Have we missed any Aarhusian highlights? Let us know in the comments.
Friday evening
Try to find a hotel or AirBnB close to the Latin Quarter, or Latinkvarteren, if you want instant access to some of the city's best laid-back street life and boutique shops. Hotel Royal on the Store Torv square is a nice upmarket option, the Danhostel is a cheap dormitory option, and the area is crammed with AirBnB apartments.
After checking in, head out and stroll around some of the charming cobblestone streets like Klostergade, Volden and Borggade, watching the mix of students, Aarhusian hipsters, and well-to-do creative types ease into Friday night with a beer in one of the area's many charming bars, or a coffee in one of its excellent but expensive specialist roasteries.
If you're in town early enough, you might be able to browse the many second-hand shops, and admire street art such as "The flight of the swallow" by Jade Rivera from Peru.
When it's time to eat, OliNico Gastro Grillbar is an Aarhus institution, serving classics like Moules Frites, Ribeye Steak, and Fish and Chips at high quality and reasonable prices (well, for Denmark anyway). You couldn't hope for a finer example of hyggelig Aarhusian decor, with the walls crammed with in-jokes, and the paper dispensers on each table featuring one of the founders in a very tight pair of shorts.
Once you're done with eating, wander around the streets for a bit to digest before alighting at the delightfully named Ris Ras Filliongongong bar, for a cocktail or a beer from its vast selection. Be warned, though, smoking is not only allowed, but according to the bar's Facebook page, "basically mandatory."
Roll out of Ris Ras about midnight and head home! You've got a busy day ahead.
Saturday morning
Start your Saturday with a visit to Aarhus's world-class coffee roastery, La Cabra. Choose whichever drip coffee or shot they are featuring on the day you visit, and savour the delicate flavours while chewing on a buttery cardamom roll from the bakery. If the weather allows it, sit on one of the pavement tables outside, from where you can watch the world trundle by.
From there, all it takes is a 20-minute saunter down Klostergade, Nørre Allé and Vesterbrogade to get you to Den Gamle By, which was the first open-air architecture museum in Scandinavia and is still the best. On the way you can admire the Monkey and Bird mural, by the French street art collective Monkey Bird Crew, and also perhaps pop into Genbrug1Aarhus, one of the city's best junk shops.
Once inside, make straight for the central cobbled square, visiting Borgmestergården, or "the Mayor's House", which was built in Aarhus in 1597, returned to its original state in 1908 and moved to the current site in 1914, marking the start of the Den Gamle By.
From there, you can visit 75 historic houses from the past six centuries, and, depending on the season, also meet people dressed up in the costumes of the time, who run a 19th century bookshop, general store, and cake shop, take people on tours on their horse drawn carts, or show how a blacksmith, bricklayer, cooper, or tailor would have worked.
The exhibits from the recent past, such a a leftwing 'collective' from the 1970s, and a two-mum family from 2014, are also worth a visit, making you think about how much life has changed in a relatively short time.
Round your visit off with coffee and and a 1970s-style cream cake or flødeskumskager at Café Bonnich, which faithfully reproduces a real konditori from Aabenraa, in southern Denmark.
Once you're done, it's time for art.
From the entrance to Den Gamle By, you can already see the coloured panoramic walkway of the ARoS Aarhus art museum above the rooftops, and it's only a ten minute stroll to the long steps which take you right into the centre of the building by the architecture studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen, with its impressive spiral stairwell.
Start with the Ron Mueck – Art and Life exhibition, which runs until January 2025. The oversized, hyperrealistic sculptures Boy and A Girl, from 1999 and 2006 respectively, are often criticised for being vacuous and sentimental (see this review from The Guardian). But they certainly pack a punch when you're standing there in front of them.
The permanent Installation Art exhibition in the basement is perhaps more suitable for art snobs, with works by James Turrell, Olafur Eliasson and Pipilotti Rist. If you're going before October 20th, catch Sarah Sze's astonishing Metronome, which was aptly described by the writer Zadie Smith as like "being in an opened-up iPhone".
Obviously, the experience you can't miss at Aros is Your Rainbow Panorama by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, which is mounted on the building's roof. Is it a work or art, a piece of architecture, or a fairground attraction? Whichever way you land, you get spectacular views of Aarhus and over to the Djursland peninsular. Make sure to give yourself at least 30 minutes for the panorama before the museum closes at 5pm.
By now, you should be feeling both tired and hungry, so as soon as you are out, hang a right down Vester Allé and walk for 15 minutes to Aarhus Street Food, where the temptation is to eat at least two meals to take advantage of the variety on offer.
We'd recommend Faroese fish and chips "cooked the British way" from Danyar, Chinese stuffed bao buns from Super Bao, the pulled duck burger and duck fat fries from Duck It! and elaborate ice-lollies and ice creams from Popsicle. Almost everything is delicious, though.
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