The 72 Best Places to Drink and Stay in Denmark

On Kongens Nytorv, the city's grand central square, Hotel d'Angleterre has been around forever and shows no sign of pretending otherwise. Victorian bones meet quietly Nordic interiors across 92 individually decorated rooms and suites. Downstairs, there's a champagne bar, a pink pâtisserie, a spa with a marble pool, and a restaurant serving Nordic-French cooking. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

The Moorish domes and horseshoe arches rising above Tivoli Gardens make this boutique hotel look like someone misplaced a Moroccan palace in central Copenhagen. Only 38 rooms means the staff knows which guest is which, and the building's old-world grandeur carries through to the hammam, rooftop pool, and wine-stocked Vinotek bar. It holds a Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

A 54-room boutique hotel where earthy greens and palms run through every room and the moody, lush atmosphere feels more like a considered home than a place with keycards. The team runs on the idea of a "curated stay," meaning the staff genuinely know Copenhagen and will send you somewhere good. There's a kitchen, a cocktail bar, and a rooftop conservatory, so leaving is optional. It holds a Michelin Key.

A cobblestoned courtyard in one of Aarhus's better addresses is the first clue that this boutique hotel has an agenda. That agenda turns out to be Provence, pursued with real commitment: chandeliers, antiques sourced from the south of France, four-poster beds, clawfoot tubs, and retro film posters making a pied-à-terre of each room. The vintage bar cart is self-serve, and the hydrangea-framed patio is waiting. Organic breakfast is included.

Finding Lidkoeb means crossing a courtyard behind a supermarket, through an unmarked alley, which is either annoying or half the point. The cocktail bar from the team behind Ruby spreads across three floors of a low-lit 18th-century building, all candles and dark wood and a long bar with a fourteen-strong house cocktail list. The kind of place that rewards the people willing to look for it.

The rooftop pool is heated year-round, which in Copenhagen is either optimism or a dare. This luxury hotel occupies the old Danish postal service headquarters, steps from Tivoli, with 390 rooms that split the difference between warm Nordic coziness and cool minimalist restraint. The Rug Bakery pulls in locals for sourdough and pastries, and the courtyard bar runs from morning coffee to late drinks without missing a beat.

Raw wood and concrete set the tone at this luxury hotel in a former department store near the old city center, where the 1 Hotels aesthetic and Danish hygge turn out to be nearly the same thing. Rooms lean into touchable textiles and living plants rather than marble and polish. The flagship restaurant serves local Nordic fare, and the cocktail bar is named for a pear. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

A former naval base turned paper-factory island, Christiansholm spent centuries off-limits before becoming one of Copenhagen's cooler neighborhoods. The 25hours Hotel here leans into the waterfront heritage: concrete and timber buildings with slanting cottage rooflines, porthole mirrors, weathered wood, and nautical antiques at every turn. Schindelhauer bikes come with certain rooms, plus a cycling map for exploring the city. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

The building spent most of its life as the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music, which explains the stately bones. Now it's a luxury hotel one block from Tivoli, redesigned by Swedish architect Gert Wingårdh into something warm and spare without tipping into austere. The rooms feel built to sleep in rather than photograph. A Michelin Key hotel, with a Nordic restaurant and a hammam downstairs for anyone who needs reminding they're on holiday.

Every one of the 124 rooms at this four-star Tórshavn hotel hangs an original work by celebrated Faroese artist Edward Fuglø, which sets the tone neatly. Rooms range from compact eco-doubles to suites with bathtubs and harbor views, and the main restaurant pulls from local producers for a Nordic set menu paired with wines from the in-house cellar. Saunas and hot tubs are on hand for when the Atlantic wind makes its feelings known.

The buzzer panel at the entrance includes one for the Embassy of Georgia, which you are advised not to press. Inside, this cocktail bar spreads across two floors of candlelit rooms with rugs, Chesterfield sofas, and enough tucked-away corners to disappear into for an entire evening. The vibe is old living room, the cocktails are the reason you came, and table service means you never have to leave your corner to prove it.

A converted 19th-century factory that did a stint as a university before becoming a hotel, right in Copenhagen's historic center. The 25hours group brings its cheerful irreverence here, layering modernist furniture and hygge warmth across rooms that nod to figures from arts and science. The public spaces carry the energy: a cocktail bar, the NENI restaurant, communal nooks built for lingering. Schindelhauer bikes are on loan if you'd rather skip the tourist shuffle entirely.

A 3D-printed installation by artist Pio Diaz greets you in the lobby, and that sets the register for what follows. This design hotel near Kongens Nytorv occupies a former transformer station, and the bones show: raw concrete, exposed iron, dark bronze on the facade. Deep carpets and marble bathrooms tucked inside sculptural cubes do the softening. Copenhagen takes design seriously, and Herman K has clearly read the room.

The terrazzo floors and brass fittings in this Copenhagen design hotel were here long before the furniture brand &Tradition moved in and made them a selling point. The Kay Fisker building has been around forever, and the renovation leaned into that, layering in pieces from &Tradition's own collection without erasing what was original. The King's Garden is just around the corner, and the Petra Bar next door draws locals as readily as guests.

Boldly striped curtains, patterned wallpapers, and potted plants everywhere: Absalon Hotel is a deliberate argument against the idea that Danish design has to be beige and austere. This family-run Vesterbro hotel occupies a classic corner building, with rooms organized by color theme and white oak floors throughout. Bikes are available to rent, the Scandinavian breakfast buffet is generous, and a small cocktail bar handles the pre-dinner hour nicely.

Bright geometric blankets and Philippe Starck bathroom fixtures make it clear from the jump that this boutique hotel in Vesterbro has no interest in playing the pale-wood Scandinavian cliché. Bold graphics and carpeted floors set the tone, with Designers Guild colors doing the heavy lifting. Skip housekeeping and the hotel gives you a gift for it, which is either charming or shrewd, probably both. Istedgade and the café-lined "food street" are a short walk out the door.

The blue-and-white striped awnings on Vesterbrogade signal something Parisian before you've even walked in. This boutique hotel is the hospitality arm of Cofoco, Copenhagen's eighteen-restaurant collective, and the same seasonal, sustainability-first philosophy runs the building, solar-paneled and carbon-negative, with no plastic in sight. Inside, the rooms split the difference between hygge and genuinely stylish. Café Coco serves coffee and light fare, and several Cofoco restaurants sit within a short walk.

A stately old building on the quiet lakeside stretch between the city center and Nørrebro, Hotel Kong Arthur runs 214 rooms alongside a spa, a fitness center, and enough restaurants that locals show up for breakfast without a room key. The neighborhood feels tucked away, but nothing in central Copenhagen is more than a half-hour walk. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected hotels.

The pool deck is draped in tropical greenery, which is not something you expect to find beside a Copenhagen lake. This hotel takes its cues from Bali rather than Scandinavia, though the rooms manage to fold hygge into the handcrafted rustic look without it feeling forced. There are two bars, one poolside and one on the rooftop terrace next to the spa. Adults only, so the vibe stays calm.

A stately corner building in Vesterbro, Copenhagen's reliably cool western neighborhood, now houses this NH hotel whose rooms arrive with raffia headboards, retro bronze bathroom tiles, and heated floors that make a lot of sense in November. The whole place is styled around an invented well-traveled muse named Joanne, which sounds like a fever dream but reads warmly in person. There's an Italian restaurant, a Danish bodega bar, and a rooftop.

A red-brick building on the border between leafy Frederiksberg and the grittier energy of Nørrebro, Hotel Hans plays both sides of the street in its design: industrial greys and concrete softened with dark wood, forest green, and marble. Deluxe rooms get balconies; the two-floor suite claims a private rooftop terrace. Downstairs, the bar runs a vermouth-forward drinks list that gives guests a genuinely good reason to stay in.

The record spins before you order, and at Bird that's not an accident. This Frederiksberg neighborhood cocktail bar runs weekly DJ nights with jazz at the core, but the music stays warm rather than loud, more living room than club. The highball list is the thing to work through, and the selections are more considered than the format usually demands. Named a Discovery by The 50, it's the kind of local bar that doesn't feel local only to the locals.

The 54 rooms at this boutique hotel draw from the golden age of luxury train travel, all retro warmth and considered design. Former Danish ballet dancer Alexander Kølpin opened it just behind Nyhavn Canal, and the hygge feels organic rather than performed. Amalienborg and the Royal Theatre are a short walk, which tracks given the owner's past. A Discovery by The 50.

Check-in happens in a rooftop greenhouse, surrounded by plants and daylight, which sets the tone for what Zoku is: a design-forward extended-stay hotel built for people who need a desk as much as a bed. Lofts come with a kitchen, a dining table, and, improbably, a pair of gymnastics rings. It sits in Amager Vest, a neighborhood still figuring itself out, which suits the crowd of creative nomads who tend to land here for weeks at a time.

A cluster of old farm buildings on the South Funen coast, Falsled Kro has been around forever and somehow just keeps reinventing itself. Today it's a 26-room inn where rooms are individually styled, some looking out to sea, others set beside kitchen gardens. The restaurant pairs French technique with Danish produce, and the grounds are built for slow mornings and fireside cocktails. Michelin has given it a Key.

The Hotel Royal has been around forever, sitting on Store Torv right in the middle of Aarhus, a square the whole city seems to pass through. It's a classic city-center hotel with rooms that mix 19th-century bones with modern comfort without making a fuss about either. Queen's Garden does breakfast in the morning and pivots to cocktails and light bites by evening. Denmark's second city has a way of sneaking up on you, and the Royal puts you close to all of it.

A 24-room boutique hotel in a beautifully renovated old seaside house on Bornholm, a Danish island in the Baltic that takes some effort to reach, which is rather the point. The rooms are quiet and understated, dressed with contemporary Danish design without trying too hard about it. Breakfast is included and taken seriously. For dinner, the town is a short walk, and the front desk closes at six, so plan accordingly. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

Right on the square in front of Aarhus Station, Scandic The Mayor is a corporate hotel that keeps things warmer than that label usually promises. Rooms lean into an industrial look, exposed and uncluttered, and the ones facing the back stay noticeably quieter. Downstairs, a spacious Italian restaurant runs a seasonal menu that doesn't feel like an afterthought. Solid value for the location, and the Michelin Guide has it among its selected hotels.

Behind an unmarked green door in a back alley, this speakeasy earns its name, which is Danish for stealth. Inside, the room leans austere, almost clinical, with the back bar and the drinks themselves doing most of the decorative work. The cocktail menu ranges from local-ingredient riffs on global spirits to deep dives into cocktail history, with a middle section where the team gets experimental. A Discovery on The 50 list.

The menu rates each cocktail by booziness, which is either very helpful or a dare depending on your evening. This cocktail bar inside the Sanders hotel takes its name from the red velvet curtain at the Royal Danish Theatre next door, and carries the premise through: low light, a long list of classics and house drinks, and an atmosphere that makes whatever you're doing feel more significant than it probably is.

A cocktail bar on the top floor of Paper Island's 25hours Hotel, with the kind of fireplace and deep armchairs that make you forget you came for the view. The drinks list reads like a classics menu until you notice the foraged Danish produce quietly rewriting each recipe. It's a pub that got serious about its bar program without making a fuss about it, which is a very Copenhagen way to do things.

The names of 21 Danish Commodores still hang in the reception of this boutique hotel on Tórshavn's waterfront, which spent decades as their official residence before reopening as the Faroe Islands' only shoreside hotel of its kind. Rooms run from Standard to a Commodore Suite, all borrowing their palette from the fjord just outside. The in-house coffeehouse runs its own pâtisserie, and the historic fort Skansin is a short walk away.

The Henning Larsen tower rising above Sønderborg's old industrial harbor is hard to miss, and that's somewhat the point. This waterfront hotel has 190 rooms angled toward Alssund fjord, a 64-meter observation deck open to the public, and a spa spread across four floors, which is the kind of scale that happens when a pension fund and a family foundation decide a town of 30,000 needs a landmark. The Michelin Guide includes it in its hotel selection.

A former ballet dancer runs this family hotel group, which tells you something about the aesthetic: precise, graceful, and lighter on its feet than you'd expect. Helenekilde Badehotel is a coastal retreat in Tisvilde, a seaside town Copenhageners have been fleeing to for generations. Classic bones, contemporary design, rooms that range from cozy to suite-sized, and a restaurant that keeps the same artful-but-unshowy register as the rest of the place.

A red-brick hotel on a quiet Sønderborg street where each of the 12 rooms is named after a plant and decorated to match, floor-to-ceiling palm murals in Jungle, lily-panel wallpaper in grey and amber in Water Lily. Ground-floor rooms open onto south-facing garden terraces. A trust bar keeps free coffee and tea going around the clock. Sønderborg Castle is an easy walk, and the harbor is even closer.

A timber-clad coastal hotel on the island of Als, its terrace close enough to the water that you could theoretically wave off a passing boat. The 17 rooms and four suites lean into antique furniture and local materials, and two restaurants handle dinner: one gourmet, one a brasserie that shuffles its tables to the shoreline in summer. The kind of unhurried, salt-aired escape that makes a long drive from Copenhagen feel like a reasonable idea.

Every room faces the Baltic, a design decision someone made a very long time ago that no subsequent renovation has dared to undo. Stammershalle Badehotel is an old-school Danish seaside hotel, cozy and Nordic in character without tipping into the minimalist cliché. The 36 rooms keep their original bones and proportions, the restaurant pulls from French, German, and Asian traditions, and a new spa with a heated saltwater pool rounds things out nicely.

A chalk-white functionalist hotel on the Baltic coast of Bornholm, Melsted Badehotel has 21 individually decorated rooms that wear their 1930s badehotel style without apology. An 18,000-square-meter beach meadow runs down to a private bathing jetty, and the kitchen leans hard into Bornholm's seasonal larder and daily market haul. The cliff path to Gudhjem harbor is just over a kilometer, which is a very reasonable walk back from dinner.

A castle that has been hosting overnight guests for the better part of a millennium, Dragsholm Slot sits inside Denmark's UNESCO-listed Geopark Odsherred and earns its keep as a luxury hotel. Rooms mix antique bones with modern comforts, and the culinary setup runs from a bistro to a market-style restaurant to a Michelin-starred gourmet room. The kind of place where the building does most of the talking.

A marble-topped bar wraps around the back of this sunken cocktail bar in central Copenhagen, with cozy corners and secluded booths for when you want to disappear. The room runs warm and loud, more lively conversation than hushed reverence, which is a refreshing stance for a bar that takes its drinks seriously. Difford's Guide gives it five stars, and the unpretentious atmosphere makes that easy to believe.

The bar at Salon 39 occupies the lower level, and it is genuinely small, the kind of place where snagging a seat feels like a minor victory. By night it fills fast, and large groups get turned away so the lucky ones who squeeze in can actually enjoy themselves. Café by day, bar and restaurant by evening, it pulls a crowd that keeps coming back, which tells you something about how the drinks land.

Ring the bell at the unmarked black door at number 16, not 19, a misprint that may or may not be deliberate. Inside, this speakeasy cocktail bar runs on dim lighting, pressed tin ceilings, bare brick, and bartenders in bow ties doing their best 1920s straight-face. Get comfortable, because the real exercise is talking your way into The Bureau, a second, even more hidden room within the first hidden room.

A steep climb to the door opens into a wine bar that keeps things pleasantly simple: chequerboard floors, an old leather sofa, candles on bare wooden tables, and about 30 wines chalked up behind the counter. The kind of place where the list changes and nobody pretends otherwise. Snacks arrive without ceremony. The second room, warmer and a little looser, is where the evening tends to drift.

Named after its postal code, 1105 is a cocktail bar that plays nightclub without quite committing to the dance floor, which is probably for the best. The island bar runs like a catwalk through a long, narrow room, and the bartenders in white coats and bow ties behind it seem to know it. The crowd is well-dressed and aware of being watched, which in Copenhagen means they look effortlessly good about the whole thing.

A white letter K hanging outside is the only signal that you've found this small, low-lit cocktail bar tucked along the canal at Ved Stranden. The room is essentially one bar with a couple of loungey side pockets, done in a monochrome scheme that keeps the focus on the drinks. The founder built her name on housemade infusions and is credited with helping shape the Copenhagen cocktail scene before that was a thing people said.

The name conjures oak paneling and leather armchairs, but this cocktail bar on Birkegade is curved, contemporary, and very much alive. The U-shaped room wraps around an oak-topped bar counter, which is probably where the name actually comes from, though Danish speakers will note the street name and wonder what took everyone so long. The crowd figures it out fast enough, and the cocktails give them a reason to stay.

Semi-subterranean and narrow, Zefside fills fast once the weekend hits, with Edison bulbs strung above a long bar and a DJ doing their best to turn a bar into a club without technically being one. The name means nothing in Danish and is somehow pronounced "Southside," which tells you something about the vibe. Thirty-something professionals pack in, drink in hand, doing that polite standing-shuffle that passes for dancing when the ceiling is low.