This 9-day trip to some of the most expensive cities in Europe was such a packed one! We visited Copenhagen, Malmö and Stockholm in just 9 days and we managed to have quite a complete experience. The whole trip was 900€ per person including all transports and accommodation.

In both cities we stayed really nearby the main train stations, so it was really convenient for us to move around.

We took a flight to Copenhagen in the evening and, even though we didn’t have time to visit much, we discovered the key to this city: The Copenhagen City Card (CPH Card). We chose the 72 hours one and it was more than enough, it includes a lot of the main attractions in the area and any kind of transportation inside the 99 zones in which Copenhagen is divided.

Day 2: Main city attractions

We woke up in our capsule hotel (City Hub Copenhagen), which was really affordable and the amenities were a 10/10. From there we visited the Round Tower and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which is one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to (the mummies set up is just impressive). We took a pause to eat at the Gasoline Grill Burger and later we moved onto the Rosenborg Castle (not worth it in my opinion) and, later on, to the Botanical Gardens. These Gardens have a few attractions inside which can’t be missed, one of them is the T-Rex exhibition inside a separate building. The corridor towards the main hall where the T-Rex is kept is all dark and you can hear all the sounds that could be heard in a jungle in the past, so it builds a lot of tension before seeing the T-Rex itself.

in order to end the day, we went to see the Tiboli amusement park, which charges per attraction, so it’s not the cheapest one in the world, but it’s really nice to see as apparently Disneyland gets inspiration from there.

All stores open at 10:00 and close at around 17:00, so if you want to shop a bit, you really need to plan it well. We recommend you to take a look at the Arhoj studio, it’s to die for.

Day 3: Side Trips

The first long-distance trip we did with our amazing CPH Card was the Roskilde one, which is half an hour away from the city. We visited the super-famous Vikings Ship Museum, which was quite interesting but I really recommend it for kids as there are workshops that they can really enjoy. The trip to the town is great and the walk there is just beautiful, so that’s something to consider. After we got back to the city, we managed to take a boat tour in order to see the city from inside the canals. After the tour we climbed up the Church of Our Saviour, which feels quite unsafe, I’ve got to say, but the views of the city are gorgeous. From there, we took a walk around Christiania, the free town. We didn’t enjoy it as much as we thought we would, but it was nice to see the other side of the city. In order to end the day well, we went to Reffen, where there are various food stalls and we got lucky enough to see live music as we had our dinner and our beers in there.

Day 4: Side Trips

That day was probably the most packed one: we started the day taking a train to Hillerod, to the Frederichsborg Castle, which is the furthest away from our day trip. In order to reach there, we took a train and walked around 20 minutes. The palace is gorgeous on the outside and the garden is just something else. After that, we took another train to Kronborg Slot, a castle just by the sea that we loved because it has a whole hall dedicated to depict in chronological order all the viking kings who started the transition towards becoming catholic kings. It was really interesting to see the point from which Denmark started to have a monarchy, leaving behind the viking tribes structure. One of the most interesting things of that castle is that the dungeons can be visited and they are just the way they used to be in the past!! No light or anything, you can just move around and guide yourself with your phone’s flashlight. It’s even kind of scary.

From there we improvised something that made our whole trip: we went to the Louisiana Modern Art Museum. It’s the coolest museum we’ve ever been to and, being the victims of the image culture that we are, we couldn’t help but make the line in order to take a picture in the Yayoi Kusama installation.

After that we went to the Observatory, which is enormous and it feels really new. The entrance includes a movie as well. In order to end the day well, we went to Kodbyen, to Hija de Sanchez and have some tacos for dinner.

Day 5: Around the city

As that day we didn’t have any more CPH Card in order to do “entrance-paid” stuff, we decided to do all the free activities that can be done in the city. We started the day going to Nyhavn and take some pictures. We walked to Superkilen Park, probably the most photogenic park in history, later we went to see the Little Mermaid, the Kastellet, the Black Diamond, Ofelia Plads and ended up in Broens Godekokken having dinner from food stalls.

Day 6: Malmö & Stockholm

That day we took a train to Malmö (10€ aprox) in order to take our train to Stockholm. It was a nice stop, we spent there around 4 hours and managed to take a fast look at the village and main shopping area. The train to Stockholm was 75€ per person and it took about 4:30 hours.

Once in Stockholm we took a walk around Östermalm and decided to have dinner at Kapibara, a really good Japanese restaurant. We also explored the Östermalm Saluhall, which is a market where one can also seat and eat or take the food away. We saw some rich-looking people taking their meals, so we assumed it must be really good.

Day 7: City and IKEA

First things first, we had to have the best cinnamon rolls (which are typical Swedish) for breakfast that day, so I woke up and picked them up from Green Rabbit. They were really good!

After we charged our batteries, we visited the Royal Palace, which was kind of a disappointment to me as it seemed really dark and not really taken good care of. We wanted to get into the Nobel Prize Museum, but it was closed throughout the whole August, so we will do it next time. The day was super rainy, so we grabbed our umbrellas and took a walk in Gamla Stan and ended having something to eat at Skeppsbro and have a salmon sandwich. Pro tip: we didn’t like the coffee in Stockholm, it was too bitter, so we recommend to find a good place where to have it and going to the nice cafes to have your snack and any other kind of drink. We liked the coffe at Caffeteria del Corso.

That afternoon we walked all the way to the second biggest IKEA in the world and it was the first time we used the subway! It has some of the coolest stops ever and it’s not a bad idea to visit some of the stops without any other purpose.

Day 8: Vasa

The first thing we do was visiting the Vasa Museum, an amazing rescued war ship that is really well preserved. After that, we went to the Fotografiska and later took a walk to the hipster part of the city, Södermalm.

Subway stops we visited: T-Central, Kungstratgarden, Solna and Stadion.

Day 9: Moderna Museet

The first sunny day in Stockholm! We went to the Moderna Museet, which is free. We went to the Public Library, which is quite a cool architecture building, all circular and beautiful! Then we had lunch at Mom’s Kitchen and after a nice nap we went watching the sunset from Evert Taubes Terrace.

Day 10: Brunch and Shopping

We visited the City Hall and had brunch at Gast and later we visited some shops in Norrmalm, which we loved. Our ride to the airport was with the Arlanda Express, a train that’s almost 18€ for an only 20 minutes ride, a bit overpriced, but that was the most direct transportation.