Copenhagen wasn’t cheap. That was the first thing anyone warned us about. Yes, it’s expensive. And yes, we’d do it again tomorrow.
Living in Copenhagen was our first introduction to Scandinavia, and it left a mark. The bike culture, the design, the childlike enthusiasm to just take off all your clothes and jump in the water whenever the mood strikes you. There’s a freedom to it we found refreshing.
Finding a long-stay apartment in Christianshavn, Copenhagen
We stayed in Christianshavn, the historic canal district on the island of Amager, right on the edge of Freetown Christiania. Small flat that felt like the physical version of the Danish design principle: keep what matters, cut everything else. The showers were tiny, which possibly explains the naked-water-jumping habit.
Christianshavn was built by King Christian IV in the 1600s, all canals and colorful buildings and old wooden boats moored right outside your door. It’s like Nyhavn without the tourists. Living here means bike rides across the bridge to the city center, or a five-minute walk to grab dinner at Broens Street Food, or a longer walk into Christiania when you want the other Copenhagen.
Living next to Freetown Christiania
Christiania is its own experience. We’ll just say that its very existence was a shining example of how the world should be and leave it there. Living right next to it for three months meant walking through it almost daily. Kids playing in car-free lanes. Music drifting from communal spaces. Vegetarian meals at Morgenstedet. The kind of place that makes you rethink what a city has to be.
Copenhagen the wider city is engineered. Every bike lane, every canal, every coffee shop has been thought about, refined, made better. And the summer light lasts forever. Twenty hours of daylight didn’t leave much time for sleeping, but it gave us more time to enjoy everything.
A typical day in Copenhagen
Coffee at a small local place in Christianshavn. A bike ride across the bridge into the city. A walk through Nyhavn in the afternoon. Groceries at Netto because that’s what actual Danes do. Dinner from Broens Street Food or something we cooked at home while the sun stayed up until 10 PM.
We spent a lot of time at Tivoli. But our favorite pastime was renting a boat and drinking prosecco while cruising the canals. And of course, we spent a lot of hours wandering Christiania, which was basically our extended backyard.
Copenhagen: our verdict after 3 months of living there
Copenhagen is a city we’d tell anyone to try. It’s not the cheapest, it’s not the flashiest, and it’s not always warm. But it works. It respects your time. It treats bikes like transportation and coffee like a craft.
You leave Copenhagen a little more patient. A little more willing to wait for the good stuff. That’s the export.
Copenhagen long-stay stats
- Duration: Three months, summer
- Neighborhood: Christianshavn (on the edge of Freetown Christiania)
- Cost tier: Expensive
- Walkability: Good, but everyone bikes
- Wifi: Fast everywhere
- Cat-friendly: Yes
- Best for: Long stays, design nerds, cyclists, summer people, prosecco-canal-boat enthusiasts, Christiania-curious
- Would return: Yes, for another summer
Book the stay: Our Christianshavn apartment on Airbnb →
