Our stay in Copenhagen was just long enough to give us a taste of the young, active, city that it is. The locals are incredibly friendly, the seafood is delicious, and there are enough free attractions to fill your day and offset the high cost of the rest of your stay. We set off with only The Little Mermaid in mind, but the route we took to get there was filled with history, architecture, and gardens just waiting for your appreciation. Here are the attractions to see in the Land of The Little Mermaid – and they won’t cost you a cent (unless you want them to)!
Fredericks Church
This church was the first stop on our route after leaving the hotel but it was closed for a wedding. From what I can tell in online photos though, the main sight is really the church from the outside. It was directly down the street from Amalienborg, rounding out a beautiful 360′ view.
Amalienborg
Amalienborg is the home of the Danish Royal Family (although I think they were out of town that day at the British Royal wedding). The square, dating to the 1700s, is composed of four identical palace façades around a courtyard with a statue of the palace founder, King Frederick V in the center. It seemed kind of crazy that there weren’t gates or anything keeping you away from the doors. Although some did have guards (with fun hats)! If you continue to walk through the courtyard with Fredericks Church to your back, you will come to a beautiful fountain before reaching the water. Unfortunately this fountain is also where they drop off every tour group possible so every photo was more people than architecture.
You can take a tour of the palace, but you have to wait until 10am for it to open. We ended up in the courtyard around 9am so we opted not to wait. 
Gefion Fountain
From Amalienborg, we continued walking along the harbor until we arrived at Gefion Fountain in front of Kastellet. Free, pretty, and on the way to The Little Mermaid, so no reason not to stop by for a quick snap, or even a snack from the juice or ice cream stand conveniently located there.
Kastellet
Kastellet probably looks cooler from the air than the ground – it is a star shaped island fortress built in the 1600s to defend the city. The red buildings, or old barracks really add some fun color to the sight — they are much more colorful than any US military barracks that I have seen! What is crazy is that it is still an active military area that belongs to the Danish Defense Ministry! We saw a few men & women in uniform but certainly not enough for me to have believed it was still in active use!
The Little Mermaid
Finally we arrived at the most popular tourist attraction in Copenhagen – The Little Mermaid! Honestly, the walk to the statue helped make the visit worth it. If we had just taken a bus from the hotel to the mermaid, it would have felt pretty underwhelming…after all, it’s not The David or anything. Seeing The Little Mermaid, completed in 1913, is like having a small piece of a fairytale in the real world. It was always one of my top two Disney movies growing up so it is always fun to close those circles — a movie as a child that came from the history and the story in the city I see as an adult — but I wouldn’t put it on my “lifetime must-see list.” It was completely packed with tourists trying to get their photo but if you have a little patience and push, you can get a photo with no one else in it. Make sure you go up to the statue, because if you try and stand in front of it, someone WILL stand behind you at the statue. Honestly, I am surprised they let people get close to it at all considering her head has been stolen twice and she’s been blown up once too! If you don’t make it to The Little Mermaid in her hometown, you can find replicas in Solvang, California; Kimballton, Iowa; Piatra Neamţ, Romania; Torreón de Ardoz(Madrid), Spain; Seoul, South Korea; and a half-sized copy in Calgary!
Nyhaven
The street of Nyhaven is typically listed as one of the “must-sees” in Copenhagen, and there is no reason you shouldn’t make time for it. The buildings are narrow and bright and the canal is lined with ships, giving the bustling street a lot of character. You don’t really need to DO anything here, other than maybe sit down with a drink and people watch because its such a cute area. It deserves a little time for you appreciation. House number 20 is where Hans Christian Andersen lived in 1835 when he published his first volume of fairy tales.
Our Savior’s Church
We had arrived to Nyhaven a bit early so we decided to make a detour to Christiania before coming back for lunch. We saw a unique gold spiral off in the distance and made our way to it along the way. The inside of the church was pretty small and nothing necessarily worth seeing, but if you have the time you can walk 400 steps to the top of the spire. The line to go up was winding outside of the church that day so we opted out but I’m sure the work is worth the view if you have the time to spend.
Christiania
Just around the corner from The Church of Our Savior, you will find, Christiania, an interesting and colorful suburb of Copenhagen, that apparently is a “self-governing free town”…whatever that means? Apparently (as you may expect) drug use is much free-er there, although we didn’t head to the famous “Pusher Street” to verify. We did however take in some super cool street art! To be honest, it was a bit too hipster for me, but I am glad we made the journey there because it was a short walk from Nyhaven Street.
Frederiksberg Palace
We took a bus towards Frederiksberg Palace (or as they say, “Slot”) and had a really beautiful walk through the gardens up to the Palace…only to realize that it wasn’t actually open to tour (which I think we were all secretly OK with). It is actually a military academy that only offers tours a couple months out of the year. The gardens in front of the Palace would be perfect for a relaxing day or picnic, which a ton of people were taking advantage of! Important Note: There is actually a Frederiksborg Castle that is 30-40 minutes away from the center of Copenhagen which is far more impressive looking but we didn’t realize there were two! We would have preferred to visit that one. Guess you can’t always trust Google Maps!
Tivoli
The Tivoli Amusement Park is one of the top attractions in Copenhagen but since we only had 1 day in the city, we opted out of visiting. I am pretty spoiled having grown up in Florida and going to amusement parks all the time so I wasn’t really super bummed about missing out. If we had another day, I would have probably checked it out though just to see what was hiding behind the walls!
Travel Tips
All of the places we saw were free — although we could have chosen to pay to go into the Palace and Tivoli. We were able to get our feel for the city without going in, and just taking in the sights from the outside. If you are wanting to take a tour, find out those times first so you can plan all the free things around it!
Watch out for the bus drivers – we had pretty bad experiences with two of them. They SAY they will take Euro instead of the Danish Kroner but then they try and rip you off and not give you change back. One driver tried to keep a 20 euro for a 13 euro ride…so we stood with a foot in the doorway on the street and another on the bus and demanded the change. We essentially held his route hostage — we got the change pretty quickly!
Looking to Copy My Walking Route?
I have talked about these free tourist attractions in the exact order we went to them. The only two you need additional transportation for are Fredericksburg & Tivoli!
Happy Traveling!
Xx
Kali