How much I spent on a 4-day trip to Denmark
Everyone loves being nosy about money, so I thought I’d break down exactly how much I spent on my recent trip to Denmark
I recently returned from a four-day solo trip to Copenhagen in Denmark and it wasn’t cheap. Scandinavian countries are notoriously expensive, so I thought it would be interesting to break down exactly what everything cost me (and then cry about how much money I spent). I’ve converted all my costs into the Australian dollar to make it easier.
I decided to go to Denmark because it had some of the cheapest flights from Portugal when I wanted to take a trip. I flew in and out of Faro, in the south of Portugal, and my return flights cost me $279.86, which was my trip's most expensive element. I just took carry-on baggage with me, so I didn’t have to spend extra on luggage.
After flights, accommodation was my next biggest expense, costing me $213 for four nights in a hostel. It was located in the centre of Copenhagen, which was ideal because it meant I could walk to most of the places I wanted to go instead of needing to pay for public transport. Copenhagen is an extremely walkable city which I loved!
My other main expenses while I was there, were food, drinks, transport and activities, so I’ll break those down day-by-day, while also sharing some of the fun things I got up to.
DAY 1
My flight landed in Copenhagen around 3.30pm and I caught a train into the city which cost me $6.60. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast so on my walk between the train station and my hostel I grabbed a cheese and spinach pastry from a 7/11 for $4.80.
Once I’d checked into my hostel ($213 for four nights) I went for a walk around the city. I visited the famous Nyhavn houses and sat on the canal for a while, people-watching and eating a slice of 7/11 pizza, which cost $8.40. I then had a wander through Freetown Christiania, which is a famous independent village in Copenhagen where they follow their own laws.
In the evening I went to the pub at my hostel and made friends with some other travellers and had a couple of beers with them, totalling $24.
Daily spending total: $43.80
DAY 2
Cinnamon buns/scrolls are everywhere in Copenhagen so I had to try one for breakfast. I got a scroll and coffee from a 7/11 for $10.60.
I then caught a train out to Valby, a suburb of Copenhagen, and the ticket cost $5.30. My great-grandpa was from Denmark and lived in Valby so I thought I’d go check it out. It was a very quaint, non-touristy suburb that was lovely to have a wander around in.
After exploring Valby, I headed back into the city to meet up with Sarah, who was my sister’s exchange student about seven years ago, and lived with us for three months. She lives a couple of hours outside of Copenhagen now, so we were tourists together for the afternoon. We went to a cute street food market and I tried the famous Danish Smørrebrød for lunch. Smørrebrød is an open-faced sandwich made with rye bread and then you can choose from a variety of toppings for it. I had one with a chicken mayonnaise salad thing, topped with bacon, and then one with potatoes and mashed peas (sounds weird but it was yum!). While they were tasty, they weren’t that big and two of them cost me $24!! We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the botanical gardens and checking out the sites in the city.
Just before sunset I went and met up with some girls from my hostel for a canal boat tour of the city. The tour ticket cost $13.20, and I bought a beer and a snack from the supermarket for the cruise, which cost $10.79. Afterwards we went to a street food market for dinner where I got a chicken gyros, which cost $22.90.
Daily spending total: $86.79
DAY 3
I started off my day with a delicious cardamon pastry from a bakery and a 7/11 coffee which totalled $14.15 (bakery pastries are expensive in Denmark!).
I then had a free walking tour, which while technically free, you do still have to tip. It was a really great tour and the guide was excellent so I tipped him $16.50 (10 euros).
After the tour, I wanted to try the famous Danish hotdog so I went and found one of the hotdog trucks that are scattered around the city. I got the traditional Danish one that comes with pickles, fried shallots and all the sauces (really wasn’t sure what they all were but they were yummy!). It’s also traditional to have it with a chocolate milk so I grabbed one of those too and it cost me $13.21 total.
After lunch I met up with a girl from my hostel and we went to the Round Tower, where you walk up via a long ramp to a spectacular view of the city, and entry cost $8.80.
Afterwards we went and hired some e-bikes to ride to Reffen, a street food market, about a 25-minute ride from the city. I hired a Bolt bike (equivalent to a Lime bike), which are just parked all over the city. Because it was my first ride I got a 50% discount, so it cost around $7 on the way there but on the way back it cost just over $19, which, for a 25-minute bike ride, I thought was ridiculous. So in total the bike rides cost me $26.15, so not cheap at all, but it was really fun to ride a bike in such a bike-friendly city. When we were at the market I got a curry for dinner which cost me $23, one of the cheaper options available.
After the market we went to Tivoli Gardens, which is the world's second-oldest amusement park. A ticket to enter the gardens was $35 but that didn’t include any of the rides. If you wanted unlimited access to the rides a ticket was around $92, which was out of my budget. It was annoying you couldn’t pay per ride because I would have at least liked to have a go on one ride, but there wasn’t the option. The gardens itself was so fun to explore and walk around though, so I’m still glad I went.
When we got back to the hostel I had one schooner of beer for $8.58 before going to bed.
Daily spending total: $145.39
DAY 4
On my final full day in Denmark I went on a day trip with a guy I met on the walking tour the day before. Before I met up with him at the train station I went and got a cinnamon scroll and a coffee from the supermarket for breakfast which was $8.90.
Our first stop on our day trip was the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, about 45 minutes outside Copenhagen. The train ticket there was $14.50 and the museum ticket cost $31.89. It was an awesome modern museum with indoor and outdoor exhibits.
After the museum, we caught a train to Helsingør, which cost $6.60. Helsingør has a famous castle there which is where Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set. We decided to get lunch before heading to the castle and found a fun Danish pub to eat at. I wanted to try more Smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) but they only had “unspecified Smørrebrød” on the menu, which according to the waitress, meant the chef decided which toppings you got. I decided to give it a go and ended up getting one with roast beef, one with a ham salad and one with salmon mousse. Sadly I didn’t really like any of them that much but it was still fun to try. It cost me $19.79.
After lunch we made our way to the castle and had a wander around. We also could see Sweden on the other side of the ocean to where we were which was cool. After having a bit more of an explore around the town we got a train back to Copenhagen which was $17.15.
When I got back I went for a walk and got another Danish hotdog and chocolate milk for dinner, which cost me $11.22.
Daily spending total: $110.05
DAY 5
My flight was relatively early on my last day so I just picked up some breakfast and a few snacks from the supermarket before my flight, which cost me $11.10. My train to the airport was $6.60 and that was the last expense of my trip!
Daily spending total: $17.70
Basic breakdown of my costs:
Flights: $279.40
Accommodation: $213
Transport (excluding flights): $82.90
Food and drinks: $215.44
Activities: $105.39
TOTAL: $896.64
I am honestly quite shocked to see that I ended up spending almost $900 on a four-day trip, because I feel like I did it as cheaply as I possibly could. I’m also surprised about how much food cost me while on this trip, considering I exclusively ate from supermarkets, street food stalls and bakeries. The rest of my expenses seemed reasonable for what I did, although I’m still a little bitter about my $26 bike ride. I had such a fun time on this trip though, and it was also cool to see where my great-grandpa was from, so for me it was worth it. It was also my first, and possibly only time, in Scandinavia so I was glad to have experienced it. If you’re planning a trip to Denmark, or anywhere in Scandinavia for that matter, just be prepared to spend a lot!
Weekly update
It’s been a busy few weeks of travelling and moving around so I didn’t have time in last week’s newsletter to give a proper update of what we’ve been up to. The article above tells you enough about what I got up to Denmark so I’ll get on with telling you all about our recent Portugal adventures.
So I flew from Copenhagen back into Faro, in south Portugal, and Nelson arrived back from his sailing trip at the same time, and we met back up at the bus station in town.
We spent two days in Faro, before picking up a van to travel around in for 5 nights in the Algarve (which is what the south of Portugal is called).
We had a fun couple of days in Faro before we got the van, getting a ferry to the beach, doing a walking tour and seeing a chapel made from human bones. Coincidentally, Faro’s biggest festival, F Festival, happened to be on while we were there so we went along with some people from our hostel and saw some awesome Portuguese performers.
Once we picked up our van we headed inland and visited some very quaint local villages. Alte was one of our favourite places, with a stream running through the small town, street art everywhere, and a giant painting of the Portuguese flag on the side of the mountain. We then made our way over to the west coast where Nelson did some surfing.
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Finding places to park the van and sleep for the night wasn’t easy, so on our second night we ended up parking up in the car park of an Aldi! They did have dedicated spots for vans to park up in overnight, so we were one of about 6 vans there for the night. Was a very weird place to sleep but it did the job!
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We then headed to the town Sagres (which also happens to be the name of one of Portugal’s most popular beers), and to the most south-western point of Europe. Over the next couple of days, we made our way along the Algarve, stopping in Lagos, Portimão, Benagil and Albufeira to check out the beaches and towns. We had such a fun five days in the van, and I can’t wait to go back to the Algarve for longer in the winter.
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Once we returned our van, we got a bus back to Lisbon where we stayed the night and caught up with some friends. Unfortunately, while we were out to dinner somebody at our hostel stole my toiletry bag off my bed. Luckily, it was just toiletries and not my passport or wallet but it was still super annoying. That was the first thing I’ve ever had stolen at a hostel and it was just really crap.
We then caught a bus from Lisbon to Viseu, in central Portugal, where we were picked up by our Workaway hosts. Workaway is where you work in exchange for accommodation and food, and so we found a vineyard, owned by a British couple, to come to do a Workaway at for a few weeks during harvest season.
We’ve been here almost a week now and we’re having a blast. Harvest starts today, so up until now we’ve just been helping out around the farm and the house and prepping for harvest. There are three other Workawayers here too at the moment, a couple from Venezuela and a girl from New Zealand.
We’ve been eating loads of yummy food here, as they grow so much of their own produce on the vineyard, plus I’ve been eating an unlimited supply of grapes.
Sorry this has been a long one this week, I’ll give you more of an update on harvest season and farm life in next week’s newsletter!
So great to hear everything! I think the beer was the issue in Denmark!!!