Hotels near Nyhavn

Nyhavn is the 17th-century canal that every photograph of Copenhagen uses: a row of narrow gabled houses in ochre, red and blue along a quay lined with wooden ships. It was dug in the 1670s as a commercial harbour running into the city, and for two centuries it was the sailors' quarter with the reputation that implies. Hans Christian Andersen lived at three different addresses along it, including number 20 where he wrote his first fairy tales.

The restaurants along the sunny northern side are priced for the view and October empties the outdoor seating that justifies it. The canal tours leaving from here are genuinely worth taking though, and an hour on the water covers the Little Mermaid, the opera house and Christianshavn from an angle the streets do not give you. Boats run through October with covered seating.

Pro Tip: Photograph the coloured houses in the morning, when the light is on them and the quay is almost empty, then eat somewhere else entirely. Ten minutes inland the same meal costs half as much, and in October you will not be sitting outside anyway.