In the third paragraph above, substitute Copenhagen for Malmo, Denmark for Sweden, and Danish for Swedish; then you get what is the impression of plenty of visitors who have been to both around say NYE. :D

As someone who has maintained residences within relatively short distances to CPH and to ARN -- think public transit commute times of 20-40 minutes to get to the airports -- I would never rate Copenhagen as a nicer city than Stockholm.

Lots of Danish Copenhagen apartment owners live in Malmo, so I have to wonder why that is -- if it's really all that bad (which it isn't as far as I'm concerned when doing my hops between Copenhagen and Malmo). I get that you really don't like Skane, but Gotheburg better than Stockholm? :D

The implication in the following http://www.thelocal.se/20150317/ten-...ats-copenhagen is that there is something rotten in the Kingdom of Denmark, as even Shakespeare knew. :D

Easy, work in Copenhagen and get Danish wages, live in Sweden and benefit from the low Swedish taxes. No one in his right mind pays Danish taxes :D

Agreed there are a couple of nice areas in Malmö. Also there are some places where living in a fancy apartment or nice house could be good - but ridiculous expensive. You will need Danish salary with Swedish taxation to afford it ;)

I usually compare Malmö to Frankfurt/Main. It has a couple of nice places if you know where to go but a huge number of really shady ones you should stay away as far as possible. Sure, every city has those. But in Malmö it is very easy to walk into them while e.g. in Copenhagen the whole inner city is a quite nice place and you actually need to get far away from the main area meet all those unsavory elements...

I have nothing against Skane, I lived there for about 5 years and I was pretty happy with it. I just don't like Malmö. Especially compared with Copenhagen.

Also don't get me wrong, Stockholm is a fantastic city! And I never thought I would like Gothenburg more but as I'm right now on a project which makes me be in Gothenburg every week I had time to really explore the city and to be honest I like it better than Stockholm. But you need time to learn the city, I think it is not that obvious how great Gothenburg is if you just visit. Long evenings in the hotels are too boring, so I started exploring and found a lot of great places. Actually Gothenburg feels a lot like Copenhagen while Stockholm has just a very different vibe.

The Swedes and Copenhagen Danes whom I know to live in the better parts of Malmo -- thinking mainly of the coastal-bordering neighborhoods -- primarily work in Skane. Many of the ones who used to work in Copenhagen have given up on it and migrated into jobs in Sweden. Apparently Swedish working and other lifestyle conditions are superior to Danish ones for such people who moved from Copenhagen to Malmo.

There is lots of seedy stuff going on around central Copenhagen, and a lot of it is very close to the parts where tourists go there. Drug and weapons deals right around the corner from city hall. Prostitution around the main train station if you happen to go out the wrong way when looking for Tivoli. Lots more questionable characters along Copenhagen's main shopping drag of Stroget. In Malmo, the areas most commonly checked out by say American tourists are not at all as shady as the areas around main tourist gathering points in Copenhagen.


Gothenburg and Copenhagen have a grungy criminal vibe, which may explain why preppy old me didn't fancy those places as much as some others. :D I do like both cities in some ways, but I can also see why some tourists and others may like Malmo more than Gothenburg or even Copenhagen.

Oh, that explains it. Probably it reminds me of my rebellious rocking youth :D

Hmm, ok. Never heard that before, but like they say... Whatever floats your boat :D

Yes,certainly,it was dirty,and drab,urine stains on benches outside the station,I took the bus to the Carlsberg brewery stop,it looked like an old car park with overgrown weeds in it,I went back to the station area and was looking for a nice bar/pub,only found some Irish bar adjoining the station,it was ok but not perfect,at 66 I am too old for the Tivoli gardens,none of the rides appeal to me,plus it was SO expensive to get in!!!.All the streets seemed full of litter,and to be honest it all looked rather tired,I was glad to leave.Stockholm is so much better,Copenhagen is NOT a place I would go back to,sorry.

That's a shame. I agree that the area round the station is, well, probably the least desirable in the city. However, you don't have to go far for it to change. Istedgade is what it is - and if you take it as the red light district (a relatively safe one as these things go) you can relax and enjoy the people watching.

Just round the corner from there is the Kodbyen - the meat-packing district, with all sorts of interesting places to eat and drink.

But it's the heart of Copenhagen that's charming, and the country's love of cosiness. No bright lights inside or out - dimly-lit streets and candle-lit bars and restaurants, plenty roaring fires in the winter. At first glance, it can appear bleak and seedy, but if you get into to, you quickly find yourself hating the obsession we have with floodlighting the world in this country.

There are outstanding galleries, all sorts of bits of waterfront, whether touristy, party-orientated, relaxing, or even swimming for the brave. There's curiosities like the Rundetaarn. There's the lakes, and the restaurants lining it, wonderfully relaxing in the summer. There's the laid-back suburbs, plenty good food to eat (at a more reasonable price than the tourist areas, too). And there's all sorts of trips out to castles, the countryside, and plenty of coast and forest.

Plus, it's a cyclist's paradise. No better way to discover the city than on two wheels.

I love the place. But you do need to get away from the station and Stroget to appreciate it.

Indeed.

If more tourists unfamiliar with the place would do as suggested above and broaden their rounds around the city, fewer people would have a first and lasting impression of Copenhagen not being as good as it really can be. But that also sort of speaks to how it's also understandable how some visitors would come off with the impression that Copenhagen isn't as nice as it can be. That said, I find Malmo rather charming too, even as I know its good and bad sides rather well too.

Yes, I have rather taken to Malmö, too. Like my local city of Cambridge, it's one of those places that works particularly well when it's misty (and the Øresund is happy to oblige). Plus, after Copenhagen, it's nice to have a little diversity!

Yes, isn’t that funny? Maybe they just figure it’s best to rely on the English language serving as the common denominator, or maybe using another language is like putting on a mask acting as a shortcut to snap out of the everyday Danish gloom, enabling them to display their genuine hospitality in a manner swift enough to comply with the three to four day stays of Americans.

If it’s your first time in Denmark, don’t be surprised that they eat a burger or a salad with a fork and a knife. Danish children appear to master dining utensils, not unlike their bicycles, before they can talk without ever having been told about Emily Post, who in 1928 entertainingly claimed that "to 'zigzag' the fork from left hand to right hand at nearly every mouthful is a ridiculous practice of the would-be elegant that is never seen in best society.”

Common in most of Europe, not a very Danish experience. Being German, living in Sweden I ate Burgers all my life with "tool support" and can't believe people actual crush the burger between sticky fingers to take a bite.

I wouldn't be surprised if in Europe McDonalds/Burger King+other fast-food chains sell more burgers in Europe than all European non-fast-food restaurants put together. And yet the fast food chains don't commonly get asked for a fork and knife (or spoon) when people order just burgers. :D

And this is the case even in Denmark and Sweden, despite even the day cares providing a fork and knife for all meals. :D

That's why I don't go to the fast food chains... No tools :D

Hold the phone...

Burger with cutlery or with hands, OK, I can go either way. Personally, I like my burgers reanimable with an electric current, so can see the cutlery argument.

But salad?

All this talk of seediness in Scandinavian cities. How bad is it? I've been to Detroit, Michigan, is it that level of seediness?

In my opinion not by a long shot. I think it is complaining on a very high level...