Cities in Europe can be hard on octogenarians — so we’ve discovered traveling with my parents and in-laws over the years.
A recent trip to Denmark and Sweden, though, was delightfully accessible: full of art museums with wheelchairs, quaint local hotel stays with elevators, and culture and restaurants for all ages. I share our itinerary below:
Day 1: Copenhagen
We arrived in the morning and had big plans to start exploring right away. Instead we checked into our hotel — and fell asleep. Our lodging was a find: a community boutique hotel called Kanalhuset with loads of public spaces for meals, yoga, classes, remote working and a cup of coffee. And it has a lift! This was proving difficult to find in multiple searches of Airbnbs and hotels in the city. Thankfully, Kanalhuset checked off the boxes with an elevator, apartment-style lodging with kitchenette and a great nightly tradition of a joint meal where you dine with strangers and are encouraged/expected to converse as you break bread.
Our neighborhood is called Christianhavn, and boasts sites such as the lawless commune Freetown Christiania and the Church of Our Saviour, known for its spiral windy staircase. We got ourselves acquainted with where we were, the Metro, the supermarket and the canals. Then we had dinner at the Café Oven Vande, impressed with how the Danes seem unfazed by cold weather and cover up with blankets as they eat and drink outside. We had a solid meal of fish and beers and pulled pork, with ravioli for the vegetarian.
We bought some rations to make breakfast the next morning (there are plenty of bakeries, markets and convenience stores). Jet lag got the best of us, so we ended up tucking into those snacks earlier than sunrise.
Day 2: Copenhagen
We intended to take the Metro and had purchased the Copenhagen Card because it offers access to a lot of tourist sites and use of buses, trains and metros in the city. We bought two: one adult pass and one disabled pass, which ended up saving us money because the adult pass lets in two children under age 11 for free and the disabled pass allows a companion for free. Check out prices based on length of time here. Note: You will not need to show proof of disability upon purchase but you will at sites upon entry. My father-in-law, an amputee, has a disabled ID card that was easily accepted.
He did however find the walk to the Metro hard on his knees so we ended up relying on Uber and downloaded the Viggo app. Warning: It is much more expensive than in the U.S.
Our first stop was a canal tour and we opted to take one off Ved Stranden. I think this is a must-do as an intro to Copenhagen as a historic and modern city. After that we head to Torvehallerne food market hall, which was perfect for our family’s eclectic tastes: sushi, vegan tacos, seafood quiche, sandwiches, margaritas, beer. We also bought more breads, cheeses and meats to bring back to our hotel.
From there we head to the Cisterns in Søndermarken, a once-underground reservoir basically now a cave for one artist to install a big work every year. It is a stunning space and the artists really lean into the cave of sound, light and darkness of the underground in their installations.
We were tired and ready to head back but across the street we saw a sign for the zoo. My daughter had heard the Copenhagen Zoo is a very special place and begged us to go. Thanks to the passes, it was free so how could we say no?
Indeed, this zoo is different. As with all things Danish, the design makes it so. The elephant house is designed by the well-known Brit architect Norman Foster, and we thought we would stop there but we ended up loving and roaming the entire place. (Plus side: there are wheelchairs and it’s quite contained.) Landscape architecture loves us humans rounding corners and being awestruck, and that kept happening to us with the sections devoted to lions, polar bears and elephants. Oh my. Our daughter turned into a little kid again as she was petting the kangaroos and ran around to catch glimpses of everything. Her grandfather was equally tickled.
We dropped the youngest and oldest back at the hotel and then climbed up the 400 steps to the Church of our Saviour at dusk. Book your appointment time to make sure you get in — and don’t look down on the way up!
Day 3: Copenhagen
This was a rest day for my father-in-law and the setting of the hotel is perfect for that because he could warm up food in the room or order at the hotel bar. He ended up sleeping much of the day. We headed to Tivoli Gardens, which was the inspiration for the Disney empire without as much of the plastic or — this is the best part — long lines. Our daughter delighted in the roller coasters, my husband in the design and me at the ease of an amusement park without drama. (Warning: It is Orientalist and rundown in some places but…) We lunched at the Tivoli food hall and then walked around Strøget, Copenhagen’s main shopping street afterward.
We returned to the hotel, took naps, checked email and washed up. And this was the big night for the communal meal at the Kanalhuset. More than 100 people joined us for dinner and we were seated with an offsite gathering of a Danish design firm. We enjoyed talking to locals and loved what truly tasted like simple and home cooked food.
Day 4: Louisiana Museum of Art
The best way to get here is by Metro, but we did struggle to find elevators and escalators to accommodate my father-in-law. We eventually did, but warning: This is something you will want to plan for, depending on your metro station and mobility issues.
In better accessibility fortunes, I had emailed the museum weeks earlier to arrange a wheelchair, and it was waiting for us when we arrived. This museum — inside and out — is a must-see. The works inside are a who’s who of the global contemporary art world; our favorites were William Kentridge’s installation, Firelei Báez, Asger Jorn, among others such as Ai Wei Wei, Shilpa Gupta, Kusama, of course. We also were stunned into silence by the gorgeous seascape outside, and all of us got tactile in the kids room making our own art.
We loved roaming the outdoor sculptures and the food at the cafe was delicious. We took a train back to the city and then Ubered to our hotel. Dropped off the eldest and youngest again and walked to a cool wine bar nearby called Den Vandrette.
Day 5: Malmö, Sweden
Why not tack on another country if you can? We checked out of our hotel and hired a car that promised to both transport us to our hotel in Malmö and give us a quick-highlights tour. We chose the Mayfair Hotel Tunnel for our stay and the four of us crammed into one room for a night, knowing it was just to sleep.
We ended up loving Malmö, which started with a gorgeous drive over a tunnel-cum-bridge, Öresund, from Denmark into Sweden. We stopped by the Turning Torso, which is a futuristic skyscraper and was the tallest building in the Nordic region until last year. We then made a longer stop at the Malmö Castle (they have wheelchairs!) and learned about its history housing prisoners and Holocaust survivors. They also boast more modern art exhibits and had one on Islamic fashion while we were there. Modern art in its collection includes household names like Barbara Kruger, Nan Goldin and Andy Warhol. We continued our drive through Lund University and stopped at the Lund Cathedral. The youngest and oldest were tired by now so we checked into our hotel. The Mayfair is a building dating back to the 1300s and its hospitality was impeccable. We were served tea and snacks in the library, for example.
We dropped my father-in-law off to rest and the three of us walked around the main Malmö square and found record shops, candy stores and jewelry stalls.
We then picked up my father-in-law and spent the early evening at the Konstall gallery, which features huge art installations in its abundant space. We got light bites and drinks at nearby Smak and then all four of us headed to Swedish baths at Kallis/Ribersborg as the sun was setting. We felt like naive Americans here but the nice locals acclimated my daughter and I (one even gifted us her lock so we could keep our clothes safe) and we dunked in the freezing waters of the Öresund and alternated time in the all-women’s sauna.
We returned to the hotel and dropped off my father-in-law , and the three of us had a light Lebanese dinner at Mahalle.
Day 6: Departures
A main draw of a hotel with as much history as ours is the huge breakfast in the arched dungeon-like dining area down under. We indulged last-minute requests before being driven to the airport to return home. We did a final walk in the square and made last-minute candy purchases. My daughter wanted to see how McDonald’s in Sweden compared to the U.S. and other countries she’s been to. And she also wanted to see the Indo-Pakistani areas and immigrant neighborhoods of Malmö that a lot of people liken to Jackson Heights, our home in Queens. For all our efforts to expose our children and ourselves to difference, it’s always comforting to find the familiar, too.