The Christiania Running Tour – What is it?
Our Christiania Running Tour is an 8 km running tour that is focused around the Freetown Christiania. Christiania is a hippie community that was founded in 1971 and though Christiania is today mostly known for its open sale of Cannabis, the Christiania Freetown is still today a unique and somewhat isolated society compared to the rest of Copenhagen and Denmark. This small area in the centre of Copenhagen is a hub of creativity and alternative lifestyles, and it is an incredible contrast to the otherwise orderly, clean and ”perfect” Copenhagen.
Of the 8 km running tour around 6 kilometres of these are on Christiania, while the remaining two kilometres is on Christians Harbour, which today is one of the most expensive areas to live in Copenhagen. It is a tour of contrasts where runners will experience the quaint cobblestoned street and canals of Christianshavn (Christians Harbour), take in some of the newest architectural pearls of Copenhagen and of course find themselves surrounded by creativity and alternative thinking at Christiania.
I pride myself on the fact that this tour is designed so that our runners experience the ”everyday life” of Christiania and also see how the Christianitter actually live and understand how this small society functions from a practical point of view.
The Christiania tour goes all the way around the “outskirts” of Christiania, and we run past the many small gardens and impressive and creative houses. We wave and say hi to the Christianitter and runners will understand why we call these people “world champions in finding a sunny spot and putting up a small table and two chairs”. At every of the small houses, you will see how every time there is a sunny spot, then by magic there is a table and two chairs.
We stop by the location where the world famous restaurant NOMA will move in 2017 (a location that many of our previous guests recognized when the move was announced but 90% of the Danes didn’t know where was) and we run along the secluded trails where we normally do not meet a single person. We pop our head into a few of the local businesses and if the “flag ship store” of DELUX CPH is open, we go in there and check out their latest clothes line. And we will of course go and have a close look at the Cannabis Stalls in Pusher Street. That is just a handful of the “things” our tour includes, but first and foremost runners can safely expect to see the non-touristy side of Christiania.
At the risk of offending my tour company colleagues, I would say that our Christiania Tour is one of the few if not the only tour in Copenhagen, where we explore so much of the ”hidden”, ”unknown” and ”completely overlooked” part of Christiania. And as we are running, we cover a lot of distance and hidden areas, combined with always running in smaller groups, we allow ourselves to get truly close to the nature, the people of Christiania, the local shop owners and the sellers in Pusher Street. It is on more than a few occasions where we have had to turn down coffee invitations from the local Christianitter, as we were sort of in the middle of a running tour 🙂
On 95% of our Christiania Tours our guests say ”Wauw – we would have NEVER found this on our own” or something similar.
Why we guide the Christiania Tour
Because I am on a personal mission!!! While most visitors to Christiania mostly visit Pusher Street and Nemoland, and maybe venture a little bit further, our Christiania Running Tour show people the more hidden side of Christiania.
To put it very bluntly – it is a shame that 99% of people visiting Christiania do not see the ”real” side of the Freetown. It personally gets to me slightly that the view of Christiania for many tourists is Pusher Street and the Cannabis. Christiania is much more than this, and I am determined to show as many people as possible that there is a very different, beautiful, inspiring, thought provoking and creative side to this very small and unique community.
Another reason we guide this tour, is that many visitors do not feel safe going to Christiania on their own. Christiania is safe, but it can be an intimidating place, and this is very understandable. However it always makes me smile a little bit when two grown men book a running tour to Christiania, because they do not feel safe going there on their own. I always wonder if they considered that their guide is most often a 50 kg female who in all honesty cannot throw a punch to save her life.
The rest of the Running Copenhagen team can probably do a better upper cut. Jokes aside – our tours ensure that runners can explore Christiania without feel uncomfortable, if they are so inclined.
The orange t-shirt of Running Copenhagen is by now, however, a well-known ”uniform” in Pusher Street, and the otherwise intimidating pushers very often turn into hugging and High-five giving guys when we go to have a look at their stalls.
Last but not least – we guide the Christiania Tour because it is lots of fun!
Why runners should book the Christiania Tour
You have already read my previous arguments, so time to get off the soapbox. But if you are still not convinced or if you do not trust us (as we are of course biased towards our own tours and are only interested in earning enough money for that Ferarri :-)), then trust our previous guests:
Praise for our Christiania Running Tour
Trip Advisor Reviews:
A fascinating insight into a part of Copenhagen many will never see.
We would never have found on our own
On our second run, Lena took us through Christiania. It was a special tour because she took us all around Christiania and showed us things that we would not have seen on our own.
Lena, led the best run ever. She was so accommodating and instead of seeing the main sites, she took me to Christiana and around places I would have never ventured to on my own.
I booked the Christiania Tour. I had not seen this part of the city and was reluctant to do so on my own. Within hours after landing, Lena was guiding me through one of the most unique neighborhoods in the world – complete with hippies, artisans, Hogwarts, and “pharmaceuticals.” (My trip to Europe ironically was related to the supply chain of pharmaceuticals, albeit of the prescription type!) Lena provided an insightful tour of Christiania at a pace that was comfortable for me. I couldn’t wait to get back to Copenhagen four days later to go on another tour.
Read more reviews on the Running Copenhagen Trip Advisor profile.
A final note on running at Christiania, then from a runners perspective you have to be careful at Christiania, as there are certain areas where you are not allowed to run. This is mainly Pusher Street, but other places on Christiania, it is not welcomed either. I write about running at Christiania in my other blog post on safety and running in Copenhagen.
I hope above have given a better understanding of our Christiania Tour, our motivation for guiding the tour and the satisfaction from our running guests after the tour. Only two things left to do: book your Christinia Running Tour and jump into those running shoes. We are ready when you are!! Book here
Happy running,
Lena
