Where to stay in Copenhagen

The old city inside the lakes and the harbour: the medieval streets around Strøget, Kongens Nytorv and Nyhavn, the royal quarter at Frederiksstaden with Amalienborg in it, Rosenborg and the King's Garden, and the station end with Tivoli and the town hall square. Everything a first visit came for is inside it or one bridge from it, the airport metro runs from under it, and it is small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes. What you give up is a neighbourhood: this is the most expensive ground in an expensive city, and after the shops shut it belongs to people who are visiting.

The strip west of the central station: Istedgade running out from it, the meatpacking district's white halls south of that, and Værnedamsvej and the Carlsberg quarter at the far end. Twenty years ago it was the red-light district and parts of it still are; it is now where Copenhagen eats and drinks, and where the best value in the middle of the city is. The cost is written into the same sentence: it is the one area that is still working at three in the morning.

North-west of the lakes: Jægersborggade's small shops and kitchens, the Assistens cemetery where Kierkegaard and Andersen are buried and everyone else sunbathes, Superkilen's black square, and Nørrebrogade running through the middle of it. The most mixed part of the city and the least polished, and the only area here where the money goes appreciably further — though in Copenhagen that is a shorter distance than it sounds.

Across the harbour from the old city, on ground the Dutch drained: canals with houseboats on them, Vor Frelsers with the spiral staircase up the outside of its spire, Christiania behind it, and then the old naval yards at Holmen and the industrial edge at Refshaleøen with the opera house, the street-food halls and several of the country's best restaurants on it. It is the most interesting half-hour of walking in Copenhagen and the least well served by the metro.

North of the centre, past Østerport: nineteenth-century apartment blocks in long straight streets, Fælledparken with the city's football pitches and playgrounds, the lakes along its western edge, and the new harbour district at Nordhavn building northwards. Where Copenhageners with children live, and it reads that way — comfortable, green, and quiet after nine, which is the recommendation and the warning at once.

The Amager waterfront directly across from the centre: a grass embankment along the harbour with the swimming baths cut into it, apartment blocks behind, and Langebro putting Indre By ten minutes away on foot. It is the newest of these areas as a place to stay and the most seasonal — in July it is where the city goes, and in January it is a windy promenade with the metro underneath it.