Home to just 632,340 people (a third of whom cycle to work every day, creating an army of gently dinging bells and whicker baskets), Copenhagen is compact and eminently walkable, full of cobbled, pedestrianised streets, squares lined with historic buildings and a buzzing café culture. With so much to explore and more Nordic charm than you can shake a stick at, it’s high time you spent a weekend drinking, dining and discovering in the Danish capital.

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Editor’s Note: With a Danish heritage of my own, there’s no question I’m biased towards the smallest and (in my humble opinion) friendliest of the Nordic nations, forever linked to the rural bike rides, flødeboller and summer-home visits of my childhood. The funny thing is, Scandinavia and its people really are every bit as easy-going and charming as their reputation suggest, with a life ethos which places prime importance on family, friends and hygge. This ethos is borne out spectacularly in the Danish capital; a perfect balance of the quirky and colourful yet well-ordered and achingly cool. This might seem like a contradiction, but in their typical, happy-go-lucky, straightforward style, the Danes make it look all too easy.

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Make a Friday-night dash from the office to the airport, spend less than two hours in the air, and by late evening you’ll be standing on the pavement outside Copenhagen’s grand Art Nouveau Central Station, København H. If you’re feeling flush and want to do things properly, you’ll have booked yourself a room at the really, genuinely magnificent Nimb Hotel, which sits – conveniently enough – directly opposite the station.

From this vantage point, Nimb doesn’t look particularly special – a two-storey facade clad in white Moroccan lattice – but stroll through its doors, cross the lobby and what should emerge, Narnia-like, but the magical Tivoli Gardens and Nimb’s iconic frontage, designed in the style of a Moorish palace. The building itself dates from 1909, and in its heyday was the playground of Europe’s bright young things (you can just picture them dancing ’til dawn and tippling champagne in its cavernous ballroom and on its moonlit terraces). The hotel opened in 2008 with just 13 rooms and suites, a fabulous muddle of soft, modern design, vintage furniture and classic glamour, and a fittingly fanciful spot to lay your head in this fairy-tale city.

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If you really want to splash out, go for the balcony suite. It ain’t cheap, but it’s glorious: split-level, with a custom-built Scandinavian-style four-poster bed on the mezzanine and a neat, plush sitting area below, leading through floor-to-ceiling glass doors onto the private terrace with views across Tivoli, the world’s third-oldest amusement park.

Ah, Tivoli. Built in 1843, this utterly delightful park is unusual not just for its historic rides and city-centre location, but also for the fact that it is roamed year-round by a small family of proud and vocal peacocks. This means that the chances of waking to the sight of one fully fanned on your terrace’s white balustrade or, indeed, seated on one of its chairs, are marvellously high.

Entrance to the park is included in the price of your stay at Nimb, meaning you can stroll straight out of your suite and into the throngs if you so desire. Better yet, if your visit takes place during the winter months when the park is closed (January, February, March), you’ll have Tivoli all to yourself. Of course, none of the rides are in operation, and most of the restaurants and cafés are shut, but there is perhaps no more magical experience than sharing its 20 acres with only the peacocks and the distant hum of the city. Bonus points if it snows.

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Breakfast

If you can prize yourself out of your huge, soft bed before 11am, you’ll be rewarded with a buffet breakfast that’s nothing short of magnificent – not least for its full cheeseboard and particularly dazzling array of the usual hot and cold delights (from Havarti and salmon to perfectly crisp bacon and fluffy eggs), plus pastries, breads, cereals and juices. Oh, and it’s one of those glorious hotel buffets where champagne bottles chill invitingly in ice-filled punch bowls. As one of the waiters once pointed out, “you must have champagne with breakfast in Denmark,” so it would be churlish (perhaps culturally insensitive?) to refuse.

Spot of culture: Make the most of your base at the southern end of the Inner City by exploring the adjacent Vesterbro district. This red-light-cum-hipster quarter is undergoing a radical gentrification which has seen its gritty, local vibe mingled with an influx of hip bars and cool cafés, giving it an artsy, rugged air – the perfect place to find an inviting enclave (such as the delightful Flora’s Café on Vesterbrogade) and people-watch over a Carlsberg and a pastry.

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Lunch

At the eastern end of Vesterbro, cradled in the curve of the southbound railway tracks which spill out of København H, you’ll find Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District (Kødbyen). Formerly an industrial area, the once-defunct factories are now home to a thriving (and über trendy) network of restaurants (most specialising in meat and fish), breweries, cocktail bars and galleries. It’s all very pared down and laid back: a scattering of picnic benches and bike racks dotted along wide tarmac strips lined with sparse facades; just big glass windows and white signs. But don’t be fooled – this is all substance over style.

Everywhere here is a safe bet, but we’d make John’s Hotdog Deli your first stop (Flæsketorvet 39). Low-key, no-frills and cheap, this little joint is all about the food – and oh what food. Choose your dog and bread from the colourfully illustrated chalk-board menu (we’d go for the Danish bacon-wrapped sausage), then head over to the trough in the centre of the room, where rows of stainless-steel pans hold every imaginable topping, and go mad. There’s beer on tap, too, and usually a few friendly locals.

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Don’t overdo it though – this is a lunch in three acts. Next, amble up to Warpigs Brewpub (Flæsketorvet 25-37), a collaboration between renowned Danish brewery Mikkeller and American brewers 3Floyds. There’s some genuinely excellent Texan BBQ on offer (try the burnt ends and brisket: all the meat is smoked for 12-14 hours in one of two smokers – which, incidentally, are the largest in Europe – and, good god, it’s so tender), but you’re not here for the food. From silky stouts to fruity IPAs, the beer made at Warpigs is a true labour of love – and with 22 brews on tap, you might well find yourself staying longer than you’d planned.

When you do finally tear yourself away, it’s time to head to Fleisch, just a few steps from Warpigs on Slagterboderne. This is, for all intents and purposes, a butchers shop – though it’s also one of Kødbyen’s most sophisticated spots (think proper industrial chic: ceramic white tiles, apron-and-shirt-clad mixologists, exposed air ducts and chunky wooden furniture), and one of the city’s best cocktail bars. Order a snack (try one of the rustic small plates – you can’t beat the fried fish filet with home-made remoulade, lemon and dill) then enjoy a cocktail or three: anything involving the home-made bacon-infused bourbon or the whiskey with duck fat is likely to be winner.

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Spot of culture: Now it’s time for a stroll across the pint-sized Inner City district, along the city’s main shopping street, Strøget, and its attendant designer boutiques, bars and bustle. At its eastern end is a square, Kongens Nytorv, on which you’ll find grand-dame hotel D’Angleterre, Copenhagen’s most elegant lodging for more than 250 years with its iconic white, Parisian-style facade and a guestlist to put most others to shame (we’re talking everyone from Grace Kelly to Michael Jackson, Winston Churchill to Mariah Carey, Ibsen to the Rolling Stones. Not a bad roll call).

Afternoon snack

Head down the cobbled Nyhavn (new Harbour) to well-kept secret Told & Snaps for a taste of the traditional smørrebrød, the open sandwich ubiquitous in Denmark, and snaps, small but potent shots of delicious Danish spirits. Open for lunch every day (11.30am-3.30pm), this refined little restaurant sits in a cosy basement just off the harbour – all white tablecloths and fine china – and boasts a menu filled with fresh (and, in most cases, organic) ingredients. There are plenty of options, but we’d go for the traditional pickled herring and hand-shelled shrimps with homemade mayonnaise, the butter-fried beef tartare with freshly shredded horseradish, or the cold-smoked Icelandic salmon with smoked cheese cream.

But no snack here would be complete without a liberal sampling of home-made snaps – a distilled spirit also known as akvavit, made from grain and potatoes flavoured with herbs. The menu boasts more than 20 varieties, with flavours ranging from brown butter, coffee and liquorice, to lemon, pepper and rosemary, each one packing a delightful little punch. Remember to say ‘skål!’ before you drink (it means cheers), and soon you’ll be wending your way back along the harbour, the colourful townhouses now swaying like the masts of the bobbing boats.

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Spot of culture: Next, meander south along the main canal to Slotsholmen, an island in the centre of the main harbour, where the imposing Neo-Baroque Christiansborg Palace presides elegantly over the city. Then cross the bridge over the harbour and onto Christianshavn, a larger island created by the intersection of the two main canals, and discover the alternative, self-proclaimed autonomous community of Freetown Christiania, a military base reclaimed in the 1970s and turned into a vibrant, idiosyncratic commune with its own laws and distinctive raw, hippy style. There are a few strictly enforced rules here, including some areas where photos are forbidden, so be sure to read the signs.

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Finish your sightseeing amble with a walk back along the main canal, passing the royal family’s winter palace at Amalienborg and eventually arriving at the capital’s most famed, must-photograph landmark; a statue of Hans Christian Andersen’s legendary heroine, the Little Mermaid.

Dinner & Drinks

Now it’s time to meet the locals. One of Copenhagen’s hippest restaurants, Neighbourhood is nestled in the Vesterbro district, an eatery and hipster hangout which specialises in organic gourmet pizzas and unique cocktails, turning the traditional pizza concept on its head by removing roughly two-thirds of the dough and beefing up the dish with generous toppings of fresh salad, meat, cheese and herbs. Vinyl tunes play, the tongue-in-cheek cocktail menu is is written on a huge blackboard, and the long wooden tables mean its a great place to go if you fancy befriending a few like-minded Copenhagenites with whom to explore Vesterbro’s nightlife after your meal.

If you’d rather go it alone after dinner, you’d be hard pushed to find a better example of cool Nordic nightlife than Taphouse. Boasting Europe’s largest selection of draft beers (at our last count, there were 61, all of them strong and delicious), the walk will even lead you through the Rådhuspladsen (City Hall Square) with the stunning City Hall lit up after dark – pretty much making the whole excursion a cultural must.

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