Ellie was hosted by the Copenhagen Convention Bureau on a 3 day trip, exploring the city’s best hotels and event venues. Here is her recount!
Copenhagen Itinerary
Copenhagen truly is the Hygge Home away from home, a city flooded with beautiful interiors & culinary delights (THE tastiest pastries), with wellness, friendliness, and sustainability at the core.
Our itinerary showcased Copenhagen’s incredible offerings, from eateries to hotels and experiences…but where better to start than Copenhagen’s latest luxury hotel, Villa Copenhagen.
Housed in the city’s former post office, I was immediately struck by the blend of historical architecture and the modern Scandi interior design. Villa Copenhagen opened in 2020, and has already established itself as a central hotspot. This 5-star property has 390 hotel rooms and suites on offer, as well as a restaurant, bar, and gym, not forgetting the abundance of meeting and events spaces, in what was once used as the main distribution center for post. It is now a unique conference space available to hold 1,200 delegates. Of course, the roof terrace needs to be mentioned, the impressive, heated rooftop pool is the perfect spot to relax and take in great city views, so naturally I got my swimmers on and headed to the roof!
“What about sustainability?” you ask. They’ve got it covered – the hotel has championed eco-friendly practices without compromising on comfort or style. The entire property is designed to minimize its environmental impact, utilizing renewable energy sources and sustainable materials to reduce waste and their carbon footprint…even the conference chairs are made from 2.2 tons of ocean plastic waste.
We later headed to our next stop, Hotel Grand Joanne – for all the interior lovers, this hotel will blow you away. The newly restored 1800’s building still holds some of its original key features including stained glass windows. The designers carried the colours of these windows throughout the hotel… I’m so glad they were pink! It wasn’t just the aesthetics that caught me, it was obviously also the roof top bar!
But seriously, what really captured me was the story of Grand Joanne. The hotel is reminiscent of ‘grandma’s house,’ inviting you to come and stay, to create shared memories over food, music, and culture. The restaurant onsite is inspired by Joanne’s travels, the diverse team of chefs come from all over the world, bringing the best flavours of their homes. I can confirm the food is excellent, along with a creative tasty cocktail menu. No site visit is complete without seeing the events spaces, Grand Joanne has a handful of meeting rooms to offer, perfect for board meetings, creative sessions and intimate gatherings, each room named after important Danish women.
Festive season had arrived for day two, we woke up to snow and Santa’s sleigh (well tuk tuk, but who needs reindeer when you have wheels) to take us on a tour of the city Centre before dropping us at our next site visit 25hours hotel. A new favourite of mine, 25hours celebrates quirkiness, artistic charm, and a sense of community. All 243 rooms have a different design and story, offering a truly adventurous stay. Communal spaces are situated all over the hotel, ready to be discovered – my personal favourite was the Vinyl Room, a funky relaxed space to chill and listen to music. This is a venue that goes beyond the conventional, where imagination meets functionality, with meeting rooms and bars perfect for all occasions. Really pushing the conventional boundaries is the ‘f*ck everything’ meeting room, it’s not just the name that raises a few eyebrows; the interior is also wild and whacky for a conference room, a real talking point and great to get creative ideas flowing.
Carlsberg
A trip to Copenhagen wouldn’t be complete without immersing ourselves in Carlsberg Family History. We started with a tour of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, a stunning museum, home to the private art collection of Carl Jacobsen, the son of the founder of the Carlsberg Breweries. The museum offers incredible spaces for gala dinners and welcome receptions; in particular the Winter Garden and The Central Hall, these are real ‘wow’ moment spaces. Our second Carlsberg tour was at the Home of Carlsberg, the newly refurbished original brewery. This was a great experience and truly an insight into Danish brewing heritage. After an immersive tour through the history and brewing culture we enjoyed a freshly brewed pint in the bar before being treated to an exclusive tour of the Carlsberg family home, this isn’t open to the public so it was a super special moment of the trip. But fear not, the extension of the home is available for events and what an incredible space is it, while here, we also had a traditional Danish lunch of open sandwiches, yum!
The fun didn’t stop there, later in the evening we hit the world famous Tivoli Gardens, a winter wonderland paradise. If you love Christmas, it is a must! There is so much to see from lights and beautiful decorations, market stools to the amusement park. Tivoli is a great spot all year round, as the seasons change so does Tivoli theming, so a trip in Summer is also well worth the visit. Tivoli Gardens sits with the NIMB Hotel, another excellent hotel we had the pleasure of visiting. The final evening the group celebrated together at Kilden I Haven, one of the many restaurants within Tivoli Gardens, the owner joined us for dinner and shared her inspiring story. Our hosts then set up a traditional Danish Christmas game for us all… it got a little competitive, but no one was hurt in the process, and lots of presents were won… yay!
Day 3
Our final morning, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast on the rooftop of the Hotel Sanders, a beautiful boutique hotel that has a luxurious yet cosy feel. We then made our way to the Hotel d’Angleterre, Copenhagen a 5 star luxury hotel and historic landmark in Copenhagen, here we enjoyed a traditional Glogg (mulled wine) in the Royal Suite. Our final meal saw us near the canal, and what a beautiful part of the city this is – I will be going back. Our farewell meal was at Restaurant Zeleste where we had a traditional Danish Christmas dinner, starting with an incredible lobster bisque followed by duck with the best red cabbage I have ever had, for dessert we had the traditional rice pudding… but not just any rice pudding, this came with another tradition Danish twist, if you are lucky enough to find a whole almond in your pudding, you are the winner… this was great news for me and I came home with a brand new mug!
Copenhagen is an amazing city, with so much to offer from the variety of event spaces and beautiful hotels to the delicious food and all with core focus on sustainability.
