A Guided City Map From The Activity Stream Offices
Since Activity Stream is becoming more international, we thought that we would make a ‘city-guided tour’ for our visitors, if you happen to travel to a city belonging to one of the Activity Stream offices, you can maybe check out some of these places! Let’s get to the recommendations!
Copenhagen
Place for dinner: Copenhagen has an abundance of options for eating out, with most cuisines represented and generally very high quality. We love Keyser Social for great food, great drinks and great people. Always a great experience (go for 10 dishes, not 13). Another favorite is Bistro Lupa, where you can eat a fantastic brunch or join a course menu for dinner. All vegan, all local organic produce and a friendly staff.
Place for lunch: If you come to Copenhagen, you have to try the smørrebrød. It’s a traditional Danish dish, but it’s been somewhat reinvented in the last 10 years, and no one does it better than Aamanns. Just check out the reaction by the Travel Man in the Copenhagen episode.
Place for drinks: Check out the ‘meatpacking district’ called 'kødbyen' if you want a nice place to go to sit down for drinks. There is a nice international vibe here and a lot of nice restaurants in the area as well if you would like to grab a bite to eat first. Check out a new bar called Dumpo in Vesterbro, also near the meatpacking district. Great cocktails and also a nice course menu if you would like to have a Danish tapas style dining experience.
Desserts: If you feel like cake or great bread, you should know that the level of bakeries in Copenhagen is a bit nuts - the last few years have seen new bakeries launching, with ever higher quality and innovation. Some might say that we’ve reached a “silly” level.. If you are ever near Juno, Hart or Alice, you should experience it for yourself (but prepare to be moving slowly for a few hours after). If you are looking for a cute pastry shop check out Leckerbaer. This shop has been on the top places to eat in Denmark, and as a dessert place it definitely means a lot! Get your sweet tooth ready!
A little-known must see: Recommend going to ‘Reffen’ in the summer, it is a street food island that is great for watching the sunset and usually has live music and events on the weekends. If you are visiting in winter then definitely check out some museums so you can stay warm: Glyptotek is a pretty nice one.
Belgrade
Place for dinner: Terminal GastroBar Voulez vous or Casa Nova
Place for lunch: Le Moliere. Lorenzo & Kakalamba is a restaurant which offers both Italian and Serbian National Cuisine of high quality with a very unique interior. Intergalactic Diner
Place for drinks: Gunners Pub - Nice pub with good selection of beers, Samo Pivo - Place in a city center which is very popular during summer specially. They serve only beer and Serbian craft beer is very popular so you can experience beers from Tron, Crow, Dogma, Kabinet.
Desserts: Belgrade offers a variety of places with high quality sweets: Ferdinand dumplings are amongst national favourites where there are more than 20 versions of sweet flavours of dumplings with the Plumb one which is the original and is usually made in Serbian households. Mandarina Cake Shop which has tasteful but also beautifully designed cakes, tartes, cookies and is located in the city center. Forest Pastry Shop has many sugar free, gluten free, vegan options and is a go to for people who enjoy healthy sweets.
A little-known must see: Church of Saint Sava is the 4th largest Orthodox church in the world. It is located near the Belgrade Office. Knez Mihailova is the main street of downtown Belgrade. It is a pedestrian street and has a large range of shopping and restaurants. Skadarlija is an old fashioned cobblestone pedestrian street with a range of restaurants and art. There you can experience great national cuisine followed by national music. Kalemegdan is a historical fortress and park located at the far end of Knez Mihailova. The location of the fortress is where the rivers Sava and Danube join. USCE is a very large shopping mall located in New Belgrade with a wide range of local and international shops.
Reykjavik
Place for dinner: Reykjavík is known for having high quality restaurants and there is plenty to choose from. One of our favorite places is The Fishmarket, they have fresh fish, prepared and presented in a way so each dish is an experience. Their sister restaurant, The Grillmarket is also a fantastic place to visit. If you want something funky and fun, check out Punk restaurant or Fjallkonan, both places are also great to pop in for a nice cocktail or two. If you are looking for a restaurant in the suburbs that has excellent food , we recommend Mathús Garðabæjar highly recommended the burger og duck. But on Wednesdays they have ribs and beer special :)
Place for lunch: The Reykjavík team enjoys having lunch together at Kaffi Laugalækur, which is a little outside the regular downtown hustle and bustle, the place offers an excellent selection of vegan courses as well as non vegan options in a cozy atmosphere. If you’re more of a downtown kind of person, seek out Bastard, you can’t go wrong with one of their tacos, or flatbreads and if the sun is shining they have an excellent spot to sit outside in the sun. Coocoos nest is a small cozy place down by the harbour, which offers simple but great lunches during the week, and wonderful brunches at weekends. Héðinn is a new place which is quite promising, so far members of the team have only tried it out for lunch, but we suspect it’s also great for dinner.
Place for drinks: Depending on what your drink preference is there are quite a few places to choose from. If you are the fancy type, Rok Restaurant has a happy hour on champagne every day between 16-19, but if you are more interested in cocktails Punk and Fjallkonan (mentioned above) are great and Snaps. There is also a variety of nature wines available at Tíu Sopar, which you can enjoy with light bites but if you’re more into beer then Skúli Craftbar is a good place to pop into or
A little-known must see: We’re not sure if this qualifies as a “little-known” thing, but Reykjavík has a great selection of swimming pools. The newly renovated Sundhöll downtown in Reykjavík offers a lovely combination of a classic old school indoor swimming pool as well as a newer outdoor pool and area. The queen of pools, Laugardalslaug is a Reykjavík favorita. It’s one of the biggest pools, and has a selection of hot tubs and saunas.
After walking around the city center, make sure to stop by Kaffi Mokka for a hot cocoa or an honest cup of coffee, it’s a Reykjavík Landmark.
Watching the sunset from Grótta in Seltjarnarnes, checking out the lighthouse and stopping by the Kvika footbath can be wonderful, if the weather allows, but be careful if you’re tempted to walk out to the lighthouse… the path you may think is safe to go there will quickly be flooded by the sea if you are not monitoring the tides well.
Sky Lagoon is a recently opened spa and lagoon in Kópavogur. It’s a lovely place to soak in warm water and enjoy the vastness of the sea and a drink from the in-pool bar. If you’re lucky you get to enjoy the northern lights while soaking in the spa.
If you like hiking then there are a few great mountains around the city to hike for a great view of the metropolitan area and the surrounding mountains. The most famous among the locals is a mountain range called Esja, with Steinn and Thverfellshorn being common end-points. For an easier hike there is Helgafell near Hafnarfjörður which also has a great view but less sweat. For both of these you need good hiking boots, where Esjan can be very steep and Helgafell can be very slippery at times.
For a cozy walk in nature where hiking boots are not a must there is Heiðmörk, a large green area belonging to three different municipalities, which offers a great selection of trails, from very short to a couple of hours long.
If you want a cozy stroll through time, and get to know the history of Reykjavík, we recommend visiting Árbæjarsafn (open air museum) a lot of old original buildings and an excellent collection of artifacts.
Since we just recently opened the office in New York, we will be adding to this one shortly...