The Amalienborg hunt: review
What the three reviews say
Katarina, from Denmark, describes what the format is for: “It was a fun way to see some of Copenhagen’s attractions, as well as to see a few more ‘unknown things.’” Mats, from Sweden, singled out one thing: “That it was actually a bit difficult to solve.”
Read Mats’s line before you buy. Difficulty is the variable that decides whether a self-guided hunt is an afternoon you remember or an afternoon you abandon on a bench, and it lands differently on a group of puzzle-solvers than on a group who wanted a walk with a story attached. Three reviews cannot tell you which side of that you are on. Nothing on this page will pretend to a fourth.
The 4.3, and why it means less than it looks
It is the lowest number on this site, and it comes from three people. One score of three out of five in a file of three drags the average down by more than half a point on its own; the same score inside the giants walk’s 138 would be invisible. The Round Tower hunt’s 4.5 from two reviews is the identical product in a different neighbourhood, which is the clearest evidence there is that neither number is measuring quality. The ranking of all six walks explains how thin these files are.
The route, and what happened on it
The Pier, then the Aleksander Nevskij Church, Skt Annæ Plads, the Odd Fellow’s Mansion, Nyhavn and Lille Sandstræde. It is the harbour quarter rather than the medieval centre: wider streets, more water, and a finish one street back from the busiest stretch in Copenhagen.
Nyhavn is the stop with the most under it. It was dug between 1670 and 1673 under Christian V by Swedish prisoners of war taken in the Scanian War, to let grain ships reach the market at Kongens Nytorv. For most of the twentieth century it was a sailors’ quarter of pubs, brothels and tattoo parlours; commercial shipping stopped in 1967 and the restaurant frontage arrived in the 1980s. Hans Christian Andersen lived at three addresses on it, no. 20 from 1834 to 1838, no. 67 from 1848 to 1865 and no. 18 from 1871 to 1874, and published his first fairy tales while at no. 20 in 1835. Nyhavn before the restaurants and Andersen’s Copenhagen addresses have the detail.
The case itself is a woman’s murder in nineteenth-century Copenhagen, and it is fiction written for the hunt rather than a real file from the archives. The site keeps those two things apart everywhere it can.
What works
- No date to book: it is valid 93 days from purchase, started whenever you like
- Analogue, so nothing to download and nothing to run out of battery
- The harbour-quarter route is flatter and quieter than the old centre
- English or Danish, which suits a mixed group
- It finishes beside Nyhavn, which is where you would want to end anyway
- Two reviewers describe it as fun and as genuinely difficult, which is a fair pairing
Worth knowing
- Three reviews, and the lowest rating on the site as a result
- One reviewer found it hard to solve, which will not suit every group
- Minimum two people, so solo travellers cannot book it
- No guide, no stories and no rescue if the group loses interest
- Food, drink, transport tickets and entry fees are not included
- Nyhavn is crowded, and standing still there in summer is its own challenge
Who should book it
Pairs and small groups who like puzzles and want the harbour rather than the medieval lanes. Anyone who has already walked Strøget and Gammeltorv and would rather not repeat them, which is what the Round Tower hunt covers. People whose dates are fixed and whose evenings are full, since the validity runs 93 days and the start time is yours. Groups who want the flattest of the walks on this site.
Who should book something else. Solo travellers, who cannot book it at all. Groups who want to be carried along by a guide rather than doing the work, which is the guided ghost walk. Anyone who wants the dark half of the city rather than a fictional case laid over a pretty quarter, in which case the reading on the haunted places themselves is free and better. And anyone put off by “a bit difficult to solve”, because that is the one piece of real information in the file.
Book the Amalienborg hunt
Live availability is below. Groups and party minimums covers the two-person floor, and what to wear matters more here than it looks, because the harbour is open to the wind.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the Amalienborg hunt rated lower than the Round Tower one?
Because three people rated it and two rated the other. 4.3 against 4.5 on files that size is not a measurable difference in quality. Choose by route instead: the Round Tower hunt covers the old centre.
Is it hard?
One of the three reviewers, Mats from Sweden, singled out “that it was actually a bit difficult to solve”. That is the only evidence on difficulty that exists, and how it lands depends on your group. Guided or self-guided compares the two formats.
How long is the booking valid?
93 days from purchase, and you start it whenever you like, so it survives a change of plan. The guided walk runs on set evenings instead: the guided ghost walk.
Where does the route go?
The Pier, the Aleksander Nevskij Church, Skt Annæ Plads, the Odd Fellow’s Mansion, Nyhavn and Lille Sandstræde. Every meeting point on the site is listed on where the walks start.