Over the years, I’ve got­ten a lot of requests for travel tips from friends and acquain­tances seek­ing ideas for their upcom­ing trips either around the US or Europe. Last year I put together a list of rec­om­men­da­tions for Den­ver, but as I con­tinue to talk with more peo­ple about plan­ning out their trips, the most effi­cient solu­tion seems to be begin­ning a series of entries that col­lect my travel tips in a cen­tral location.

Today I will begin with a short list of tips about Den­mark and Nor­way (and tiny bit about Berlin) since it came up recently in con­ver­sa­tion. But I will aim to pre­pare more thor­ough lists of travel notes about other loca­tions to be posted later. If there are any cities or des­ti­na­tions of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to you, dear read­ers, just let me know!

Den­mark

Copen­hagen is a fun and bustling city, Design*Sponge has already put together a very nice travel guide out­lin­ing ideas for shop­ping and cafes by neigh­bor­hood and even a few hotels. The national museum is very well done and free to boot. When in town I always try to get to the Design museum which gen­er­ally has a good mix of his­toric and con­tem­po­rary work on dis­play. The resis­tance museum is pretty good too and not very far from the royal palace. Look­ing to cover a lot of ground while explor­ing town? No sweat! Copen­hagen has a free bike shar­ing pro­gram called City Bike with banks of bikes avail­able all around the city. Learn more about the pro­gram online here.

For a nice lunch or fika while in Copen­hagen, try Café Nor­den–great food, great ser­vice, nice peo­ple watch­ing in a con­ve­nient spot. Illums Bolighus is right nearby too which is always a good spot for win­dow shop­ping or more high-end sou­venirs. For a quick meal or snack, casual but always fresh, Joe n’ the Juice all around town is a safe and tasty bet. For travel snap­shots with a view pay a visit to the Run­de­tårn, a sev­en­teenth cen­tury tower orig­i­nally built as an obser­va­tory. For 25DKK you can climb to the top by way of a mas­sive spi­ral ramp (can you believe they used to race horses then bikes up and down the ramp?); it’s a lit­tle windy but the view is worth it. If cas­tles are your thing, a visit to Fred­eriks­borg Cas­tle just out­side of town may be in order.

Roskilde is an ancient town about 35k west of Copen­hagen (about 25 min­utes by train) with a beau­ti­ful cathe­dral and won­der­ful Viking ship museum as well; worth a visit if you have the time. Also out­side of Copen­hagen but worth explor­ing if time/energy allows are the towns of Ska­gen and Aal­borg. If it’s of inter­est, there are Viking bur­ial grounds near Aalborg.

Nor­way

In gen­eral, the Oslo Mikro­bryg­geri (Micro­brew­ery) is a good spot for a pint or two. Vigelund Park is an impres­sive sculp­ture park worth check­ing out while explor­ing Oslo. If you’re a bib­lio­phile like me, don’t miss Damm’s Anti­quar­ian Books or Norlis Antik­variat.

In Bergen, Pingvi­nen is a good spot for a casual meal. For a more upscale meal, try Spisekro­ken. Pyg­malion is another good and not too expen­sive restau­rant to con­sider. If you’re in the mar­ket for a unique, wear­able gift the sil­ver jew­elry at Juhl’s Sil­ver Gallery is beau­ti­ful. Just out­side of Bergen Gam­le­hau­gen, is one of the royal family’s cas­tles, details about open­ing hours and tours should be avail­able online here.

If time is lim­ited but you’re dying to “see it all” in a short trip, con­sider book­ing a trip with Nor­way in a Nut­shell. With sev­eral tour options, you can explore the moun­tains and fjords of Nor­way in a day tour or an overnight year-round.

Berlin

If you have any time in Berlin to kill and are look­ing for a nice meal, con­sider Mon­sieur Vuong. If you find your­self in Berlin for a greater length of time and need ides, here’s a nice list put together by San­dra Juto, a Swedish artist who lives in Berlin.

Gen­eral
Lisa Con­g­don, a SF-based illus­tra­tor and artist who recently spent sev­eral weeks in Scan­di­navia put together a nice list of design-y shops in Copen­hagen, Helsinki and Stock­holm.

If you’ve not already checked it out, Lonely Planet, has a good set of travel guides for most cities around the world. Here are the guides for the cities I men­tioned above:

• Aal­borg
• Copen­hagen
• Roskilde
• Ska­gen
• Bergen
• Oslo

If you’ve not checked Rick Steves’ guides or seen his shows, he’s a good resource as well. Here’s a link to his Scan­di­na­vian guide(s) online.

Think something’s miss­ing or want some thing more spe­cific not included on the list? Just leave a com­ment or email me and I will add it in. Happy Trails!