Hotels near Harbour Saunas at Refshaleoen

Winter bathing is a Danish institution and October is when the season properly begins, with the harbour dropping through the low teens. Refshaleoen, a former shipyard across the water from the centre, is where the culture is most accessible to visitors: floating saunas and bathing jetties looking back at the city skyline, run alongside the district's food halls and studios. The routine is a hot sauna, a short plunge into the harbour, and repeat.

Copenhagen's harbour water is clean enough to swim in, which took decades of investment and is the reason any of this exists in the middle of a capital city. Saunas take bookings and the well-known ones fill days ahead in autumn. Bring a swimsuit and a towel. Sessions usually run an hour or two, and the cold plunge is optional however much the regulars suggest otherwise.

Pro Tip: Take harbour bus 991 or 992 rather than a taxi. They run on ordinary public transport fares, which makes this the cheapest boat ride in Copenhagen, and arriving at Refshaleoen by water in the dusk is half the experience.