We spent eight days at the end of the summer traveling through Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; and Bergen, Norway and had a great time. We also booked it at the last minute — I’m talking two weeks prior — with the tours booked a few days later, and most of the restaurants chosen the day of. [We joke that we’re probably your most Type B friends.] It all worked out and we didn’t feel that we’d missed a thing, so no lessons will be learned for next time.
Day 1: Arrived in Copenhagen 🇩🇰
We arrived in Copenhagen early in the morning and checked into our hotel, Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn, which we’d booked for the night before so we could rest as soon as we arrived. The hotel was cute and new, but not totally central. It was chosen because it had last-minute availability and also because we use accrued credit card points to pay.
But first, pastries from nearby Andersen & Maillard: Our first (of many) cardamom buns of the trip, a perfect roll thickly spread with salted butter, and a gorgeous chocolate croissant that wasn’t my thing since I don’t care for custard-y chocolate fillings. Excellent coffee, of course. It’s Copenhagen!
After a nap, we got the kids out of bed with promise of ice cream at Isoteket, which was phenomenal. I haven’t stopped thinking about the non-dairy strawberry since and the chocolate was excellent too.
Walked around Nyhavn and along the waterfront and took the light rail (Letbane) when we got tired.
Hot dogs at John’s Hotdog Deli (a stand across from Tivoli).
Tivoli Gardens is obviously unmissable, gorgeous and fun for everyone. We’d aimed for dusk, as we had read, correctly, that the park is prettiest then. The kids were pretty tired so we were just there for a couple hours. [Went for admission tickets without rides; didn’t know how many the kids wanted to go on and presumed we’d pay less if we just bought per ride. However, just a small irritation worth mentioning was that neither on the Tivoli website nor app would save credit card information or let you use a card in your phone’s wallet so I was hand-typing my card every single time my kids wanted to take a ride, and felt my mind unraveling a bit more each time. Maybe it will be better by the time you go?]
Late dinner at Barr, a gastropub with upscale classics. The food was excellent but even in the casual bar room, it was pretty fancy with high price points, hardly uncommon in Copenhagen. [I hadn’t realized this was a Redzepi partner restaurant before we went, sigh.]
Day 2: Copenhagen 🇩🇰
Swore to ourselves we’d get up early to beat the line at JUNO the bakery; overslept instead and yes, the line was long. We got warm, excellent cardamom buns, delivered back to our sleeping children, plus some of their housemade Danish butter cookies to bring as gifts. (They even have tins! Which you can later use for sewing supplies, as per generational tradition.)
Bought the most perfect tiny strawberries on the street.
Walked around Rosenborg Castle and King’s Garden.
Lunch at Aamanns 1921: I’d checked Reddit for recommendations for classic smørrebrød [“smuhr-broht”] in Copenhagen and this came highly recommended. A gorgeous restaurant, the meal was excellent but, as was becoming a theme, quite fancy.
Stromma Classic Canal Tour We’ve learned that the kids love a canal tour on trips — sneaky learning that doesn’t require listening to mom and dad! — and chose this inexpensive, one-hour tour for the afternoon. It was raining (they provided disposable ponchos) and I thought my grumpy kids would throw me overboard with irritation at first but they loved it and the tour guide was hilarious. I’m sorry I didn’t write down his name.
Ice cream stop at Østerberg. [This is how we bribe our kids to keep walking.] The mango soft-serve was spectacular. I had wanted very much to check out the Designmuseum Danmark next — it has a hall of chairs! — next but ran out of steam.
Dinner at Kødbyens Fiskebar, an industrial-looking restaurant in a former meat market with a focus on sustainable seafood. The food here, too, was quite cheffy but we enjoyed everything. I particularly loved the blue mussels, they reminded me of ones I once gushed about in Scotland.
We took the The Copenhagen Metro, their fully automated, driverless subway system around town and my NYC born-and-raised kids nearly wept with the beauty, quiet, and modernity of the system. It’s not fair to compare systems built 100 years apart — it’s actually not fair, almost cruel, to compare any public features or infrastructure in Copenhagen with anything in NYC — but we did, and now we just dream bigger. That’s the point of travel, right?
Day 3: Stockholm 🇸🇪
We had one last breakfast in Copenhagen — I required freshly-baked rugbrød and a soft-boiled egg in a tiny chalice with an even tinier spoon, and procured it back at Andersen & Maillard.
Flew to Stockholm late in the morning, and checked into our hotel, Courtyard by Marriott Stockholm Kungsholmen. This was also not quite central, but we considered it a fair compromise for how late we booked the trip. It wasn’t a long walk to the (also excellent) subway. Ubers/Bolt cars were relatively inexpensive too.
We had lunch outside at Nystekt Strömming, a fried herring kiosk and easily one of the family’s favorite meals of the trip. Or perhaps we were especially welcoming of casual food after days in Copenhagen?
We mostly wandered around in the afternoon, walking around Gamla Stan, the historic old town of Stockholm, Stortorget, the city’s oldest public square, and the Royal Palace.
Showed up for our 9:30pm dinner reservation at Restaurant Pelikan at 7:30pm (I blame jetlag and my embarrassingly American fumbling with the 24-hour clock), but fortunately they didn’t make us wait very long. Pelikan is a historic, grand beer hall and restaurant with a focus on traditional Swedish comfort food (husmanskost). We had Swedish meatballs (but they just call them meatballs, ba-dum tss) and biff rydberg, which involves potato hash and steak, hooray. I thoroughly appreciated Sweden’s affection for horseradish as a condiment, an affection I share.
Day 4: Stockholm 🇸🇪
Yes, that is Kalles Kaviar, a Swedish brand of smörgåskaviar (roe spread) at the hotel’s breakfast buffet. More than one friend asked me to steal it and bring it home, but I refrained.
No, I don’t speak or read Swedish but in my defense, this is a sign we passed. One child concluded that the letter a had been on sale.
I did not get to any grocery stores on this trip (one of my favorite things to do) but I did absolutely freak out over this mountain of chanterelles (which are much more of luxury here) from a street stand, as well as fresh peas in their pod, which my family walked around eating raw. I was so proud.
It was a necessary pre-game for our next stop: Caramella, because someone I’m married to had promised to take the kids for Swedish candy in Sweden, ostensibly a thing apart from the Swedish-style candy stores popping up all over NYC. I probably don’t need to tell you how serious the Swedes are about candy. The half-room devoted to black licorice alone was awe-inspiring. I couldn’t resist the pastellfiskar (Swedish fish), although their flavor was noticeably less pronounced than the deep-red ones we get here.
Next we headed to Djurgården, where most of the museums are.
We’d been told that the Vasa Museum was not to be skipped and I confess that I was skeptical that my kids would be wow-ed by a near perfectly-salvaged 17th-century warship. I’m delighted to announce that I was completely wrong. We loved it. We stayed for at least two hours and read every sign, which they managed to present in a way that was fascinating for all ages.
Had sandwiches and salad at nearby Mackverket and debated whether we wanted to go to the ABBA Museum next. We might regret it, but we did not go. I did, however, watch Mamma Mia! on the flight from New York. Does that count?
I decided to do a little shopping on my own while the family went back to rest, only to realize I was arriving at most of the stores I was hoping to check out as they were closing. [It is I, your most Type B friend, reporting for duty.]
We did, however, decide to make one more museum stop before dinner, to the Fotografiska Museum Stockholm. We really enjoyed it, especially the late Martin Parr’s photos on display.
We had dinner at Blå Dörren, another classic Swedish beer hall and restaurant for variations on potatoes and meat with horseradish, i.e. heaven on a cold, rainy day.
Day 5: Bergen, Norway 🇳🇴
We flew to Bergen the next day, checking into the Thon Hotel Orion.
The kids told us they were too tired to do anything, so we headed out for hot dogs at Trekroneren without them.
We also bought half of us new rain coats! Did you know that Bergen is considered the rainiest city in Europe? It rains about 240 days a year. We were there about two hours before I realized my raincoat (truly a windbreaker) was a joke and bought a new one — don’t worry, the stores are full of raincoats and shivering people just like you. We also bought a new one for my previously windbreaker-clad daughter. [I’d upgraded my husband’s and son’s raincoats the year before.] We also bought the kids warm hats. I do not regret a single penny spent; I think the trip would have been way less pleasant without them.
We continued to walk around Bryggen and the fish market (which is no longer a true fish market, more of a tourist trap), then took Floibanen funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen, a quick ride.
The kids emerged for dinner at Horn of Africa, an Eritrean and Ethiopian restaurant. It was fantastic.
Day 6: Day Tour from Bergen 🇳🇴
We booked a full day tour that took us by bus from Bergen to Bondhusvatnet, a breathtaking glacier lake nestled in Folgefonna National Park. We also visited Steindalsfossen, a waterfall you can walk behind (one of my favorite things we did in Iceland), took ferries, saw scenic spots, and did a little hiking. Dinah, our tour guide, was phenomenal. We were entertained all day, and learned so much about Norway. I will never stop cracking up over “The Cabin” song (Ylvis).
Dinner was at a random pizza place not worth mentioning, but suited our exhausted family just fine.
