The revelation — or unfairness — of Copenhagen is that it is both unfeasibly pretty and refreshingly clever. On every street corner, from established neighbourhoods like Vesterbro and Norrebro to up-and-comers Holmen, Refshaleoen, Nordhavn and Papiroen, there are beautiful people and bewitching restaurants and bars. Hotels can be found in renovated factories, barges and canal houses. It’s a hard-working capital that says “I’ll be anything you want me to be” — a sentiment echoed in the city’s hotel scene.
The best way — the only way, really — to see it is by bike. This is a city where two wheels are a human right, and with 250 or so miles of dedicated bicycle lanes, bridges and superhighways, the city demands you visit sustainably. Other ways of doing so are by supporting the largest urban farm in Scandinavia and the city’s free GreenKayak scheme (the catch is you need to collect canal rubbish in return). As you spin on rides at the Tivoli Gardens amusement park or feast at a sense-tingling street-food market (Reffen and Broens are two to try), it’s easy to believe that if every city was like Copenhagen, the world would be a much happier place.
From floating barges or a former brewery, the principles of simplicity, functionality, elegance and sustainability are imbued in the very DNA of Copenhagen’s finest hotels. Here’s where to bed down in the capital of Scandinavian cool.
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1. Nimb Hotel, city centre
£££ | SPA | POOL | Best for family escapes
This delightful hotel, opposite Central Station in the heart of the Tivoli Gardens theme park, is like something from a fairytale. Besides doorstep access to the rides and rollercoasters of Copenhagen’s beloved pleasure garden, this is a destination for bedrooms that’ll fit you like a glass slipper and five-star feasts worthy of Cinderella’s ball. The palatial Moorish design might scream Andalusia, but the vibe is very much Danish, with a terrific rooftop pool, and a brasserie and bar that are among Scandinavia’s best.
Read our full review of Nimb Hotel
2. Villa Copenhagen, city centre
££ | POOL | Best for the pool scene
When centrally located Villa Copenhagen opened in 2020, heads turned. The brag was that it would be a grande dame hotel for the 21st century and its position in the 100-year-old premises of the Central Post and Telegraph head office made the prospect even more tempting. And it doesn’t disappoint. There’s an art to creating a rooftop pool and this one is fabulous, as is the terrace bar, sauna, and bakery/coffee shop. It’s super-slick and rooms are like a stroll through a design magazine, with all the curves in the right places. Here, they call it “conscious luxury”, but we prefer “knocking your socks off”.
Read our full review of Villa Copenhagen
3. Hotel Sanders, Nyhavn
££ | Best for culture vultures
As Copenhagen is designed for cycling, it’s a huge help that you can rent bikes at this boutique bolt hole close to Nyhavn’s colourful waterfront promenade. The hotel’s backstory is all to do with the dream of the owner (a former Danish ballet star), but more important for visitors is the striking rooftop terrace, homey living room, marquee cocktail bar, and subtle bygone style that eschews progressive Danish design. Happily, there’s also a terrific selection of cultural walks, behind-the-scenes tours and a private boat that can be booked with the concierge.
4. 25hours Hotel Paper Island, Papiroen
££ | Best for cracking cocktails
It’s now more than a decade since the paper warehouses and newsprint storage facilities on Papiroen closed, and the island has reinvigorated itself with apartments, coffee shops, a see-and-be-seen sunbathing terrace and this wonderfully pleasing hotel. The focus-pulling look is waterside living meets maritime junk shop (cut to a lifeboat ring and antique diver’s helmet in reception), and it has a funky restaurant, coffee bar, and, the clincher, a phenomenal rooftop cocktail bar with views of Holmen and the Opera House.
5. Manon Les Suites, city centre
££ | SPA | POOL | Best for a sense of escapism
Well, this might not be what you expect. A Balinese-influenced tropical pool draped with foilage, a jungle gym, a rooftop restaurant, and a sauna with cold bucket showers — this is Denmark via Denpasar, with southeast Asian-inspired public spaces that are dressed to the nines. Despite all this tropical flair, uncluttered rooms are fuss-free while, location-wise, the hotel overlooks Copenhagen’s delightful rectangle lakes. Note: only over-15s are welcome.
Read our full review of Manon Les Suites
6. Radisson Collection Royal Hotel, city centre
£ | Best for Danish modernism
This hotel has the fingerprints of legendary Danish designer and architect Arne Jacobsen all over it. It’s no ordinary Radisson, but one that lays claim to being the world’s first design hotel, with its timeless style and functionality dating back to the 1960s heyday when swan, egg and pot chairs were all the rage. You’re in for a good time at signature restaurant Issei, with its fusion of Japanese and Peruvian flavours; raise a glass in Jacobsen’s honour at the sleek bar.
7. Nobis Hotel, city centre
££ | Best for design lovers
Originally built more than a century ago, this sophisticated hotel with its landmark façade was the home of the Royal Danish Academy of Music for over 30 years. Times change, but there is still an intensity to the place, its interiors composed with swooshes of elegance and grace notes courtesy of all the hallmarks of Danish design and furniture. Each room and suite is as clean-lined and spacious as the last, and there’s a decadent bar and bistro-y restaurant — but perhaps the real draw is the location: bang in the Copenhagen Cultural District, there’s a symphony of museums in the surrounding neighbourhood to discover.
8. 25hours Hotel Indre By, city centre
£ | Best for young couples
This was once a 19th-century porcelain factory then a university building, now it’s the home of a hotel from on-the-go German chain 25hours. The brand has gone to town with the design — no colour is spared — and there are feature wallpapers, mural wall art, slashes of red, pink, library green and a less-than-subtle swirling book sculpture. Expect a Neni street-food bistro, from Tel Aviv-born, serial restaurateur Haya Molcho and her sons, as well as a terrific speakeasy-style bar, an outdoor sauna with loungers, and bikes to help you explore the city.
9. Coco Hotel, Vesterbro
£ | Best for a green ethos
Copenhagen Food Collective, the eco-savvy owners of this hotel, run 19 of the city’s most memorable restaurants — so the organic food served here is no half-hearted affair. There’s Coco Café for friend-making and filter-coffee drinking; Olise, a modern bistro next door; plus a summer terrace and live music sessions. Most importantly, the guilt-free reason to stay is that the hotel is powered by solar energy from its own solar farm and there’s an iron-clad commitment to being plastic-free and energy efficient. When you book direct, the hotel plants a tree to neutralise the CO2 on your stay.
10. Babette Guldsmeden, city centre
£ | SPA | Best for something different
Sister hotel to Manon Les Suites, Babette Guldsmeden is another quirky cracker for those looking for something unique. For starters, there are cosy rooms with textile-draped beds, a seafood restaurant, outdoor rooftop spa, Balinese-tuned lounge and bric-a-brac courtyard hangout — all hardly classical Copenhagen. Location-wise, you’re right next to the original Little Mermaid bronze statue and within striking distance of waterfront bike rides into the centre.
11. Hotel Ottilia, Vesterbro
£ | Best for beer lovers
Copenhagen has long been known for beer because of world-conqueror Carlsberg, and this luxury outpost inside what was once part of the former brewery has plenty of lingering heritage. So as well as industrial-looking rooms with raw concrete, iron beams and turret windows, there is a cool grey and leather mood board, plus fiercely modern Danish lamps and sofas. For beer fans, the panoramic terrace dovetailing the aesthetically ace rooftop Italian restaurant Tramonto has a garden that grows hops. Cleverly, that’s used for the hotel’s signature lager. You’ll find daily free nightcaps available, too.
12. Andersen Hotel, Vesterbro
£ | Best for Hans Christian Andersen fans
Like its namesake, the rooms of this Vesterbro hotel each tell a different story, with a lucky dip assortment of bespoke wallpapers, curtains and cushions. There’s no fairytale theme, but bright, punchy rooms are colour-coded with a hat tip to the works of Copenhagen’s tale-teller — cue Princess in purple, Mermaid in turquoise and Emperor in blue. In keeping with Andersen, who loved a party, there’s also a daily happy hour with a free glass of wine.
Read our full review of Andersen Hotel
13. CPHLiving, city centre
£ | Best for waterside views
Oh, we do like to be beside the waterside — especially in Copenhagen, where small boutique hotels defined by individual style can be found almost anywhere. One of the quirkiest is this 12-room floating barge anchored on Copenhagen Harbour, with superlative access to its cycle paths and natural lidos. Rooms are clean and simple, without any maritime kitsch, and there’s a top deck rooftop terrace for sunbathing beside the seagulls. The lapping waves serve as free natural sleep aids.
14. Scandic Norreport, city centre
££ | Best for minimalist style
Scandic is to hotels what Ikea is to furniture: it’s a please-all blockbuster Swedish chain, with just the right amount of style and substance — for that, check out the rooftop bar overlooking Norreport station and its mean Danish gin menu. The rooms have cool, if minimalist, fixtures and fittings, and there are late-afternoon free drink socials. For healthier deeds, go for a people-watching jog around nearby Kongens Have (“the King’s Garden”) park beside Rosenborg Castle.
scandichotels.com
15. D’Angleterre, city centre
£££ | SPA | POOL | Best for a luxe getaway
With balcony views over Kongens Nytorv square, this historic Copenhagen building is a firm fixture on best-in-Europe grand hotel lists. There’s Michelin-starred restaurant Marchal and a terrific people-watching terrace out the front. Most covetable are the chateau-like rooms and suites, where Hans Christian Andersen was a regular guest. Legend also lingers that the fairytale author wrote The Ugly Duckling while staying here.
dangleterre.com
16. Central Hotel, Vesterbro
££ | Best for telling your friends about
Stretching the concept of a crash pad to its extreme, the Central Hotel is little more than one room located above a dinky café in Vesterbro. While it’s featherlight on frills (a double bed, shower room and minibar only), it more than makes up for it with its talking point as Denmark’s smallest hotel, and is the kind of stay you’ll be bragging about for years. Downstairs, the café is just as teensy, with five poky seats — but finding this level of cool is the very definition of a modern Copenhagen getaway.
centralhotelogcafe.dk
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