We spent 2 nights in Copenhagen on the way to Rome and back on Scandinavian airlines from San Francisco.
I bought online 2 1 day passes on Metro system which was emailed to me as well as a text message to show it as proof along with phone. Flight arrived at 1:20pm. We were at the metro about 30min after the flight arrived. The metro is in the airport just as in San Francisco or Washington National and other US airports. We were told that there is only 1 metro and it goes only 1 way and we needed to get off at Femoren which was 2nd stop. There were signs that the Metro was upstairs but a local person assured us that we need to go down and then got on a train. Interesting to note that there was no need to insert a ticket for a gate to open to let you in and then your ticket comes out. It was honor system as if the train was an airport terminal loop in the US. I noticed that 2nd stop was not Femoren. We then found out that there is a train as well as a Metro M1 in the airport. The Metro was actually upstairs above ground level and train was below. We got off at orestad which happened to have a Metro M2.
As you can see from the above map, M2 meets M1 at Christanshavn and we could take M1 back to Femoren. Once we got on M2, I opened Google Maps on my T Mobile phone with free data roaming 3G and found that there is a Metro bus which takes us directly in front of the apartment. So, instead of taking a 2 minute train ride and walking half mile in about 10 minutes, we took 10 minutes total on a train and a Metro and walked for 1 minute. On second thought, there was a bus which is not as frequent but directly from the airport and 5 min walk. So, there are multiple ways. By the way, you can use credit or debit card at the airport on train station to buy tickets and select English language for the display. I suggest buying only 1 ticket at a time because it expires in 1 hour. Not sure how to buy 1 day or 3 day pass on that machine. "Please note that not all ticket types/travel cards are for sale via machines."
Finally, it is easy to use credit or debit cards everywhere and there are ATMs everywhere. I used Fidelity debit card and paid no extra fee or transaction fee and I got the exchange rate as seen on Google.
When in doubt, call them. They speak english.
So, what was Copenhagen like?
On Mar 25th and Apr 9th it was mid 40F. People were friendly. Really small city. Not much to see other than walk around and take a canal cruise. With kids, there is an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens. Don't bother if your kids saw Disneyland but if your destination is Copenhagen and you have kids, may be worth a visit. We did not go there. Canal cruise was 1 hr. You will get an idea of the city. It is so easy for Americans to drive in Copenhagen. Very bike friendly too with bike lanes as well pedestrian lanes to cross the street at traffic lights in the city center in some places. Many people were on bikes with kid carriers, luggage carriers as well which I did not see in Italy or France in a major city.
I bought online 2 1 day passes on Metro system which was emailed to me as well as a text message to show it as proof along with phone. Flight arrived at 1:20pm. We were at the metro about 30min after the flight arrived. The metro is in the airport just as in San Francisco or Washington National and other US airports. We were told that there is only 1 metro and it goes only 1 way and we needed to get off at Femoren which was 2nd stop. There were signs that the Metro was upstairs but a local person assured us that we need to go down and then got on a train. Interesting to note that there was no need to insert a ticket for a gate to open to let you in and then your ticket comes out. It was honor system as if the train was an airport terminal loop in the US. I noticed that 2nd stop was not Femoren. We then found out that there is a train as well as a Metro M1 in the airport. The Metro was actually upstairs above ground level and train was below. We got off at orestad which happened to have a Metro M2.
As you can see from the above map, M2 meets M1 at Christanshavn and we could take M1 back to Femoren. Once we got on M2, I opened Google Maps on my T Mobile phone with free data roaming 3G and found that there is a Metro bus which takes us directly in front of the apartment. So, instead of taking a 2 minute train ride and walking half mile in about 10 minutes, we took 10 minutes total on a train and a Metro and walked for 1 minute. On second thought, there was a bus which is not as frequent but directly from the airport and 5 min walk. So, there are multiple ways. By the way, you can use credit or debit card at the airport on train station to buy tickets and select English language for the display. I suggest buying only 1 ticket at a time because it expires in 1 hour. Not sure how to buy 1 day or 3 day pass on that machine. "Please note that not all ticket types/travel cards are for sale via machines."
Finally, it is easy to use credit or debit cards everywhere and there are ATMs everywhere. I used Fidelity debit card and paid no extra fee or transaction fee and I got the exchange rate as seen on Google.
When in doubt, call them. They speak english.
So, what was Copenhagen like?
On Mar 25th and Apr 9th it was mid 40F. People were friendly. Really small city. Not much to see other than walk around and take a canal cruise. With kids, there is an amusement park called Tivoli Gardens. Don't bother if your kids saw Disneyland but if your destination is Copenhagen and you have kids, may be worth a visit. We did not go there. Canal cruise was 1 hr. You will get an idea of the city. It is so easy for Americans to drive in Copenhagen. Very bike friendly too with bike lanes as well pedestrian lanes to cross the street at traffic lights in the city center in some places. Many people were on bikes with kid carriers, luggage carriers as well which I did not see in Italy or France in a major city.
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