Copenhagen on foot: market, tower, canal, fortress
Breakfast in a market hall, the crown jewels, a tower climbed by a ramp instead of stairs, then straight down the pedestrian spine to the harbour.
Flat, compact and built for walking - the danger in Copenhagen is not the distance but stopping for coffee eleven times. The order below keeps the indoor things in the morning, the pedestrian street through the middle, and the water at the end.
Where to start: Early at Torvehallerne. Copenhagen eats breakfast properly and the market is at its best before the queues.
The walk, in order
- 1 Torvehallerne
Start with breakfast under glass and steel: smorrebrod, coffee, fish counters. An hour, longer if you sit.
- 2 Rosenborg Castle
A moated Renaissance castle ten minutes away, holding the Danish crown jewels in the basement and the King's Garden outside.
- 3 The Round Tower
Climbed by a spiral brick ramp rather than stairs - built so a horse and carriage could reach the observatory on top. An hour, and the easiest view in the city.
- 4 Stroget
Walk the pedestrian spine south: one of the first and longest car-free shopping streets in Europe, and the fastest way across the centre on foot.
- 5 Christiansborg Palace
Parliament, royal reception rooms and the ruins of the first castle under the floor. The tower is free, and most people miss that.
- 6 Thorvaldsens Museum
Beside Christiansborg: a museum built for one sculptor, painted room by room, with the man himself buried in the courtyard. Quiet even in August.
- 7 Nyhavn
The painted canal houses everyone comes for. Best late afternoon; the boats leave from here if your feet are finished.
- 8 Amalienborg Palace
Four matching rococo palaces around an octagonal square, with the guard changing at noon if you time the day the other way round.
- 9 The Marble Church
Across the square, a domed church begun in 1749 and left a ruin for a hundred and fifty years before a private financier finished it.
- 10 Kastellet
A five-pointed star fortress of 1662, still army property and still open as a park. Walk the ramparts rather than the middle.
- 11 The Little Mermaid
Ten minutes on from the ramparts. She is small, she is crowded, and the walk there along the water is the actual reward.
- 12 Tivoli Gardens
If the evening is still yours, end where the city has ended its days since 1843: old wooden rides under a great many lights.
Where to cheat
Everything above is walkable, but the harbour bus (a public ferry on a normal ticket) runs the waterfront and is the best-value boat ride in the city. Rent a bike if you would rather do this in half a day - Copenhagen is built for it more than for walking.
Honest expectations
Nyhavn and the Little Mermaid are the two most photographed and most oversold things on this list; the market hall, Thorvaldsen and the ramparts are what people remember afterwards. Tivoli is seasonal - check it is open before you build an evening around it.
More of this country is on the Denmark page. Going between towns instead? See the routes. Other cities on foot are on city walks.