful trip!

yeadonite

Thanks for all the information. I went to Copenhagen 21 years ago. I do not remember much except for biking around the city and going to the Carlseberg breweries. I do like to go sightseeing I would like to take day trips out of Copenhagen, I do not want to rent a car. I did this last year in the Netherlands and really enjoyed taking in the beauty of the country and how people live on a day to day basis. I cant decide on Sweden because I don’t want to short change Copenhagen but I have never been to Sweden and would like to go.

ira

Hi<BR> I'd like to suggest other daytrips out of Copenhagen:<BR>Aarhus - home of H C Anderson<BR>Roskilde - The Cathedral and the Viking Ship Museum,<BR>Louisiana - Art gallery,<BR>Frederikisholm castle,<BR> All are accessible by train.<BR> (I might not have my spelling right)<BR>

Snoopy

Outside of Copenhagen:<BR><BR>Fredensborg Castle, gorgeous grounds.<BR>Fredericksborg Castle, in Hillerod is one of the finest castles I've ever visited.<BR>Roskilde Cathederal, zillions of kings buried there and the Viking museum is also there (bored me to death, others rave about it).<BR>Dragor, south of Copenhagen is a &quot;charming&quot; old world Danish village<BR>Mon, southern Zealand, rivals chalk cliffs of Dover.<BR>Kronborg Castle in Helsingor (as mentioned, of Hamlet fame) is a great place to spend half a day.<BR>

Bird

Just a reply - Copenhagen is bigger that Stockholm - it's the biggest city in Scandanavia. Because of its density, there is a lot of things to see and do all around Copenhagen and it's easy to get around. Sweden present more of a challenge - but a worthy challenge nonetheless.

Cassandra

To clarify a little. The &quot;downtown&quot; touristic part of Copenhagen is more compact than the comparable parts of Stockholm, even if the &quot;city limits&quot; sprawl of Copenhagen is far wider. Stockholm is &quot;confined&quot; to the area among the inlets and &quot;lakes&quot; but for a tourist, it takes considerably more nimbleness with public transportation and shank's mare to get around to all the parts of interest. <BR><BR>You can do just about anything you want to around Copenhagen without a car, so don't let that stop you.

joegri

yeadonite: With 15 days, you have plenty of time to do Copenhagen and Stockholm. From Copenhagen, by all means take day trips to Roskilde for the glorious cathedral and the Viking Museum. Also, go to the Slott or Castle Frederiksborg at Hillerod, the grandest castle in Scandinavia and often called the Danish Versailles. It is amazing inside and out. You can do both of these with public transporatation in the same day as they are less than 30 minutes from Copenhagen and about 20 minutes from each other. The Castle at Helsingor, Kronborg Castle, is impressive from the outside, not so within. It really has nothing to do with Hamlet though the tour guides would like you to believe otherwise. The castle was built long after Hamlet died and Shakespear never saw it. He probably learned of it from traveling troubadors.<BR>We visited Southern Sweden by crossing the new bridge to Malmo, but rather than stop there, go on to Lund which is much more interesting and has a small Gamla Stan (old town) with a worthwhile (to see) cathedral. A short distance South is Ystad which is even better with a Cathedral dating to 1220 and many half-timbered houses; pretty little town. If you head south to Kaseberga which is an old fishing village, you can see the Ales Stenor or Ale Stones which are quite remarkable. They are at the top of a ridge on the edge of the Baltic Sea and arranged in the shape of a viking ship. There are about 50 good size stones in the arrangement and nobody knows where they came from or who did them. The views of the Baltic from here are awsome. We stayed near Kaseberga and went on the next day to Simrishamn, a really quaint little village with many pastel colored old houses and, again, a church dating back to the 1100s. To get here, we drove through farmland, rolling hills, forests and were never far from the sea. We thought it was beautiful.<BR>From Simrishamn, we went to Kalmar and toured one of the most beautiful castles in all of Europe IMHO. In route from Simrishamn to Kalmar, you could easily branch off to the glass country to tour one of the old glass blowing facilities. We did and really enjoyed it. <BR>From Kalmar (actually just north of Kalmar), we took a ferry to the walled village of Visby on Gotland Island. This was one of the highlights of our Scandinavian Vacation. Visby has everything, beautiful medieval village and walls in great shape, great scenery and ocean views, good shops and cafes and wonderful restaurants, a really fun harbor scene, it was fantastic.<BR>From Visby we took another ferry to Stockholm for our vist there. The ferry from Visby to Stockholm, allowed us to miss the boring part of the mainland drive referred to in other posts. Stockholm is a very enjoyable city with much to see and do and I would urge you to go there. Again, with 15 days, you could easily do all of this. Have a wonderful trip.

yeadonite

Thanks to all for information. Joegri did you rent a car or use public transportation?

sfowler

I'll second the side-trip recommendation to Roskilde, Louisiana Art Museum and Helsignor. One day for the first one, one day for the latter two.<BR><BR>It is easy to get lost in Tivoli -- and there are several good museums -- not to mention shopping.

Snoopy

Rent a car . . .it's worth it but expensive.

yeadonite

Snoopy,<BR>I am a little hesitant to rent a car in a foreign country. I have only done it on business. I get a little nervous drining in foreign countries. LEt me sleep on it.

Annam

Don't be afraid. Denmark is a very easy country to drive in. I arrived in Copenhagen after 24 hours of travel in 1998 to find that the automatic transmission car I had been promised was broken and there wasn't another one available. I learned how to drive stick on the spot and drove all over Denmark with three kids in the car for 10 days. Getting out of Copenhagen and getting onto the motorway the first day was a bit unnerving but only because i wasn't used to the stick shift. The roads were excellent, traffic was not heavy once we got out of the city, and drivers were courteous for the most part. You could see a lot of Denmark in 15 days. You can get to anywhere in the country in less than a day.

Snoopy

Annam's comments are relevant.<BR><BR>Traffic is light in Denmark, generally. And the only rude drivers are cab drivers. Most of them drive Mercedes because the Danish 100% tax on cars is waived if the vehicle is used for commercial purposes.<BR><BR>HOWEVER, THERE ARE BICYCLE lanes in Copenhagen and all over Denmark and you must be extremely cautions when making right turns . . . Just don't get in a hurry and if you get flustered or lost either pull over or simply follow the car ahead of you.

yeadonite

I have finally arrived in Copenhagen. Yesterday I did the dsfs canal tour and saw the little mermaid. Today I went to the louisiana museum, the location was amazing although I do not really appreciate modern art. We have decided against renting a car because the drivers are a little more aggressive than I would like. I am still suffering from jetlag so I do not know tomorrows agenda. Thanks for all your help.

Snoopy

yeadonite . . . have a Varm Vaffler for me! Whipped cream and strawberry jam, please. None of that repulsive custardy faux ice cream stuff.

yeadonite

Snoopy,
When I bought ice cream in Drag&oslash;r they couldnt believe that I did not want Whipped cream and strawberry jam on my ice cream. Maybe next time I will give it a try.

Snoopy

I am so jealous . . . nobody on this forum ever (well, rarely) posts on Denmark.

Are you having fun? I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing right now than sitting at an outdoor cafe in Grayfriars Square listening to . . . nothing.

Have fun.