Cophenhagen’s perfect pinks!  As you may know, I just spent several weeks in northern Europe, and it was amazing!  I am utterly in love with Scandinavia, as I knew I would be, for years my favorite designers have of course been Scandinavian so I was prepped to fall in love, but Copenhagen exceeded my wildest expectations.  We visited Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki, and I think the most liveable city out of all of these was Copenhagen.

Helsinki was actually my favorite city (keep in mind we were there during summer!), it is small enough that you can walk the whole city in one day easily, it has tons of green space including a fabulous park leading up to an amusement park on the hill (what is it with these Scandinavians and their amusement parks?!), and a beautiful harbor with lots of little hidden marinas tucked in to different spots, plus saunas galore if that’s your thing (I’m really skittish about public nudity so we skipped the saunas this time!.  The people are amazing, easily the nicest I have ever met (though the Irish are super friendly in the same way too), it’s a pristine city.

Stockholm reminded me of a little NYC, I felt kind of like I was in America though the harbor is really cool, but Denmark was a fantastic mixture of all of the cities.  Since we were there in summer, we didn’t really get to experience true hygge (the warm, cozy design equivalent of umami) but here are some of my hygge pics, you can see how much effort the Danish put into their decor, right?!  They spend so much time indoors in the winter that they place a real premium on making their living spaces warm and wonderful.

If you’re traveling to Copenhagen, here are some of my best picks:

For shopping:
Illums Bolighus:  A boutique department store right in the center of Copenhagen’s shopping district (this place has fantastic shopping, I can’t even).  It’s a mix of interior goods and accessories and the windows (both shots above are Illums Bolighus displays) are to die.

Hay House:  This is a beautiful 3 story interior store right in downtown as well, it’s kind of a hidden doorway and you walk up stairs to get to it.  It’s more modern than I usually like but has gorgeous (and fairly affordable) modern Danish furniture and accessories.

Magasin: I think this is a subsidiary of the British Debenham’s, it’s a super well-curated and not overwhelming huge, and everything is perfect there! For example, I walked into the handbag section (because I was about to go over the limit on my baggage wait with shoes!) and they had my favorite brand, Liebskind Berlin front and center, and also a new brand I discovered, DAY Birger et Mikkelsen which has super cute and chic nylon totes which of course I snapped right up!

For lodging:
71 Nyhavn:  Everyone loves Nyhavn (the adorable colored row houses are super insta-friendly), and it turns out there is a darling hotel right in the center, 71 Nyhavn.  So if you want to be in the middle of the prettiest part of Copenhagen be sure to check it out it’s close to great shopping too.

For dining:
Höst + Väkst:  You can check out my earlier post on Höst + Väkst here, most people like to eat at Tivoli Gardens which is very cute and picturesque but kind of touristy, this is a much more chic option if you’re in the mood to eat with the trendy Danes.

And that’s my Copenhagen in a nutshell!  There’s so much more to say about it, like the people riding bikes everywhere, their overall attractiveness and good health and cheer (so friendly!  They speak English too which makes it easy).