Danish Queen Margrethe II and her husband Prince Henrik live at Amalienborg Palace, home to to Danis

Pictured to the right is Copenhagen's famous Den Lille Havfure, better known as the Little Mermaid created in 1913 by Danish sculptor Edvard Eriksen budget rent a car canada in tribute to storyteller Hans Christian Andersen. The Little Mermaid draws more than a million visitors annually and over the years has had to be restored when vandals have cut off her head and arm, painted her or tried to blow her up.
Copenhagen Airport has been voted the best in the world due to its modern services and ease of proximity to the city centre. The airport budget rent a car canada provides more than 200 weekly passenger departures to 16 cities budget rent a car canada in Eastern and Central Europe, including a large number of departures to the Baltic region and frequent connections to 27 Nordic budget rent a car canada holiday travel destinations.
The airport has a rail link into Copenhagen, which in turn has a new metro system featuring state-of-the-art, driverless trains which run 24 hours a day linking large urban areas to the east and west of the city.
Express trains into Copenhagen depart every 10 minutes from beneath the airport's Terminal 3 arrivals hall and the journey takes 12 minutes, costing 34.5 krone in 2011. Airport buses cost the same and leave every 15 minutes. For travellers driving into Copenhagen from Sweden, the Oresund Bridge crossing toll was 40 euro for a standard car in 2011.
Budget bed and breakfast hotel rooms can be found for less than US$20 per night but most rooms are between US$30 and US$90 per night. Spend an average US$15 per day on food and you'll quickly realise that Denmark is not a cheap country for holiday travel.
Europe's largest city hostel, the five-star Danhostel for families and youth, opened in 2005 in the heart of Copenhagen. The hostel, located on the harbour front close to the trendy Vesterbro district, has about 700 beds with a night's accommodation about 265 krone in 2011.
For cheap food it's a good idea to shop at Copenhagen supermarkets and prepare your own meals, although restaurants close to Central Station are a little cheaper than elsewhere if you can afford prepared meals. budget rent a car canada Copenhagen's main shopping drag, Stroget, is the longest and oldest pedestrian thoroughfare in Europe.
You'll find fountains and museums throughout Copenhagen, along with castles such as Rosenborg Slot (the Denmark State Treasury containing budget rent a car canada the crown jewels) and Elsinore (enclosed by the sea on three sides and the original home of Shakespeare's Hamlet).
Copenhagen, of course, budget rent a car canada is the city of the famous budget rent a car canada author Hans Christian Andersen (although he actually lived in the town of Odense, Denmark's third largest city), and it's his Little budget rent a car canada Mermaid pictured above that welcomes ships into the harbour. The city has a history dating back 800 years.
The 1.6 metre bronze mermaid, based on Andersen's 1837 story of a mermaid who falls in love with a prince, has seen her fair share of tribulations in recent years. budget rent a car canada She was blasted off her rock by vandals using explosives, slightly damaging a knee and wrist. She has been beheaded twice, once lost an arm and has had paint poured over her six times.
Alternatively, you can view many of Copenhagen's historic sites by taking a comparatively cheap canal tour on a boat, or you can soak up much of the city via the cheapest travel mode available - walking. Cophenhagen is often crammed with office workers on bicycles and this is another cheap mode of travel. Denmark is an excellent country for cycling as there are separate cycling budget rent a car canada lanes both in the countryside and in the cities. Copenhagen itself has more than 300 kilometres of cycle paths.
An option is to purchase a Copenhagen (CPH) Card, costing 31 euro for 24 hours and 62 euro for 72 hours for adults budget rent a car canada in 2011 (children 16 and 30 euros respectively). The card allows free access to 65 museums and attractions such as Tivoli Gardens, free train, bus and Metro transport, plus discounts on attractions, car hire and at restaurants.
If walking budget rent a car canada is a little too slow or tiresome, you might hire a free City Bike which you can get from 110 special stands around Copenhagen budget rent a car canada that take a small, refundable budget rent a car canada deposit from an electronic dispenser for 20 krone, redeemable on return. Copenhagen has a mostly flat landscape ideal for bicycle travel.
The bikes are mostly slow and without gears but are ideal for navigating the bike-friendly central budget rent a car canada area. Helmets are not necessary. Denmark has an excellent network of bicycle paths and a cycle tour during budget rent a car canada summer is a superb way to stay fit and save money. About 75% of Danes own a bicycle and frequently use them. Copenhagen budget rent a car canada itself has almost 400 kilometres of cycle paths and more than a third of its 1.2 million residents cycle to work, school or university every day.
Copenhagen has approximately 3.5 million budget rent a car canada inhabitants within a 50 kilometre (31 mile) radius and is the most densely packed city in Northern Europe. Ranked at the top of a European Green City index, Copenhagen is an environmentally-friendly city and aims to be carbon neutral by 2025. Many establishments such as restaurants and delicatessens brandish a swan logo that signals they are part of a scheme budget rent a car canada to lift organic produce to 90% of total food consumption by 2015.
The city has low unemployment and high income per capita. In 2008, it was rated the most livable city in the world by international lifestyle magazine, Monocle . Copenhagen is the most visited city among all Nordic nations (1.3 million tourists a year).
Copenhagen enjoys a low crime rate and boasts a high standard of living. Almost 20% of Copenhagen's total area is for recreation, well above the European average for major cities, and the environment is clean.
The city has plenty of tiny public squares and the suburb of Nyhavn has many of Copenhagen's oldest and most colourful buildings dating to the early 1700s. Many are now restaurants and pubs. Nyhavn's canal waterfront is a gathering place for tourists and locals at dawn and sunset each day, and is great for people-watching or enjoying musicians and buskers during your Denmark travel.
Just a kilometre from Copenhagen's city centre is Christiania, an alternative living enclave of cafes and restaurants popular with students and lovers of bohemia. Drugs are plentiful in Christiania, which covers about 34ha of old riverside military barracks, although police have adopted a zero tolerance approach toward drugs since 2004. The locals frown on people who take photographs.
Danish Queen Margrethe II and her husband Prince Henrik live at Amalienborg Palace, home to to Danish royalty since 1794 and nestled into a picturesque harbour setting framed by gardens, fountains and trees.
Every day at 11.30am, the Royal Guard troops from Rosenborg Palace to Amalienborg Palace for the changing of the guard at midday. If Queen Margrethe II is in residence, the guards are accompanied by the Royal Life Guards budget rent a car canada Band. Yes, it's worth bringing your camera and getting some travel snaps.
Another landmark worth closer inspection in the inner city is the Round Tower. Built by King Christian IV and completed in 1642, the 35 metre tower is still used as an observatory with a planetarium, a bell loft and a university library. Tourists can walk up the central corkscrew staircase to enjoy stunning vistas overlooking Copenhagen and beyond. Take your camera.
budget rent a car canada A tourist magnet is Kronborg Castle, which is located about 50 kilometres directly north of Copenhagen near Elsinore overlooking the Oresund, the waterway dividing Denmark from Sweden. The enormous budget rent a car canada Kronborg Castle, added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000, is where Shakespeare set his tragedy Hamlet. It has survived intact since 1574 and you can nowadays tour its labyrinth of hallways budget rent a car canada and dungeons.
It's worth noting budget rent a car canada that Denmark's royalty has an annual summer budget rent a car canada tradition of touring throughout the country to stay in touch with common folk. You can coordinate your holiday travel with a Crown tour if you want to catch a glimpse of royals such as Crown Prince Frederik and his Australian wife, Princess Mary.
The Tivoli Gardens entry fee in 2011 was 95 krone but if you visit on a Friday night it's 125 krone, although budget rent a car canada you're likely to have a rock concert thrown in for the extra price - past performers including Phil Collins, Cher, the Pointer Sisters and Sting. Copenhagen residents flock to the Tivoli Gardens on Friday nights. Entry for children aged seven or less is free.
Hans Christian Andersen is probably the world's favourite author of children's fairytales and a new H.C. Andersen House has opened near Copenhagen's famous budget rent a car canada Strget Mall. A Fairy Tale Museum opened in 2004.
Holiday-makers might enjoy the small Danish town of Billund on the European mainland, which every year attracts budget rent a car canada more than 1.5 million travellers wanting budget rent a car canada to see Legoland. This enchanting park displays huge models of locations such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen's Nyhavn Harbour, each built from millions of tiny Lego blocks. The Legoland park is open from April to October and a family ticket (two adults, two children) cost 999 krone in 2011.
Winter provides somewhat cold and bleak weather and the most comfortable time to holiday is between late April and October. Denmark is at its most picturesque for travel during early summer. Summer temperatures average 17 degrees Celsius with the warmest temperatures in the high 20s.
The Denmark tourist industry buzzes during July and August with plenty of festivals, outdoor concerts and longer opening hours, although the tourism crush can make accommodation scarce and expensive if you travel to Denmark at this time. Musical festivals are a hallmark of Denmark.
Denmark budget rent a car canada is one of the richest countries in the world, its income mostly from fine quality manufactured goods, fishing, shipping and farm produce. Danish currency is still the krone, not the euro. The krone is divided into 100 ore.
The Danes are a modern, budget rent a car canada liberal society with literacy levels among the highest in the world and an extensive welfare system largely financed by a 25% tax on everything you buy during your holiday travel in Denmark .
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