La Banchina in summer – just
show up and find a nice spot.
Some feature incorporate sandy beaches
and sunbathing spots.
Scattered throughout Copenhagen, the harbour baths are a series of recreational facilities along the waterfront, created as part of the city’s ongoing efforts to revitalise its waterfront areas and promote urban sustainability. Here, locals and visitors alike can enjoy swimming in the heart of the city.
Each harbour bath has its own distinct atmosphere and amenities. Some feature large floating platforms with designated swimming areas, while others incorporate sandy beaches and sunbathing spots. The first and still one of the most popular is the Islands Brygge Harbour Bath, designed by the internationally renowned Danish architecture firm BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, which has multiple swimming pools, including a large main pool, a children’s pool, and a diving area. Visitors can relax on sun decks or picnic on the adjacent grassy areas. Other sites also offer beach volleyball, kayaking, and other recreational activities. For details, see visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/activities/baths-and-beaches.
This trend towards revitalising cities by actively reinventing its waterfront is widespread in Europe. It is also evident in Denmark’s second-largest city, Aarhus, where an entirely new district known as ‘Aarhus Ø’ has sprung up on the former industrial harbour. Here, many of the city’s most exciting new restaurants have their home – and unsurprisingly the area boasts its own harbour bath too, designed by BIG. It includes sauna facilities for cold water swimming and has become a favourite hangout for locals and visitors alike. For some idea of the atmosphere, visit bassin7.dk.
Returning to Copenhagen, we find another BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group creation in the form of CopenHill, a major landmark in the city and a destination for architecture fans from around the world. Boasting what is probably the best possible view of Copenhagen from the top of its roof, the building – which is actually a power plant – is a favourite spot for hiking: the walk up its side is quite strenuous, but well worth it. For those wanting even more of a challenge, the building incorporates the world’s tallest climbing wall – and you can ski down the slope all year round! www.copenhill.dk.
If our introductory article’s description of the quintessentially Scandinavian pastime of sauna sessions has piqued your interest, there are plenty of options in Copenhagen, including copenhot.com – where you can also enjoy a hot tub, cold tubs and a great view of Copenhill. Should you want to try out the ‘saunagus’ experience, you could visit the historic and still best-known spa hotel in Denmark, Skodsborg. To fully immerse yourself in the trends we’ve described, you might want to combine it with a sleep retreat specifically tailored to help you achieve better sleep.
All trends also affect how we live – and how we decorate our homes. The overall mindfulness trend has prompted Danes to download countless apps to assist calm reflection, illustrating the paradox that digital culture can help us achieve serenity as well as disrupt it. Another example of this is a TikTok trend also embraced by Danes: silent walking, where you venture out into nature without headphones or other distractions, focusing on the here and now. In more concrete manifestations, the garden hot tubs seen at Copenhot have mushroomed in Danish gardens too – and of course the trend towards self-indulgent spa-style bathrooms has been around for a long time.
In more concrete manifestations, the garden hot tubs seen at Copenhot have mushroomed in Danish gardens too.
City life is constantly changing, and recent years have seen an increased focus on creating havens of calm in urban settings. On a large scale, the Danish design approach has been very much about utilising waterfront areas in new ways, incorporating leisure opportunities as part of the urban planning. On a more intimate scale, fashions in recreation are currently seeing a resurgence in traditional Scandinavian pursuits such as sauna sessions and wild swimming. Oh, and if you’re visiting Denmark, feel free to ask us for some tips.
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