Why should I go? Because you’re stylish and it’s stylish — you’re meant for each other. Even though only 600,000 people live here, it is the home of star design houses such as Arne Jacobsen, Illums Bolighus and if-I-win-the-lottery Bang & Olufsen. It’s the birthplace of Lars von Trier’s Dogme film movement, now copied copiously in Hollywood. And it has enough cool bars and restaurants to keep all these trendy Danes fed and watered.

Conveniently, it is divided into nice little parcels — when you want to chill out, there’s Christianshavn, with its free-living hippie community; when you want classic sightseeing, there’s Rosenborg, with its castles and museums; and when you want to go bankrupt, there’s Indre By, home to Stroget, Europe’s longest pedestrianised shopping street. Mix all this up with the restaurants and bars of thriving Vesterbro, and you have the makings of an excellent spring break.

What do I do? The locals are bike-mad, and they’ve got a point. Why walk when you can cycle? It’s easy, it’s green and in Copenhagen, it’s cheap. In the summer you can borrow a basic City Bike (Bycykler), shopping-trolley style; put £2 in the slot, and get your money back when you return the bike to one of the 125 racks around town. Or you can hire a flashier model for £6 per day (Danwheel Cykeludlejning; 00 45-33 212227).

On your travels, there are a few musts: Rosenborg Slot, Christian IV’s 17th-century summer pad, with 24 ornate rooms on show; the one-stop luxury design shop Royal Shopping, at Amagertorv 4; and a Tuborg or Carlsberg brewery tour — much more fun than the Heineken one in Amsterdam.

If it’s sunny, head for the Tivoli Gardens (33 151001, www.tivoli.dk; entrance £7), a pleasure-seeker’s paradise built in 1843, under Christian VIII, to distract his subjects from political unrest. If it isn’t, retreat to a jazz club. Copenhagen Jazz House, in the Latin Quarter, is the classic option.

Where do I stay? The lobby of Skt Petri (33 459800, www.hotelsktpetri.com; doubles from £120) is the size of a cathedral — it used to be a department-store warehouse before being converted into a swanky hotel, hence the heavenly abundance of space. Rooms are by the interior designer Per Arnoldi, with vibrant splashes of colour on the headboards, and bedside tables that double as lamp shades. A night in the Star Suite (Robbie Williams has stayed in it) will set you back £1,800, but you get a whole corner of one floor, panoramic views, a sauna and a rooftop Jacuzzi. Budget options are few and far between, but the Hotel Sct Thomas (33 216464, www.hotelsctthomas.dk; doubles from £65) has 42 simply furnished rooms in a 19th-century town house on the highly desirable Frederiksberg Alle — the Champs Elysées of Copenhagen.

Where do I eat? Salt (33 741444, www.saltrestaurant.dk; mains about £15) was built as a corn-drying warehouse in 1787. Now a French-influenced restaurant, it has been beautifully restored, with hulking bare beams and slinky, bistro-style furniture. Formel B (33 251066, www.formel-b.dk) is another fine-dining wonder. For something less formal, try Café Viggo (33 311821), on Voernedamsvej, a colourful little street of bars and restaurants in the heart of shabby-chic Vesterbro. And when you’re passing, drop in at the Kransekagehuset patisserie (Ny Ostergade 9; 33 131902) to sample the world’s best Danish pastry.

How do I get there? British Airways (www.ba.com) flies from Heathrow and Manchester to Copenhagen. It had returns from £74 last week.

Between them, SAS (0870 607 2772, www.flysas.com), Sterling (www.sterling.dk), EasyJet (www.easyjet.co.uk) and BMI Baby (www.bmibaby.co.uk) have excellent Scottish, Irish and regional options.

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