@laurajhall
Travel writer/ author/ journalist. Loves cold places. Based in Copenhagen. Author of THE YEAR I LAY MY HEAD IN WATER, as well as One Day, So Many Ways; Time Out Copenhagen; Footprint Reykjavik. www.hellolaurahall.com
Cycling in Copenhagen tips for tourists:
- Stay on the right.
- Don’t even try it at rush hour (7-9am, 3-5pm).
- Keep your wits about you.
- The Harbour Ring Route is a great circular path to follow that shows you the city. Try it!
- DO NOT WALK IN THE BIKE LANE: IT IS FOR BIKES.
I deviated. Ever thankful for a great editor who whipped me into shape...
To be or not to be... today I’m pondering if I will actually get this feature about Hamlet’s castle written or if I will deviate into a long-winded essay that has no place in anyone’s travel pages...
What’s Copenhagen’s pizza of the moment? Find out here...
www.timeout.com/restaurants/...
This is more than a shopping guide. It’s a cultural dive into Copenhagen. Oh, and it includes a spot where you can buy a perfume that smells of the Battle of Trafalgar. You’re welcome.
www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...
We all need this. I’ve seen the poetry that’s come from it and it made me cry. Lovely.
Absolutely genius. I love that. I also sometimes ask: who else do you think I should be talking to for stories like this? which opens up all sorts of fun new contacts
*precedent.
Today seems a good time to repost this story from Denmark. 80 years ago, a town saved the Danish jews from the Nazis, risking their lives to hide them in their homes and take them in their boats overnight to freedom. Collective resistance has a precendent.
www.bbc.com/travel/artic...
“The White Lotus isn't the first drama to have an outsized effect on the travel industry...But what's interesting right now, in the digital age, is how quickly news about a streamed TV show setting can have an impact.”
My latest on BBC Travel today...
www.bbc.co.uk/travel/artic...
When is your book out? Exciting...
My MFA Diary. I couldn’t find much about MFA programmes in the UK online so I’m writing a series about the one I’m on. Are they like the US MFAs? What is it like to go on one? Is it worth it? Let’s find out...
#writing #amwriting #writers #mfa #creativewriting
www.hellolaurahall.com/mfa-diary
Maybe we could build on this as a community?
I’d add:
- Denmark
- Finland
- Faroe Islands
Joining in with a bit of #yellow because I love this house in South Greenland.
#TravelAddicts
#TopTravelPics
Is your city one of Time Out’s 50 best cities in the world?
www.timeout.com/things-to-do...
If you’re struggling with your attention span – and I know I am – maybe you should try this...
www.bbc.co.uk/travel/artic...
"You could say that perhaps we are looking for new anchors. Travel trends like stargazing, holiday romance, nostalgia tourism, and so on show us that people are searching to be reconnected to something bigger than themselves."
Philosophy + travel in my new BBC piece.
www.bbc.co.uk/travel/artic...
So happy you saw it Katherine!!!
A special one-off MODERN SCANDINAVIAN today looks at Greenland and what Trump and so many commentators are missing when they turn it into a strippable asset.
modernscandinavian.substack.com
Meet the man who kayaked Greenland’s West Coast while eating an ancestral Inuit diet.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
A statue in Copenhagen with a dusting of snow on the top
Woke up to snow in Copenhagen today. What a lovely start to the work year.
Hanging out with trees and talking about how slowly they grow is somehow something I love to do now.
TL,DR: I went to Lapland with the kids, avoided all the santa schmaltz, went arctic cocooning in the forest and found a state of bliss.
www.intrepidtravel.com/adventures/a...
Book recommendations apropos of nothing:
Modern Nature by Derek Jarman - just the most staggeringly beautiful memoir about life in the shadow of death, and gardening in the shadow of a power station.
The Baby on the Fire Escape by Julie Phillips - valuable portraits of creative motherhood.
My latest, out on Adventure.com, about Deinfluencing travel.
Reddit says it best: “Many of us are sick and tired of being treated as endless buying machines instead of people... We don’t need the latest, trendiest things to be happy.”
adventure.com/de-influence...
Wrapping up December with some stories about truly inspiring people: one kayaked Greenland while eating only Inuit food, and another is rethinking museums and adding mindfulness to them.
It’s a reminder that there are incredible people out there, not just the ones we read about on the front page.
What a book. I am intrigued...
Would you fly in an airship to the North Pole? Because soon you will be able to...
www.bbc.co.uk/travel/artic...
The journey began when I walked through the jawbones of a bowhead whale on my arrival to Disko Island. The great grey bones were pinned together as an archway; walking through them makes me think of Jonah being swallowed alive, and the madness of Captain Ahab.
My favourite story of the year: about a trip to Greenland to listen to a whale radio station, just published in Beau Monde Traveller.
#greenland
beaumondetraveler.com/3d-flip-book...
