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Three great Copenhagen open air swimming spots

On a warm day — or for the Danes, even on a cold day — a dip in Copenhagen's harbors and beaches can do just the trick. Here are three of our favourite spots for an open air swim in Denmark's capital city and advice on where not to swim.

Published: 21 July 2022 11:08 CEST

Three great Copenhagen open air swimming spots

Go ahead, bring the stroller -- Svanemølle Beach is great for kids. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

Amager Strandpark — a beach’s beach

If you’re looking for white sand beaches and room to spread out a towel (as long as you get there early enough), Amager Strandpark is your best bet. It’s about 25 minutes by bike or via metro line 2 from downtown Copenhagen.

Children play on popular Copenhagen beach Amager Strandpark. Photo: Claus Bech/Ritzau Scanpix

Amager Strandpark offers 4.6 km of beachfront real estate with areas for picnicking, ball games, and, of course, swimming.

It’s also prime territory for watersports (kayaking, anyone?) and the Copenhagen Surf School offers windsurfing lessons for beginners.

The Islands Brygge harbour bath offers fantastic views of the city. Photo: Kasper Palsnov/Ritzau Scanpix

Islands Brygge Havnebad — an urban swimming experience

A stone’s throw from the city center, Islands Brygge is perhaps Copenhagen’s most iconic urban swimming spot.

The Harbour bath boasts three diving platforms as well as five semi-inclosed pools, two designated for children.

Svanemølle Beach is a hop, skip and a jump from the fashionable Østerbro neighborhood. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Svanemølle Strand

Literally “swan mill beach” in Danish, this small beach in Østerbro is a favorite haunt for families with young children since the tide comes in very slowly. For the grown-ups, a massive 130-meter pier offers access to deep water.

Places NOT to swim

It’s not permitted to swim in the canals at Nyhavn or in Copenhagen’s famous lakes (though with the summer algae bloom, you probably wouldn’t want to anyway). As a rule of thumb, anywhere without a lifeguard in high season or without ladders in and out of the water should be avoided.

The map below shows the three recommended swimming spots. Zoom in to see where they are in Copenhagen.

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Denmark's wooden forest trolls in new global treasure hunt

Thomas Dambo has created a complex treasure hunt to find “Moon Mother”, his 100th troll sculpture, who he said has “crawled into the most secret spot in
the forest” to give birth.

His giant figures inspired by Scandinavian folk tales are often located off the beaten track to tempt children and adults to venture out into nature, and
to show what you can do with recycled materials.

To find “Moon Mother”, fans will have to piece together codes placed near his existing trolls across the world.

“I decided to make a super secret one and make it an intricate treasure hunt that leads you around all the other ones I’ve made through the years,”
Dambo told AFP.

His giant troll sculptures are dotted around the globe from a German forest to a South Korean mountain. But most are in the United States and his native
Denmark.

The former graffiti artist and rapper dedicated himself to epic “trolling” back in 2014, after making his first two trolls for a music festival.

His sculptures have been visited by about 10 million people, he said. Each is unique, with its own name, design and personality.

Not all are still standing — Hurricane Maria in 2017 claimed a troll called “Hector Protector” in Puerto Rico.

“In all of Scandinavia, we have trolls in our mythology and in our folklore,” said Dambo of the ugly mythological creatures that are said to live
under bridges.

“I grew up with many different fairy tales.”

Almost all of the Copenhagen-based artist’s trolls can be found using an online “Troll Map”. But fans looking for his latest will have to use QR codes
placed on metal plaques next to his other 99 creations and enter them on the online map.

Once fans have found all the codes — something that will require collective effort — a riddle will reveal the location of the new troll.

“It’s a little bit cryptical, a little bit hard,” Dambo admitted.

An AFP reporter was driven in a car with blacked-out windows to a secret location to see “Moon Mother” taking shape recently.

Members of Dambo’s team carefully attached long wooden branches to the six-metre-tall sculpture to create the troll’s flowing hair.

“We’re going for a wild, untamed hairstyle,” one worker smiled.

Dambo went to extreme lengths to keep the site a secret, not telling his own team the exact location until the final stages and using different paths
every day so as not to leave tracks.

His works are made almost entirely of recycled materials.

The face of “Moon Mother”, for instance, is made from oak scraps from a Danish flooring company.

“I like to build all my things out of trash because I think that trash is a treasure,” he Dambo said.

He said he hoped his art “can be a part of the movement that shows people that trash is not disgusting and it’s not worthless.

“It’s something that has the value to bring thousands of people out to find it as a treasure.”

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