Getting there: Aer Lingus flies daily to Copenhagen, weekday mornings and Sunday evening. Most flights are via Manchester at the moment, but from April they will go direct. SAS flies direct daily Sunday to Friday, with Saturday flights from April 1st. Fares with both airlines start at £179 with seven days' advance purchase and a Saturday night stay. From April, the basic fare with Aer Lingus will be £209. The SAS fare is also likely to increase.
Getting around Copenhagen: the airport bus runs every 15 minutes to the city centre for about £4, but the 2505 city bus service is almost as frequent, almost as fast and about £1.50. There is an excellent city bus and rail service, with tickets interchangeable between the two.
Hotels: expensive, like almost everything in Copenhagen. However, the excellent booking office at the airport will advise you on what's a good deal. Some of the less costly hotels are in a cluster behind the city's main railway station. The area is sleazy but tolerable, and once indoors most hotels are very clean and well run. Elsewhere in the city, highly recommended (but requiring advance booking) is the Admiral, which occupies a restored, 18th-century warehouse on the waterfront at Toldbodsgade.
Among those organising packages, Aer Lingus uses the three-star Park Hotel, with prices from £43 per person sharing. Hewett's Travel in Dublin organises packages with three-star hotel accommodation starting from £41 per person.
Eating Out: Where the marauding Vikings left off, Copenhagen's restaurants continue the tradition of sacking and pillaging Irish wallets. On the plus side, as with most things Danish, the service offered is both efficient and friendly. Also, there is the cultural bonus of det store kolde bord. This is a buffet arrangement often adapted, especially by Copenhagen's many ethnic restaurants, into an all-you-can-eat format - a challenge to those seeking value for money.
For just over £10, you can combine an all-you-can-eat Chinese barbecue with the novelty of being on a boat at the Floating Restaurant Sea Palace in Havnegade. A similar amount entitles you to gorge yourself at the India Palace on Hans Christian Andersen's Boulevard. For a traditional Danish steak, Jensen's Bofhus (there are three of them in the city) is a good and relatively inexpensive option. More expensively, but highly recommended by the locals, is Krog's fish restaurant, at Gammel Strand; or for French cuisine, Alsace in Ny Ostergarde near the main shopping street of Stroget.
The Copenhagen Card: if you're planning an organised assault on Denmark's cultural treasures, the Copenhagen Card can be a sound investment. It offers free travel on city buses and trains, 50 per cent off the ferry to Sweden and free entry to about 60 museums and other attractions. It's not exactly cheap, though (£15 for 24 hours, £25 for 48), so getting value out of it may be too much like hard work for some.
Information: The nearest Danish tourist office is at Sloane Street in London: Tel. 0044-171-2595959. The main tourist office in Copenhagen is on Bernstorffsgade between the railway station and the Tivoli Gardens.