I took my mom and mother in law to Europe. Our trip started in Colmar, went on to Berlin, and was coming to an end in Copenhagen. Best son (in-law) ever? Absolutely not. While I am generous, and I love my family, my in-laws (it doesn’t hurt that they are all awesome), and traveling, when it comes down to it, I am cheap and I am stubborn. I have certain budgetary limits when it comes to traveling, and I will be damned if I ever break those. One of those limits is $100/night on a hotel. This limit is why we ended up staying at Generator, a hostel in Copenhagen.
Finding a Cheap Hotel in Copenhagen is Hard
Sticking to such a small budget can be tough especially when you are 1) traveling with a large group or 2) traveling to an expensive destination. This trip had both of those.
Finding hotels on a budget in Copenhagen is impossible tough. There is no way around it. Copenhagen is one of the most expensive cities in Europe (10th According to Money Inc, but I would argue it should be higher). But as budget travel guru, I felt I could do Copenhagen cheap. For the most part I did, but finding a hotel was tough. When traveling, especially in Europe, I try to do most of my adventuring by foot. This means I need to find a hotel that is 1) centrally located or near public transportation; 2) in a safe area (especially when traveling with our moms); and gets decent reviews. I legitimately spent days researching hotels. Utilizing third party booking agents, seeing what my points bank could get me, before I found the perfect hotel….or so I thought.
I booked us into a hotel across the street from a strip club
After a few days of looking I found it! The hidden Gem. The First Hotel Mayfair. While at $125/night it exceeded my $100/night target (*GASP* THE HORROR!!!!), it was a well rated 4-star hotel, minutes from the central station, at the price a lot of hostels were going for. It was a steal. I did not hesitate and booked that gem with my Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.
I was very happy and then my mom asked for a list of where we were staying on the trip. Once she looked at the hotels, she asked me if I was aware that the hotel was across the street from a strip club. I had no clue, I was just happy to find a great place at a great price. However, my mother in law is a bit conservative and I was worried that it would make her feel uncomfortable. While she said she would not have an issue with it, both Stephanie and I felt bad. Luckily the reservation was refundable, but it was back to the drawing board.
We ended up in a hostel
After another couple of days of searching, I realized that we were going to have to start looking into hostels. That is when I found Generator Copenhagen.
It is an extremely well reviewed hostel which offers a variety of sleeping arrangements. In addition to your typical bed in a shared dorm hostels, generator offers a variety of private rooms. Including private 4 person rooms which would be perfect for us. Best part it was only $80/night including taxes.
Location
Generator Copenhagen is located smack dab in Copenhagen’s city center. It is walking distance to major attractions like Rosenborg Castle, the Royal Danish Theater, Nyhavn and the Round Tower. Almost everything you could possibly want to see in copenhagen is within a 15 minute walk.
Check-In
As I mentioned in a previous post, AirBnB drives me nuts. But deceptive advertising aside, one of the main reasons I prefer hotels is luggage storage. I can count on my fingers the number of times that my flights coincided with check-in/check-out times. So when I am arriving extremely early in the morning or departing extremely late at night, having a place to hold my bag is key.
We took the 7:40am EasyJet from Berlin and arrived in copenhagen well before a 3pm check-in time. We headed straight for Generator Copenhagen to drop off our bags. As Generator is a hostel, you should not expect anything for free, and luggage storage was not. We had to rent lockers, prices of which varied by size and duration, but were relatively reasonable. We ended up spending about $6 each to rent a large locker for 6 hours.
At check-in they let us know our room would not be ready until 3 (which we expected), but they gave us our key cards so we could just head straight up at 3. So we left for Rosenborg Castle.
The Generator Private Rooms
Generator Copenhagen is very much a hostel. It is a cheap place to crash for younger travelers. Its eclectic decor captures that intent. It is a mishmash of random furniture and bright colors giving a hip and funky feel (I don’t think I have ever written something that makes me seem as old as that sentence). But in all reality, it is the same sort of decor you see at brands like Moxy and Aloft that target millennial travelers like me. But despite this, we saw a lot of families as well as older couples.
The room itself was small and basic. It consisted of two bunk beds at either side of the room, a private bathroom, and a private shower. Sheets, shampoo, soap, and towels were all provided (this is not the case at most hostels). So basically all you would really need to do was add a TV and the room would basically just be no different than a small hotel room.
The beds themselves were fine. They were comfortable enough, but man I am way too damn old for bunk beds. Stephanie and I took the top bunks. But at 31 years old, climbing down these bunk beds in the dark to go to the restroom was downright terrifying. I have bad ankles to start with, but seriously one wrong step and i was bound to break something. While neither of our moms are all that old (Early 60s late 50s) it would have been really funny to watch them struggle to get up and down the bunk beds.
The only really complaint I had about our room, is none of us could figure out how to get the shower to give both high pressure and hot water. It was an either or choice.
Things to do at Generator Copenhagen
I would be remiss if I did not mention how much there is to do at Generator Copenhagen. The hostel itself has a restaurant, bar, terrace, and is the largest shuffleboard center in all of copenhagen. It even is the home to the Copenhagen Ice Bar!
Overall
In one of the most expensive cities in Europe, Generator Copenhagen’s private rooms are a great low budget hotel alternative.