Results tagged “Copenhagen” from Intelligent Travel Blog

Hello, city lovers! Today we are heading to Copenhagen, where Alexandra Redisch tells us what not to miss in the Danish capital.

Copenhagen is My City

The first place I take a visitor from out of town is Tivoli Gardens (left), one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.

When I crave cake and hot chocolate in old world-settings, I always go to La Glace; the oldest confectionary in Denmark.

To escape the harsh city-life, I head to the uninhibited town of Christiania, where one makes love, not war.

If I want to be amazed by beautiful marble sculptures and a breathtaking winter garden, I go to the New Carlsberg Glyptotheke, where they also have a lovely tea room.
For complete quiet, I can hide away in the Royal Library; a vast modern building known as the "Black Diamond" (below).

If you come to my city, get your picture taken with the Little Mermaid (right), an iconic statue depicting the heroine from the famous fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen.

If you can only order one thing off the menu from the art-nouveau-style Café Norden, it has to be the famous pancakes.

The Magasin du Nord, located in Kongens Nytorv, is my one-stop shop for great shopping.

When I'm feeling cash-strapped, I go to Rosenborg Castle (below). There is an entrance fee to step into the castle, but the gorgeous 15th-century gardens are accessible to all! For a huge splurge, I go to the main shopping street, Strøget, where they have everything from Topshop to Chanel.

 

When the United Nations Climate Change Conference meets in Copenhagen this December, the delegates won't have to look very far for environmental inspiration. An eco-pioneer before going green became stylish, Denmark's capital is seamed by parks, 186 miles of bike paths, and enough serious organic restaurants to earn some of the city's 14 Michelin stars. The once polluted waterfront is now so clean it feeds a network of popular harborside swimming pools--though it doesn't take much to draw nature-oriented Copenhageners outside.

To learn more about this green city, check out Raphael Kadushin's 48 Hours Guide to Copenhagen in the Nov./Dec. issue of Traveler, and go online for the best things to do, places to stay, and a photo gallery to get you inspired.

Photo: Sisse Brimberg & Cotton Coulson/Keenpress

Our November/December issue is on its way to a newsstand or mailbox near you - and features our sixth annual Destinations Rated Survey. Conducted by the National Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations, this year's survey looked at how tourism is impacting some of the iconic places we first surveyed in 2003 and rated in 2004, with several new places added to the mix.

Topping the list this year was the "vigorously protected" Fjords region in Norway, followed by the "awe-inspiring" Kootenay/Yoho National Parks in British Columbia and the "authentic Francophone" villages of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec. And pulling up the rear, garnering strong concern from our panel of tourism management experts, was the "cruise ship hell" of Grand Bahama Island in the Bahamas, the war-torn and "intimidating" status of Bethlehem in the West Bank, and Spain's Costa del Sol region, which one panelist called a "textbook example of tourism run amok." See all the results from this year's survey, and more comments from the panelists online.

Elsewhere in the issue, you'll find Jim Conaway's pitch-perfect piece on Portland, Oregon, and Andrew Evans' On Foot walking guide to Valpariso, Chile, which he reported for us while filming the pilot for "Confessions of a Travel Writer." Melina Bellows heads to the boreal forests of Central Mexico "In Search of Magic" (hint: it involves butterflies), and Raphael Kadushin brings us tidings of good cheer from Copenhagen, Denmark's eco-aware capital city, which is hosting the U.N. Climate Change Conference this December.

Want more? Visit our online table of contents for more maps, photo galleries, and World Wise quizzes from the issue.

Cycle Parade in Copenhagen from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.

Copenhagen ranks as one of the world's friendliest cities for cyclists, with 37 percent of residents in Greater Copenhagen using a bike daily. To encourage more residents to bike to work and school, the city plans to expand bike lanes farther into the suburbs. The city hopes to entice the 85,000 suburbanites who currently commute via car, bus, and train to switch to cycling.

Fifteen thousand people already bike into Greater Copenhagen from the suburbs, so these "bicycle superhighways" will enhance their commute and also make cycling more appealing for those who do not. Some perks of the new routes include fewer detours, service stations along the routes with air and tools, and priority crossing for cyclists at busy intersections. Additionally, cyclists who maintain a pace greater than 12 miles per hour will benefit from the Green Wave, affording them green lights all the way through sections of the city with frequent stoplights.

In the big picture, more cyclists mean fewer cars on the road and less air pollution. The European Cyclists' Federation is pushing for greater funding for bike-friendly initiatives in urban settings. The ECF estimates that increasing cycling levels from 5 to 15 percent in Europe could reduce carbon dioxide emission by 50 million tons and plans to do so by 2020.  

To do its part in saving the environment and bringing European bike-lovers together, Copenhagen hosted a cycling parade as part of CO2penhagen, the "world's first carbon-neutral festival."

While you're visiting, you can take part in "Bycyklen Kobenhavn," the city's bike culture, by snagging one of the 1,300 free bike rentals offered to visitors between May and December.

Ok, so maybe sleeping in a zoo isn't your thing. Want to camp out in a museum instead? Then head to Copenhagen.

The Kunsthal Charlottenborg museum of contemporary art just opened a new exhibit this weekend featuring a work by artists Bosch & Fjord that is, in essence, a group of beds in a gallery space. Culture Camping is social experiment created to challenge your senses, and asks what happens when eight people are picked to live in a museum (overnight) and see what happens... (We can only guess that the guests will stop being polite, and start getting real.)

Those who are lucky enough to snag a bed will experience vertigo, thanks to the six-meter-long cords that are suspended from the ceiling above them, and there are other "nocturnal surprises" like bedtime stores and lullabies planned for the evening. Guests are able to walk through the exhibit, built art installations, record sounds, and play in an adult-sized sandbox. The following morning, the visitors will have a roundtable discussion over breakfast about their experiences.