The 5 Worst Tourist Traps in Copenhagen

Copenhagen is a wonderful city, especially if you know how to use it in the right way. Here is a list of a few golden rules of conduct and tourist traps. Avoid these and you’ll be on the right track to a fantastic stay in the Danish capital. With no further ado, here are the 5 worst tourist traps in Copenhagen.

1. The first thing to stay clear of is Tivoli in major holidays. Tivoli is fun but also expensive. Being Denmark’s single largest tourist attraction with more than 4 million visitors a year the huge line outside on special days like Halloween and Christmas is really not worth the wait. Tivoli should be visited in the summer time, if at all, and be prepared to pay large amount for rides, food, drinks, well basically for everything inside the walls.

2. Another thing to watch out for is Copenhagen's main shopping street, Strøget. The main shopping street is nowhere to go. It is crowded, the stores are the same as in any other European city and the tall buildings block the sun all day. By avoiding the main shopping street, ‘Strøget’, you’ll also avoid other unpleasant phenomena like hustlers, beggars and thieves.

3. The people in Copenhagen are active bikers, if you are not, you should be sensible enough to not be in the bike lane with no bike. At all costs avoid stepping onto the biker’s lane! People bike a lot in Copenhagen and they ride fast at all streets and at all times of day and night – a common newbie mistake is to step out into the bike lane without looking and this tends to lead to huge traffic jams, and piles of bikes and people in the streets. If things don’t turn out all that bad, you can be sure to get a few sour words from the bikers if you make this mistake.

4. Your wallet will thank you if you manage to stay away from the high-priced canal tours. The canal tours are a great way to see the city, but be careful: Two different companies operate the boats, and one is double the cost. The cheap ‘Netto’ boats are the way to go, and you’ll even avoid listening to the annoying speaker announcements from the tourist guide.

5. When going out for a drink, avoid the inner city tourist bars. The drinks are expensive and the atmosphere is chaotic at best, depressing at worst. When arriving at Copenhagen Central Station posters will try to lure you into bars such as Rosy McGee’s. This must be avoided at all costs. No locals would dream of stepping foot inside; the drinks are expensive, the music is horrible and the crowd is either teenagers or middle-aged.

If you manage to stay clear of these 5 pitfalls your stay in Copenhagen should be on track for success. Enjoy the best of what the city has to offer and let other tourists fall into these traps instead.

Dirt Cheap Copenhagen is a low budget travel guide with decent advice for cash-strapped travellers. One of the sections deal with Copenhagen tourist traps.

Author : Ken Sand
E-mail : submissions@isnare.net