Hungry for Points: European Engagement: Exploring Copenhagen

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Many would consider San Francisco to be a pretty expensive city in terms of cost of living. I'm used to prices in San Francisco, and even in other high COL places like Hong Kong or New York, have never felt that things were that much more than back home in SF. However, Copenhagen is the first time in my life where I've experience true sticker shock. Things in this city are really, really expensive. A simple McDonald's combo meal was over $10, and a simple nothing-fancy type dinner without any alcohol cost us about $100. Both of us had such sticker shock that we developed a routine during our 3 days here of stuffing ourselves at the free breakfast buffet, and then only eating a light dinner at night.

While I don't have any pictures, we spent our 3 nights at the Hilton Copenhagen hotel. It's actually the airport hotel that is literally connected to the airport, but it's only a 10 minute train ride into town and is actually quite convenient. I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Copenhagen, especially since the free breakfast buffet offered to Gold/Diamond members is fantastic. There is a vast array of choices, and actually was switched up daily.

Even though it was really expensive, we still had a great time in Copenhagen. Some of the highlights/recommendations from our experience:

Highly recommend taking a boat ride along the canals. It's a great way to see a lot of the city and was very enjoyable
Make sure to visit Tivoli Garden, it's like the Disneyland of Copenhagen. It's almost as if the "It's A Small World" ride at Disneyland became an entire amusement park. We didn't ride any of the rides, but nonetheless enjoyed walking around. Also, we got to check out the Nimb hotel which is on-site, and is on our bucket list in case we ever go back
It's easy to see why quality of life in Scandanavia is rated so highly. Everyone is out and about walking around with big smiles on their faces. Many of the locals hung out in the parks around the city, and we enjoyed doing so as well
We decided to try a traditional Danish meal involving nearly 10 types of herring called Smörgåsbord. I think it was worth trying once, although afterwards I can't say that I will be eating herring again for a long, long time
Lastly, but most important of all, they have the SF Muni-type of subway system where you can just hop on technically without a ticket. The only time you can get caught is if an inspector hops on at random stops and checks. Anyways, they are very, very strict about having a ticket, so while you're there don't risk getting the hefty fine. Don't ask us how we know...