Pokémon in Copenhagen

We arrived at Schiphol in the morning to go to Copenhagen and join Pokémon GO Fest 2026. A Go Fest is a special event in Pokémon GO, where players go to a city in either the US, Japan, or Europe to catch Pokémon and participate in raids. It consists of a park experience, where you can go to a specific park in the city with lots of other players, pokestops, shiny boosted Pokémon, lots of gyms with raids, merchandise and other small attractions. There is also the city experience, where you can explore the city while catching shiny boosted Pokémon and do raids. The city is usually swamped with players. At Schiphol airport we already saw a lot of people wearing Pokémon merch, and we knew we were at the right place. One of our friends also happened to take the same flight, so we met up beforehand before boarding the plane.

View from the airplane

Day 1

Our Airbnb

We arrived in Copenhagen late morning, and took the public transport to our Airbnb. So we already booked an Airbnb at the day that Go Fest Copenhagen was announced, but this Airbnb was cancelled 31 days before our arrival. Airbnb compensates you if your booking is cancelled 30 days in advance, and then the owners also get a fine, but of course they cancelled it 31 days before our arrival… My assumption is that they saw the rising prices of accommodations and wanted to earn more with their place. So we were very stressed about this, since most places were like more than 1000 euros for just 3 nighs which is way too expensive for us. Luckily we found a new place added to Airbnb for only half that price and we booked it immediately. So this is where we went.

The Airbnb was really spacious, it was basically a whole appartment, but also very empty, there were barely any furniture. Additionally, it was not very clean. There was a lot of lime scale in the bathroom and kitchen, and there also seemed to be some mold in the bathroom. The whole bathroom situation was just very precarious, since it was very tiny. There was a toilet, and a sink, and attached to the sink was the shower, so it was all very crammed. The bedroom had a very small bed, but it was still big enough. My main complaint of the bedroom was the lack of good curtains, but that is sadly enough more common in other accommodations as well. The neighbourhood was however very nice.

Balcony of the Airbnb

After arriving in our Airbnb, we went to eat some lunch at a cafe that also sold music vinyls, which was fun! This was however our first confrontation with the Danish prices. But it was tasty enough I guess. Afterwards we went into the city to explore a bit.

The cafe we ate lunch at

Tivoli Gardens

We decided to first go to the train station of Copenhagen. The train station is already quite a pretty sight.

The train station of Copenhagen on the inside

On the other side of the train station, there is a park called Tivoli Gardens, which is a very famous amusement park in Copenhagen. It is the third oldest amusement park in the world. You can get two types of tickets, one for the park and one for the rides, but we just got the park ticket since we were not really interested in the rides. I personally hate roller coasters and all adjacent rides. However, even the park ticket was quite expensive, mroe than 20 euros per person. But I felt like it is a must see when you are in Copenhagen, so we went there anyway.

Tivoli Garden is a very pretty park. The park has a very old school/vintage vibe, with some clearly old rides, buildings, and arcades. There is also a lot of greenery, and lake. Additionally, there are a lot of overpriced restaurants and cafes. Overall though, the park is not that big. You can see the pictures below for an impression of the park.

Some impressions of Tivoli Gardens

We also ran into some of our Pokémon Go friends in the park. They were chilling in one of the park benches, and we just wanted to sat down somewhere near when we spotted them. I knew they would go to the park that day, but I was not sure if they would still be there. The park is small, but also not that small, so it was a nice surprise to see them there. But after not too long in the park, we decided to leave the park and explore the city some more.

City Exploration

From Tivoili Gardens, I planned to go to the city center and one of the main shopping streets. On the way there, we saw some old but still in use buildings. We saw an old circus building, and an old cinema building. I really liked the aesthetic and architecture of these buildings in Copenhagen. Generally, the city has such a nice vibe, very old but still lively and lived in.

We also stumbled across two Lego stores, which of course in Denmark is a must see. However, they were not really more special than the Lego stores in other countries. However, one of the stores did display the new Pokémon Lego set, the big one of 600 euros. It looked even better in real life than in the pictures, but we do not have the money or space to buy it (yet).

The Lego Store

We then moved to the square of the city center, next to the city hall. This square is quite pretty, like most European city squares. This is also the beginning of the main shoppoing street. This street is more than 1 km long, and one of the longest car-free streets in the world. So we decided to walk along the street and take in the shopping scene of Copenhagen. Which is basically qutie similar as other mid-size European cities, and just as pretty as well. At the end of the street, there is another square. On this square there was a Pokémon Go bus, still closed though, but I would keep that in mind. And on the other side of the square, you can find Nyhavn, the very famous small harbor of Copenhagen. If you have seen one picture of Copenhagen, it is probably a picture of Nyhavn. So nice that we already accidently stumbled across it, but Copenhagen is also not very big.

The square at the beginning of the main shopping street

We decided that we would eat at home the first day, since Copenhagen is very expensive. So after seeing Nyhavn, and since we were quite tired, we decided to go back to our Airbnb. There we eat some mid frozen pizzas for only a few euros :) We spent the rest of the evening chilling and resting for the next day, which would be the first day of Pokémon GO Fest 2026 in Copenhagen.

Day 2

Go Fest Park Experience

We got up at 7 at our usual time and got ready to go to the park. Our closet metro goes straight to the park, and our station is before the main station, so it was still quiet. Every new station more Pokémon Go players started to enter the metro, until it became quite crowded. Then we arrived at the metro station at the park and were immediately confronted by a huge queue to the merchandise tent. We skipped that for now and entered the park.

As usual, the park has Pokémon Go themed decorations, a huge Pikachu, a big team rocket R, some frames of the team leaders, and other random decorations. In addition, there was a lego tent, which you could enter as well. When it was quiet we entered, and basically it shows the Pokémon Lego, you could make a Lego piece of a map or something, and you could make a Lego badge, but that required another queue. You could also take a picture with official Pikachu and Eevee mascots. We already had a picture of the Eevee mascot from a few years ago, but since there was no queue for the Pikachu mascot, we also took a picture with it. The park was also quite big, so that was nice, but besdies that it was not a special park, just a lot of grass. But that is perfect for Pokémon Go.

The event was divided into four different sections. One section spawned I think all Pokémon in the games (excluding of course legendaries and mythicals etc.) This section was called the Conservatory Zone. Another section was team Rocket themed, called the Team GO Rocket Hideout. I think Arlo was our designated team Rocket leader, since each Go fest had their own. The Recruitment Zone was themed around doing raids. Then lastly you had the Cultivation Zone, which I think was more about field research and eggs and stuff but a little bit more vague to me. And generally the theme was team Valor/Candela, since that was our designated team for the event.

Every hour you get a field research in each section. So basically what we did is walk through all areas each hour to get all the field research. We caught a lot of shinies, and a lot of them I also really wanted. For example, Sebas and I both got a shiny rotom wash, a Pokémon that you can only get at Go Fest events. At some point we went to the merchandise tent, stood in the queue for like 30 minutes. Sadly enough the sweater I wanted was sold out for my size, but I got a Eevee t-shirt instead, and Sebas got all the previous Go Fest pins. We also did some raids, I did a few Mewtwo raids, until I got both a hundo Mewtwo and a shiny Mewtwo with background, so that is all I wanted. There were also some Kyogre and Groudon, and Moltres raids, so I did some of those as well, but I wanted to save my raid passes as well. So I used my free ones and only a few premium ones. Generally, the event was very chill, until the end.

We thought that mega Mewtwo raids would just spawn everywhere. We did not read up on the event beforehand enough. Apparently we got an email (that landed in our spam folder) where in the park we should go to to battle mega Mewtwo. You see, for everyone in the game there would be two raids, one for mega Mewtwo X and one for mega Mewtwo Y. The mega you would then catch can immediately mega evolve, you do not need the energy. They distributed different locations for different players, so that not everyone would be in the same place. We did not know that. So naturally, when the mega Mewtwo raids started, we were on the other side of the park. And I was confused why there were only two raids. So we hurried to these two raids. Meanwhile masses of people were raising there phone in the air, because the raid had this weird mechanic where you need to raise your phone in the air to catch it. It looked very funny. When we finally arrived we could still do the raid with some people. But the lobby did not contain thousands of people like the raids that you could join if you were on time. But I think you were not really able to fail the raid, so eventually we caught our mega Mewtwo. It was eventful. Afterwards we ate some overpriced ice cream and continued on to explore the city.

Entrance to the park

Frederiksberg

We next went to Frederiksberg, which is a district in Copenhagen. We were not planning to go to this place before, but Go Fest divided the city into four different districs. In each district you had to catch some Pokémon and spin some stops to earn all the four medals. The park of Go Fest was already in one district, then our Airbnb in another district, the main touristy things in another district, but this district was the only one we would not automatically finish. So we went to the metro stop in this district and walked towards Frederiksberg Slot, which is a castle in Frederiksberg surrounded by a park. Already the walk there was very nice. In my opnion all the different neighbourhoods, even the residential ones, are very pretty. I would personally not complain living in Copenhagen. We then reached the park/garden of the castle, which was calming. However, the walk to the castle was still like 10 minutes from the entrance of the gardens and we were tired. But we did it anyway. The castle looks nice, not super special, but it had a great view of the gardens. It was a nice side quest. Afterwards we went to a bus station and took the bus back to the city center, to start exploring there.

Frederiksberg Slot

Stamp collection

Pokémon GO Fest 2026 had a stamp collection, where you had to walk to certain locations to collect an in-game stamp, from which you would get a Pikachu with a lego background. The first stamp was in the park, but all others were in the city center. So we walked to the closest stamp to the station, which was the Lego Store. There was one other stamp in a Lego store, and the rest was spread around different tourist locations in the city. I liked this setup of playing the game while exploring simultaneously. On the walk we saw some nice architecture, squares, and city center neighbourhoods. We entered one church, the church of the round tower. The church was modest, reminded me of Dutch churches as well. We will return to the round tower again on a later moment.

Pikachu with a lego background

Rosenborg Castle

One of the stamp was in the park in front of Rosenborg Castle. We went there, and the place was packed with Pokémon Go players. It was insane, I think the internet connection suffered from it. The park seemed very nice and pretty, but the overall vibe was just immense crowding. We played for a bit here, because the location was super good. There are lots of gyms and plenty of pokestops. We also a couple of times throughout our weekend returned to it, but not too often, since we were in Copenhagen to see more than just a park and a screen.

Rosenborg Castle with fanatic players in front of it

Kastellet and the Little Mermaid

The last stamp that we needed to collect was located at the fountain around Kastellet. Kastellet is a star-shaped fortress in Copenhagen, which is still in use by the military. In the area there is a pretty fountain, a small church, a windmill, some barracks, and on the edge of it, or maybe already outside it, you can see the statue of the Little Mermaid, which is I would say the second most famous sight of Copenhagen after Nyhavn. We first arrived at the fountain and chilled for a bit, our feet were really getting tired. The fountain is located next to the church, it was closed, but the outside is already pretty, it has a unique stone that it was made of.

The fountain next to the church

We then continued on walking to the little mermaid statue. Everyone always told me this statue is underwhelming, tiny, not really worth it. So my expectations were really low. I think this helped, since I was pleasantly surprised. It is not that big, but I expected smaller. It had a elegant and simple design, which I liked. Overall, a 7/10 for me. On the background, there was harbor, which contained a small plane that you can I think rent to fly around the sea or something. You can see it on the background on one of our pictures. It is a plane that can glide over water. It started moving when we looked at the statue, so we and all the other tourists, were all expectetly looking at it, hoping it would fly up in the air. However, it just sailed outside of the harbor, I think it would only fly up when it was out of sea. So that was definitely a disappointment.

The Little Mermaid statue

Afterwards we walked to the actual Kastellet, the star-shaped fortress. We actually didn’t know beforehand that it was a military barrack that was also actually in use, so it was pretty cool. Military guys were strolling around, and there were some nice decorations like for example cannons, or at least I think they were decorations. We also walked around the star-shaped fortresss wall, which gave a nice view of the area. Overall, I think kastellet is a nice and unique place to visit!

Kastellet Entrance

Afterwards we went to the metro to go to the area of our Airbnb, ate some ramen, and then went back to our Airbnb. We were really hyped about this ramen place, since it looked authenthic, but I was a bit disappointed. It was fine, but not the best ramen I had. But it was relatively affordable so that was a plus.

Day 3

On Saturday, day 3, we truly explored the city more. We did have the city experience of Go Fest, meaning that we could catch shiny boosted Pokémon throught the city, while exploring. And I had a list of all the places I wanted to visit. Our first stop was the Round Tower, which I already mentioned before. However, since we are such early birds these days, we arrived before opening time. So we walked a bit in the area. This is when we encountered one Pokémon Go stand, which there are multiple of throughout the city. At these stands you can do a quiz to earn a key chain of a 7k egg. However, normally these stands have a very long queue, so we never wanted to wait in line for it. But this particular stand at this time had no queue, so we did the quiz and got our key chain. The questions were really easy, at least for me. For example, what is the first Pokémon in the Pokédex, or what do you get when you lucky trade, what is a lucky egg etc. The hardest question was what is the only item you can get from a gift, which is the 7k egg, but I never considered that an item, so I was a bit confused. But still guessed it of course. After the quiz, we went to the Round Tower, since it was open by then.

The Round Tower

The Round Tower you can climb to the top to have a nice view of the city. To get to the top, there are no stairs, but a spiral ramp that goes all the way up until you reach a final small staircase to the actual platform. There is an entrance fee for entering the tower, a little bit on the high side, but what can you do. Going up the tower is really fun. Stairs are usually super tiring, because of the repetitive motion, but the spiral ramp is a lot more accessible and fun to go up to. You can also adjust your pace by walking closer to the middle wall or further away from it. During the walk up you can see some old parts from the tower, and there was also a small exhibition. I think our exhibtion was about scientist and art or something? We did not stay too long, but Tesla was mentioned, the researcher not the car company. At the top, you have these small staircase, which is really truly small. There is a countdown timer, because the stairs so small that people can not pass each other. So when the countdown timer goes to zero, we can go up. When we finally reached the top, we had a very nice view of the city. View points are essential for a city trip in my opinion. Afterwards, going down was really fun again. Because of the spiral ramp, it is really easy and you can go super fast. We had great fun!

Round Tower

Palace Amalienborg

Next we walked through the city center to the square in front of Nyhavn again. This square also has a Pokémon Go stand, or actually a Pokémon Go bus, where you can do a quiz to earn the key chain. There were two massive queues. Glad we already did the quiz at the other stand. We bought a hotdog there, and ate it at the harbor, while enjoying the view. Then we walked through Nyhavn to the other side. From here we could walk to Palace Amalienborg, which is the royal palace of Denmark. At 12 o’clock, the royal guards do a changing of the guards ceremony, which we wanted to see.

Selfie in front of Nyhavn

We were quite early for the ceremony, but already there were a lot of people waiting for the ceremony. You could already see some guards standing, waiting for the change. However, we wanted to find a toilet. According to me toilet app, there was a free toilet nearby, but the location of the app was incorrect. So it was a challenge to find, but in the end we found the toilet in the gift shop of the palace.

When we went back to the square, there was a guy approaching us. You see, we were playing Pokémon Go, and he noticed us. It was a guy from China who studied in London and was here in Copenhagen for the Go Fest. His English was not amazing, but he wanted to be our friend in the game, as well as follow each other on Instagram. I wanted to give him a Pikachu with a background of the Netherlands, but it took a while for him to understand what I meant. In the end, we managed to do a trade. Then the crowd really started to thicken, and the guy was very confused about it. We told him there was going to be ceremony, so together we joined the now massive crowd to watch the ceremony. I am tall, but even for me it was hard to see over the crowd. I hope the Chinese guy could see something, but he was at least filming everything.

Palace Amalienborg

We had to wait quite a while for the ceremony to start, but then it finally did. Basically these men in these blue outfits were walking to the square. Then they stand still opposite of the guards that were already there and held a staring competition. Then they switched places. Then some more walking, marching, and staring. It was all a bit boring, but we could tick it off our list of things. When it was over we rushed to the church next to it, since it was still quiet, but soon this mass of people would probably enter the church as well.

The changing of the guard

Frederik’s Church

The outside of this church is very pretty, it looks similar to Italian/more classical churches, with a big dome. The inside is also pretty, not as extra as the Italian churches, but more extra than the other church we visited in Copenhagen. We went inside for a bit, looked around and up, and then we left again. I have seen so many churches already in Europe.

Frederik's Church Front

The weather started to get worse, so in the mean time we ate some cakes at a very cute cafe to escape the rain. In general the weather today was not that good, as we say in Dutch very “wisselvallig”, which means that the weather is very unpredictable and can change quickly. It was very pink, but I sadly enough forgot to take a picture of it… The cakes were very tiny but very tasty, so if I had remembered what the cafe was called, I would definitely recommend it. But alas, I forgot it.

Slotsholmen

Slotsholmen is an 400 by 700 meter island in the center of Copenhagen, where you can find a lot of government buildings, as well as some museums. When we went there, there was also an Iran protest going on. We did not spend a lot of time here, we just looked a bit to the buildings and their architecture. And we were looking for a toilet. On the other side, there was supposed to be a library, which should have a toilet, so we went there, but it was a bit farther than we expected. And we had to wait ages in front of a stoplight. But in the end we reached the libary.

Slotsholmen

Royal Danish Library

The Royal Danish Library is a very big library, and it is also called the Black Diamond, because of its black exterior. The library is very modern, and has a very unique design. However, I actually could not really find any books, but we also did not explore the whole libary, it was quite big. There was a very fancy study area, where there where lots of students studying, I think it was close to exam week. And you can go up a few floors and have an okay nice view. And the library has a toilet, so our goal was reached. In the library we met a family from the Netherlands. We complained a bit about the weather (it was really rainy and we both think that the vibes would be so much better if it was sunny), and we exchanged some recommendations. Afterwards we left the library, and it started pouring again, so we had to wait for a while under a bridge, until we continued our adventure.

Royal Danish Library

Christiania

Christiania is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood in Copenhagen, which is famous for its alternative lifestyle and culture. It is around 15 minutes walking from the library, and something we were really curious about. We expected a neighbourhood with a lot of graffiti, and some alternative vibes. But we were really surprised by what we encountered. Yes there was a lot of beautiful (and also less beautiful) graffiti. Like a lot, the neighbourhood was so colorful. Additionally, the whole place felt so randomly put together, lots of different types of building, and a very cozy mess. There was also a lot of greenery, and a lot of cafes. The place is just so colorful and bright, I loved it. Some places did feel a bit shady, but the main parts were all very welcoming and friendly.

Christiania nice graffiti

Christiania has had some issues. It used to be plagued by crime, because of people selling drugs. Now there is a sign that tells you to not buy drugs in Christiania anymore because they want to keep the community safe. Actual people live here, and of course they want to keep the area livable. I looked up how you can get a place here, and basically you have to be invited, and it is quite complicated. There are not many people living here and I think the community is pretty tight-knit.

Sign in Christiania telling to not buy drugs

We went to one big shopping barn, we we bought a magnet and a cap. There were also a lot of nice little independent shops. One shop, which was located in someone’s house, was selling hand-made jewellery. Very pretty, but of course expensive, since it is hand-made. The woman who made it really looked like the hippie woman you would expect and this place. A little bit further in the neighbourhood, we also saw a horse range. The place is just so diverse. Close to the horse range, we also met some of our Pokémon Go friends, which was such a coincidence. Later in the evening we would also eat dinner together.

Christiania Side Street

When we walked back we passed a busy street next to a bar. Someone was handing out free beer, which Sebas took, I don’t like beer. I don’t know how this business works if people get beer for free, but everyone was very happy. It did show the free-spiritness of this place.

Bar Free Beer

All in all, I loved visiting Christiania. It was a very unique experience I have never had before in any city. And I have been to quite some cities in Europe. If you go visit Copenhagen, this is truly a must see. I was just sad that the weather was not good, because I think this place would be so lively with people sitting on the terraces.

After visiting Christiania, we went to a Korean bbq restaurant with the friends we met in Christiania. However, this again was a bit disappointing. The food was okay, but the service was not that good. Basically, a lot of our orders did not arrive, but we did not know if they would ever come at all. It is all you can eat, but if you cannot finish your food, you have to pay extra. So we were cautious about ordering food again that did not arrive, but a lot just did not arrive. And this made the whole experience just very frustrating. If the food was good, it would have been a bit better, but it was not special enough for this service. But the company was good!

Afterwards, we went back to our Airbnb, with sore feet, and lots of shinies!

Day 4

Day 4 is the last day of our trip. Late afternoon we would take the plane back to the Netherlands. But we still had the morning to explore the city some more. Specifically, we decided that we wanted to see one of the museums, specifically Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, which is an art museum in Copenhagen. We already saw the building a couple of times, but this time we wanted to go inside.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is an art museum in Copenhagen, which was founded by the brewer Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries. Carl Jacobsen was a passionate art collector, and he wanted to share his collection with the public. Basically, the museum is a collection of art and antiquities that this guy was interesed in. It contains sculptures, and painting from different periods and cultures, including ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as well as French and Danish art from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum Building

We were there almost half an our too early, since we did not check the opening time beforehand oops. But we were the first inside, which was amazing, since it was so quiet the first half hour. The middle part of the museum is a big atrium, with a glass roof, and a lot of greenery. In the middle of the atrium there is a pretty fountain. This whole view was super calming and nice, and I feel like we had an unique experience, since nobody was there yet. Then we moved on to the first hall, and also in that hall there was nobody there. Really I recommend going to museums the minute they open.

Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum Atrium all alone

The first hall was the hall displaying French and Danish sculptures from 1800-1920. A lot of these sculptures were depicting Roman/Greek mythology, which I love since I went to Gymnasium, which is a school in The Netherlands that has a focus on classical languages and culture, so I learned a lot about Greek and Roman mythology. I have of course also seen a lot of Greek/Roman sculptures before, but it was really nice to see sculptures that were made in the 19th century, but still depicting these ancient myths. The whole style was so different, I really appreciated it. These sculptures, according to the description on the wall, also show the radical changes and many new directions sculptures took in this time period. Below I show some of my favorite sculptures from this hall.

Perseus killing Medusa

Next we moved on to relics collected from Palmyra, which I think was an ancient culture in Syria, and I think also some other Middle Eastern countries. The halls showed a lot of everyday objects, like coins, and pottery of this time. It also showed funerary reliefs, which I thought were more interesting to see. Specifically, because these releifs often showed deceased people holding attributes that show their age, gender, and social positions. I think it was fun to look at these attributes in these reliefs. Below you can see some pictures. Besides that, we did think this part was a bit boring, but mainly because it did not align with our interests.

Funerary Relief, the opening show their attributes

Next we moved on to halls with collections of Roman and Greek sculptures and artworks, and Egyptian sculptures and artworks. It was fun to see some classical art again. I love the pottery that the Greeks made, happy to see them again. Besides that, the museum also had a collection of sacrophagi and mummies, which I have never seen before. Pretty cool. People were tiny back then. There were also a lot of statues of the different Roman empires, through the years to show how Rome changed over time. I did not pay that much attention to it, but overall it was neat.

I love Greek Pottery

Next, we moved on to the more modern art/painting collection. The museum mainly had paintings from French and Danish artists from different time periods. They were more abstract, but also still depicting real life. Some of them were really cool, you can see my favorites below. With the added descriptions to the paintings, I learned a lot (not that I remember that much tbh…), and I really enjoyed exploring this part of the museum. There where also still some rooms with some sculptures as well, specifically, we also saw some sculptures inspired by Norse mythology.

Abstract painting of Still Life

There was also some small exhibitions in the museum that are I think temporary. One example is Degas’ obsession of ballerinas. This man was a French artist, and he was obsessed with ballerinas, so he made a lot of paintings and sculptures of ballerinas. They were nice to look at, even though it is strange for a man to be obsessed with ballerinas, but I don’t want to make nasty assumptions.

The last part of the museum was about the history of the museum itself, and the founder Carl Jacobsen. We spent like 2 minutes here, because we were not interested at all. I am here for the art, not the museum. But I do think it is nice that this man collected all of this different art and made it accessible to the public. This musuem was really diverse and touched on a lot of different topics, which I really liked.

After finishing the whole museum, we went to the cafe and ate some overpriced cookies and drank some tea. Really, I do not remember the price, but it was so expensive. But it was a nice way to end our visit, and afterwards we needed to go back to the airport. We had left our suitcases in lockers inside the museum, so from the museum we just went straight to the airport. There we chilled for a bit, before ending our trip.