Dips in the Oresund offer a glimpse into Copenhagen’s thriving sauna and swimming scene – even when the water ices over
Sod’s law it’s Copenhagen’s coldest snap in 16 years when I decide to try winter swimming here. A long-time Danish tradition, “vinterbadning” gained extra traction during and after the pandemic, when a human craving for a communal experience and a vital shock to the system was uppermost.
I’ve dipped my toe in chilly waters many times, mostly in London’s (unheated) Brockwell Park Lido, sometimes in the East Sussex English Channel waters, and occasionally in a Highlands loch.
I once took a plunge in an icy harbour in Tallinn, Estonia. Like many, I’ve become au fait with the term “contrast therapy” and am a big fan of saunas, which seem to be popping up all along the UK’s coastline, as well as in cities alongside ice baths. But nothing has prepared me for the full Danish plunge this subzero February.
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As I bump my wheelie case over the icy pavement from Forum metro stop, I spot people ice skating on the frozen Peblinge So lake – a scene reminiscent of those early 18th-century drawings of the Great Frost on the Thames. Our Balinese-style hotel, Manon les Suites, is all sensuous warmth and a central atrium pool with hanging vines and mirror balls – contrast therapy indeed.
My 22-year-old daughter, Scarlett, has joined me from Edinburgh University, thanks to a direct Ryanair flight. We rise pre-dawn, yomping through the Narnia-like Orstedsparken to catch the overland train from Norreport Station to Kurhotel Skodsborg, an old-school spa retreat just north of Copenhagen, which opened in 1898 as a sanatorium.
Kurhotel Skodsborg has been open for over a century (Photo: Visit Copenhagen)
The elegant spa is a showstopper, with warm indoor pools and range of experience showers, ice and infrared rooms. In a steam room ritual we are whisked with birch leaves and told our hibiscus face mask is nature’s Botox. After braving the outdoor cold plunge, dodging the floating ice, we head back in for a “sauna gus” ritual.
Our sauna master has the energy of a club DJ dropping floor-fillers, theatrically adding essential oil-laden ice balls to the coals and spinning like a towel-wafting whirling dervish, artfully blasting us with waves of intense heat.
Normally we’d be encouraged to run down to the Oresund, the sound, for a cold dip after the sauna, but today the shore is an undulating band of ice, surreal in its slow pulsing wave. So, the kind souls at Kurhotel Skodsborg have carved an ice hole at the end of the pier, through which we can take the most bracing dip of our lives.
Having ice plunged before I’m mindful to keep breathing, yet the freezing seawater needling my muscles and skin is almost overwhelming. Once I’m out, I instantly regret not staying in for longer.
A hole cut through the frozen surface of Copenhagen harbour to allow people access for a plunge (Photo: Getty)
With our endorphins at an all-time high, Scarlett and I hop back on the train for lunch at Peter Lieps Hus in Dyrehaven, “the Deer Park”, a Unesco-listed forest park. The smoked haddock and potatoes on rye bread, and spruce sprout schnapps go down a treat.
Back in the city, we catch up with Brit-turned-Copenhagen local, Laura Hall, author of The Year I Lay my Head in Water, a brilliant memoir of swimming around Scandinavia in search of a better life. When asked for her favourite swimming spots, Laura recommends both ends of the harbour, which are less busy.
“In the south harbour – Sydhavn – I like to swim on the quay at Teglholmen, beside the houseboats and swans and ducks. There’s a resident seal there in the winter, which is fun too,” she says, advising me to warm up with a turmeric latte at Yum Yoga Cafe afterwards.
In Nordhavn, the north harbour, there’s big swimming club with marked lanes and a strong community, she adds, as well as a sauna (SaunaNor) and nearby Andersen & Maillard cafe.
Jane Anderson braves the chilly water
While swimming in Copenhagen harbour is now a popular pastime, 30 years ago the water here was a polluted mess, rife with industrial waste and sewage. Fast forward to 2026 and the clean-up is evident – not least in the number of people who regularly take dips here. “The winter swimming clubs in Denmark have been oversubscribed for years, and you can be on a list for a decade before you get a spot at the most desirable ones,” says Laura.
Some of these clubs are just for locals, others have a networking vibe and some, like Glaecier, which opened a few years ago, are chic, with a private members’ club feel. And while according to the Danish water safety council the average age for winter bathing used to be 40, these days it’s more like 30.
The water is not the only part of the city to have a revamp and rebrand. Our second place to stay, the new 25hours Hotel Paper Island, sits opposite the opera house, on a formerly industrial island once used for storing paper.
The hotel is designed to feel like you’re staying at a (stylish) great aunt’s Danish summer house, with black and white photos, fishing objects found at Roskilde Harbour, low Danish furniture and open fires. From our expansive corner suite we watch the billowing water vapour from CopenHill.
Not only does the waste-to-energy plant provide heating to approximately 160,000 households and electricity to 62,500 residences, but it’s also home to an artificial ski slope and the world’s highest climbing wall at 85 meters.
The artificial ski slope and hiking area at CopenHill (Photo: Visit Copenhagen)
Meanwhile, behind the hotel, Water Culture is a new set of indoor and outdoor aquatic experiences, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and Associates. It is currently under construction and due to open later this year.
Nearby Copenwater was founded in 2015 as Denmark’s first dedicated open-water swimming club, where we join long-distance swimmer Hans Henrik Heming for a dip. An actual swim in 2°C water is a different kettle of fish to a quick dunk, and Scarlett and I try our best not to look like amateurs among the hardy regulars in natty pink and lime green swim hats getting in their laps.
We end up sticking to an area by the sleek wooden cabins rather than venturing out into the open sea, and are very glad for the warming coffee and focaccia at cosy Lille Bakery once we’re done.
As darkness falls, we head to CopenHot, on a former industrial shipyard, for an evening in its steamy hot tubs, icy plunge pools and chatty saunas, all with spectacular views of CopenHill. The crowd is laddy – young and mainly male, proving that here a sauna and cold dip really is the new pub. Staff will even bring beer to put in your ice bucket, and there’s a real feeling of bonhomie.
The sociable hot tubs at CopenHot (Photo: Mellanie Gand/Visit Copenhagen)
Feeling cleansed, we nip across to La Banchina, once a shipyard workers’ hut, now a simple but gorgeous café and swim spot by summer, and bijou supper club in the winter. Perched by a window with views of the frozen harbour, we feast on a set menu of Danish-only ingredients, starting with creamy muscle bisque and hake tartare with honey and basil vinaigrette.
Squid which almost tastes like bacon, tagliatelle with mushrooms from the Funga Farm five minutes down the road, herring with cod roe and cabbage and an apple bramble meringue with oatmeal wafer seal the deal. Vinterbadning and feasting never felt so good.
Getting there
Ryanair flies to Copenhagen from Stansted, Edinburgh, Bristol and Manchester.
Where to stay
The writer was a guest of VisitDenmark, Manon les Suites, which offers B&B doubles from £233, and 25hours Hotel Paper Island, which offers room-only doubles from £210.
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