The name Copenhagen means originally "trading harbour" and the city of Copenhagen is in many ways the harbour for Denmark - and even the rest of Scandinavia.

The Little Mermaid at Langelinie is probably the best known tourist attraction in Copenhagen. Many visitors are surprised how small she is.

Copenhagen Airport is the largest airport in Scandinavia and a cruise in the Baltic Sea very often starts in Copenhagen before the ship leaves for Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Tallinn and other of the cities in Baltic Sea.

For a European capital Copenhagen is not especially large. The urban area of Copenhagen is inhabited by 1,7 million people and the city itself only has 1,1 million habitants. But since the country of Denmark has a population of only  5½ million it is without doubt the main city of Denmark.

Copenhagen is also far the most visited place by tourists and professional visitors coming to Denmark.

During the whole summer cruise ships come to visit the harbour of Copenhagen and many ships start their voyage here.

Tourist Attractions
Although Copenhagen as a city is more then 800 years it has been damaged by a number of fires and wars during history so few really old houses are left and not even the medieval centre is kept free of modern urban commercial influence and modern traffic. Anyhow Copenhagen has a charming centre with many small streets and interesting historic buildings and places to visit. The smallest - but also the most famous - tourist attraction in Copenhagen is The Little Mermaid. It is not a long trip to see her, and in good weather it is a nice walk along the Northern waterfront from the centre to see her.

Although amusement parks are growing up everywhere in the World, the Tivoli of Copenhagen is still something special placed in the centre of the city and keeping some of the old mix of culture, charm and amusement you rarely find in modern parks.

Amalienborg Castle

The royal castle, Amalienborg, is now residence of Queen Margrethe 2 and the royal house. The castle is worth a visit since it is a beautiful example of Rococo architecture. Just on the other site of the harbour the new Opera House, donated to Copenhagen by a fund established by the biggest Danish company Mærsk.

Another castle worth visiting is Rosenborg Castle which is a chance to see a royal castle inside. Rosenborg is no longer used as a residence for the royal family but it contains many interesting rooms, furnitures and - not least - the royal jewels which are still used by the queen on special occasions.

Nyhavn. On the right a row of restaurants. In front one of the boats showing tourists the harbour of Copenhagen.

The old charming harbour Nyhavn in the centre is popular to visit especially in the summer when thousands are sitting in the sun near the old ships enjoying a drink or an ice-cream.

Events
Every year in February and August the Copenhagen Fashion Week takes place. Professionals from Northern Europe come to Copenhagen to see the latest textile creations. The biggest fashion fair is CIFF placed in The Bella Center outside Copenhagen, but also in the city centre there are several other fairs and lots of events. Lately more has been done also to make the Fashion Week interesting for non-professionals by organizing the Copenhagen Fashion Weekend which covers events open for the public.

Copenhagen Jazz Festival is another regular event in Copenhagen. For more then 30 years this famous music festival has been taking place in summer days in Copenhagen. Not far from Copenhagen - in Roskilde - the great Roskilde Festival is held every year in June.

In 2009 Copenhagen will host several larger events. First of all Copenhagen will catch the Worlds attention when the UN Climate Conference is taking place. Here the World leaders will try to reach an agreement to stop the global warming.

Earlier in the summer 2009 Copenhagen will host the World Outgames - the largest event the city has ever hosted. These games are a sort of Olympic games for homosexuals. 8000 participants are expected to compete in 38 different sports and more than half a million people will be involved.

Airplane and trains
Many visitors fly to Copenhagen and arrives in Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup which is conveniently placed East of the city with train and metro connection directly to the centre. Since the airport is placed close to Sweden there is direct train connection to the Swedish town Malmö too.

Copenhagen has a Metro but it is still not fully developed. At the moment it covers only two lines M1 and M2 but from the airport and places in the Centre it is very useful. If you need to go to other parts of the Copenhagen you can use the bus system, but often it is an advantage to use the S-train. This electric train works in many ways like a metro but mostly runs on the ground. You can reach places even outside the centre by the S train.

Hotels and accommodation
Copenhagen is a capital and of course has hotels of many different standards. However traditionally Copenhagen is not one of Europe's major tourist cities and does not have the same choice as cities like London and Paris.

Copenhagen has more than 10.000 hotel rooms but this is not much when really big events are taking place in the city. If you travel on budget you will even find that the prices are not especially low. It will be hard to find low budget hotels for less than 70 - 80 Euro pr. night.

Read more about what to consider, when you look for a hotel in Copenhagen

Restaurant and places to eat
Although Denmark traditionally has no famous restaurant culture the city of Copenhagen and other cities of the country has developed a wide range of good restaurants with very different and exiting menus.

Of course you can eat French, Italian, Sushi and Chinese like in any other city of the World but in the later years the idea of an independent Scandinavian Cooking has grown, and now Copenhagen has gourmet restaurants serving food that you hardly can find alike anywhere else in the world.

Other sources with informations about Copenhagen:
Copenhagen.com - a private information site about the city
WikiPedia - about Copenhagen
Wonderful Copenhagen - the official tourism site from VisitDenmark