If you have a spare hour

Copenhagen’s long pedestrian street, Strøget, awaits. Bustling with life, it offers the city’s best shopping, including design icons Illums Bolighus Scandinavian design store, Georg Jensen silverware and Royal Copenhagen porcelain.

If you have a spare day

Stroll Copenhagen’s medieval center; climb the 17th-century Round Tower at Købmagergade, with its 620-foot spiral ramp; and visit the renaissance palace, Rosenborg Castle, to see the crown jewels. And don’t miss out on an hour’s leisurely ride in a rocking canal and harbor boat that will take you past many of the city’s most important sights, including the famous statue of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid.

If you have a spare weekend

Dedicate a day to the delights of North Zealand, outside of the city. Visit the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art--the buildings are artwork themselves--and Hamlet’s castle at Elsinore. This famous Shakespearean setting is a marvelous 16th-century castle across from the coast of Sweden. And when in Copenhagen, don’t miss the fun and atmosphere of the world’s oldest theme park, the Tivoli Gardens. Best enjoyed in the summer, the park is more chilly around Christmas and closed in-between (open May-September and November-December).