Central Station / Tivoli

Villa Copenhagen

★★★★★

Villa Copenhagen is the city's grandest modern hotel conversion. For more than a century, the monumental neo-Baroque building on Tietgensgade was the head office of the Danish Central Post and Telegraph, completed in 1912, and its scale, with high ceilings, wide corridors and a grand courtyard, makes it a spectacular hotel. It reopened as Villa Copenhagen in 2020, with interiors by the London-based Universal Design Studio, and it has 390 rooms and suites, inspired, according to the hotel, by grand Copenhagen residences, with a note of the quiet, grey-toned interiors of the painter Vilhelm Hammershoi. The rooms are calm, light and spacious, with soft colours and Danish design, and the range runs from standard rooms to signature suites, including design collaborations, and a penthouse; family rooms with a sofa bed and nine accessible rooms are available. The headline feature is the rooftop: a 25-metre heated lap pool, open all year, with views over Tivoli and the city, part of the hotel's pool and wellness area. Food and drink are a major part of the experience, with Rug Kitchen, Rug Bakery and the Courtyard bar, and breakfast is a highlight. The hotel holds the Nordic Swan Ecolabel and puts sustainability at the centre of its operations. Rates are upscale but generally below those of the smaller luxury hotels, and there are packages for longer stays, Tivoli visits and even dogs. The location is excellent for travellers arriving by train or from the airport: Central Station is next door, with direct trains to the airport, and Tivoli, the Glyptotek, City Hall Square and Stroget are a few minutes' walk. Vesterbro and the Meatpacking District, with the city's liveliest bars and restaurants, are just behind.

The building is remarkable. The architects of the post office designed it as a statement of national modernity, and the conversion has respected its grandeur, keeping the courtyard and the long, high-ceilinged corridors. The rooms are among the larger ones in central Copenhagen, and the high ceilings give a sense of space that new-build hotels cannot match. The rooftop pool, rare in this city, is the hotel's signature, and swimming above the rooftops in winter, in heated water with cold air above, is an experience.

Eating and drinking: Rug Kitchen and Rug Bakery offer a relaxed, seasonal menu and excellent breads and pastries, and the Courtyard bar is a lively meeting place in the evening. Breakfast is generous and well regarded. The hotel is popular with locals as well as guests, which gives the public spaces a buzz.

Who it suits: travellers who want space, a pool and a polished modern stay near the station, families, business travellers and anyone combining Copenhagen with train journeys. Light sleepers should ask for a courtyard room, away from the station side. Travellers who want a small, intimate hotel in the old town may prefer Sanders or SP34. Check the hotel's packages before booking, as the longer-stay discount, the breakfast package and the Tivoli package can add real value in an expensive city, and dog owners will find the hotel unusually welcoming.