A week in Copenhagen
by JFC AdminArriving at Copenhagen airport is always a pleasure, luggage arrived quickly and it’s only a short walk to the train station. The ticket machines don’t seem to work with Amex but it’s a simple matter of queuing at the ticket desk, the train to Copenhagen Central station is fast and frequent.
The hotel was the Radisson SAS Royal, the first five star hotel in the city. It’s a 20-storey tower block which is described as a skyscraper on their website but personally I’d consider it to be too small for a skyscraper. At check-in we were given an upgrade to a ‘Royal Club’ room which is much larger than a normal room. It was located on the 15th floor and had excellent views of the city, the room had a separate bathroom and shower room, plenty of wardrobe space, comfortable chairs and most importantly a comfortable bed.
The hotel had all the facilities you’d expect, a decent gym was freely available by the hotel guests, there were two restaurants, the most prestigious was Alberto K on the 20th floor. Alberto K is where the Royal Club guests get their breakfast, other guests use Cafe Royal on the ground floor, as Alberto K is one of the most popular restaurants in Copenhagen it is advised to make reservations for an evening meal. Next time I will remember to reserve.
After a few very busy weeks at work the trip to Copenhagen was more to relax than to do sightseeing, the hotel made it very easy to relax, a spacious room with an excellent view, a few beers in the bar on the ground floor and the hotel’s central location made it convenient for bars and restaurants. The weather was also decent most of the time which certainly helped a lot.
Copenhagen has a lot of decent bars and restaurants, I can’t remember the names of most of them but it is so easy just to go out and experiment. Particularly on a weekend it is so easy to find places open all night and during weekdays I had no problems staying out until 3am.
There’s a lot of parks in Copenhagen and these make for excellent walking, mostly these parks seem to be well kept and you can easily spend a full day exploring them all. If you’re exploring the parks a trip to the botanical garden is free and well worth a visit.
If you want to visit Tivoli then try to be there for the fireworks display on Saturday. It occurs about 23:45, a very impressive display that lights up the city. Tivoli is expensive, you have to pay for both admission and the rides. It is, however, conveniently located next to the hotel and central station. I bought the admission tickets to Tivoli from the hotel, this meant they’d go on the room bill meaning more points earned during the stay.
I recently dropped from gold to silver on the Radisson SAS Goldpoints programme due to using Accor hotels more frequently, however, the treatment I received at the Royal Hotel was excellent and I wouldn’t hesitate staying there again.