Where to stay in Copenhagen

published 23 April 2010

The Nimb

This small hotel offers a big experience. The Nimb is the only hotel that backs on to Tivoli. These beautiful gardens are home to some of Copenhagen's best restaurants, vintage rollercoasters and a pirate ship.

How they rate it

The Nimb is "pure Judy Garland: a small hotel that is larger than life", says Sarah Turner in The Daily Mail. As for the Tivoli, it's "the world's most aesthetically pleasing theme park". Turner also points out that actress Scarlett Johansson is a regular guest.

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The menu

Despite only having a few rooms, the Nimb has three restaurants, a gourmet hot-dog stand and its own dairy fresh cheese and yoghurt are made daily in a glass-walled room. The ground floor restaurant is a relaxed dining area where chefs cook around the guests.

The cost

The Tivoli is open from April to October and in December. These are the best times to visit the Nimb and therefore slightly more expensive than off-season. A room with a view costs from 3,900 kroner (£460) rising to 4,900 kroner (£577) when the gardens are open. Find out more at www.nimb.dk or call 00 45 88 70 00 00.

Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers

This 366-room hotel opened in November last year and aspires to be carbon-neutral. It has a groundwater-based cooling and heating system, low energy lighting and hand dryers, and solar panels all over the south-facing areas. Its latest initiative is to put electricity-generating exercise bikes in the hotel gym, so guests can create energy while they work out. iPhones attached to the bike's handlebars measure how much power is being produced. If a guest produces ten watt hours he or she is rewarded with a free meal.

How they rate it

"Getting the free meal is surprisingly easy," says Tom Robbins in The Guardian. Someone cycling at 30kmph would create ten watt hours of electricity in six minutes. But that small amount of energy "will be making a token contribution to the energy use of a huge city hotel". 100 watt hours of energy will only light a single 100-watt bulb for an hour. But if you want to keep your carbon footprint as small as possible, this is the hotel for you.

The menu

The hotel restaurant continues the green theme by trying to use only organic ingredients grown within a 300km radius of the hotel.

The cost

A room costs from around 930 kroner (£110) per night. Visit www.cpcopenhagen.dk or call 00 45 8877 6655 for more information.

The £22,000 tent

If you think camping is a little basic and have £22,000 to blow, then the Opera might be just the thing for you. Not quite a tent but not quite a caravan, it's a "caravent", says Paul Croughton in The Sunday Times. When packed up for travel, the Opera "could be a trailer for a small glider". But once you've set it up which takes all of five minutes you discover it has all the mod cons you could need.

The top-of-the-range model which will set you back £35,000 comes with a hot-water outdoor shower, chemical flush toilet, electronically adjustable beds, wine cooler, stove, barbecue, underfloor heating, air conditioning, reading lights, teak decking, and even LED lighting to guide you to the bathroom in the night. You'll be the envy of the entire campsite.

And to add to the temptation the Opera can be manoeuvred using a hand-held device. "Basically, it's a 7m-long remote-controlled toy," says Croughton. So you aren't limited to sleeping somewhere the car can access. You can pack up, then trundle your Opera down a country lane to a remote spot. It even has batteries with a life of around three days, so you don't need mains electricity.

Inside, the Opera is "surprisingly roomy". The teak deck leads through to the kitchen area, then the lounge/bedroom and finally the bathroom. It looks an impressive toy if you have £22,000 plus to spend on a very posh tent, then visit www.ysin.co.uk.