Nimb – Tivoli's Moorish fairy tale, one MICHELIN Key

Few hotel facades anywhere announce themselves quite like Nimb's: a white, onion-domed Moorish palace rising inside Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen's 1843 pleasure park. The MICHELIN Guide gives it One Key, a recognition that sits naturally with a building whose arches and marble stucco have presided over the gardens since 1909. Inside, 38 individually decorated rooms and suites mix antiques with Bang & Olufsen sound systems, while downstairs a cluster of restaurants and bars — from a French brasserie to a traditional Danish smørrebrød room — keeps the house humming long after the park's rides fall quiet. A hammam-centred spa and a rooftop pool overlooking the gardens complete a property that Condé Nast Traveller has named a Triple Crown winner, the only hotel in Denmark to hold that distinction. Nimb is less a conventional five-star than a private, slightly theatrical world tucked behind Tivoli's gates.

01The house

Nimb's story begins before the building itself. The building took its name from Wilhelm and Louise Nimb, who had created a restaurant dynasty in Copenhagen, and were brought in by Tivoli to manage the restaurant Divan 2, which still exists. Since 1877, Wilhelm and Louise ran DIVAN 2, a restaurant in Tivoli that quickly became known as 'Nimb's Terrasse'. The couple's success was such that it became a favoured hang-out for the city's establishment, colloquially known as Nimb's Verenda.

The palace that bears their name today dates from a rebuilding a generation later. The hotel is located in a historic building from 1909 and was built in a Neo Mudejar 19th century carnival style, inaugurated that year. It was designed by architect and Tivoli director Knud Arne Petersen in Moorish style, who was also director of Tivoli from 1899 to 1940. From 1909 and for twenty upcoming years, Nimb was a restaurant, run in turn by Wilhelm and Louise's daughters before it slowly transformed into the hotel guests know today.

Two later interventions shaped the Nimb that exists now. In 2007, the building underwent its first successful restoration, headed by Italian architect Matteo Thun. In 2017, a new wing called Tivoli Corner was added, designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the architects behind the contemporisation of the Louvre in Paris, with the purpose of making past and future walk hand in hand. Nimb opened in 1909 with just 17 rooms, later expanding to 38 with the addition of Tivoli Corner.

02Rooms and suites

Nimb Hotel offers 38 unique and individually decorated rooms and suites ranging from 23 m² to 240 m², each appointed with antiques, Bang & Olufsen AV equipment and Apple TV. Large bathrooms are stocked with Amouage bath products, and the artwork on every wall is handpicked room by room rather than supplied as a set.

Insider tip

Private hotel entrance into Tivoli Gardens; rooftop pool open seasonally April–November.

The range runs from Standard Double Rooms up to the Executive Suite, with Corner, Terrace, Balcony and Junior Suites in between, each named for a specific outlook or feature — a private terrace, a walk-in closet, two bathrooms. Nearly every room looks out over the gardens: all but one of the 38 overlook Tivoli.

03Where to eat

Nimb's gastronomic universe spans several distinct rooms rather than a single restaurant. Nimb Brasserie serves French cooking through the day, while Fru Nimb — named for the hotel's founding Mrs Nimb — keeps the Danish tradition of open-faced sandwiches and classic dinner dishes alive. Beyond the hotel's own kitchens, Tivoli's seasonal Pagoda has hosted MICHELIN-recognised pop-up chefs from around the world, and Cakenhagen, Nimb's own patisserie, fills its display cases daily with fresh cream cakes, pastries and petits fours.

04The bar

Nimb Bar occupies a former ballroom from the 1909 building, its crystal chandeliers presiding over cocktails by night and afternoon tea by day. A separate Nimb American Bar offers a simpler menu of cocktails, beer and wine, while from April to November Nimb Roof — open daily from 7am to 10pm for hotel guests and Nimb Club members — turns the rooftop into the city's sunset address, with cocktails served beside the pool.

05Spa and rooftop pool

Nimb Wellness is a 300 m² retreat built around a Moroccan hammam and steam area, with changing rooms, a relaxation lounge and free access to refreshments for hotel guests and Nimb Club members. At its heart, the beautifully vaulted hammam lets guests relax in a 50°C steam bath said to stimulate circulation, alongside a menu of massages and a fitness studio open around the clock for guests and members.

Above it all, Nimb Roof's heated pool is lined with green Italian mosaic tiles and fitted with a counter-current, allowing a proper swim within a small footprint. The terrace is reserved for hotel guests and Nimb Club members for most of the year, though on selected summer evenings it opens to outside visitors by reservation.

06The neighbourhood

Nimb's address inside Tivoli Gardens is itself the attraction: a private entrance gives guests direct, unlimited access to the park's rides, concerts and seasonal transformations, from summer evenings to the pumpkin-strewn Halloween season and Tivoli's Christmas market. Copenhagen's Central Station and the Vesterbro and Rådhuspladsen districts sit immediately beyond the gardens' gates, putting the Strøget shopping street, the harbour and the National Museum within easy walking distance.

07Making the most of a stay

Nimb is at its most theatrical in high season, when the gardens are lit for summer evenings or dressed for Christmas, and when the rooftop pool and its counter-current are running. Nimb Club membership extends access to the Roof and Wellness areas beyond a single stay, worth considering for repeat visitors to Copenhagen. For a quieter read of the building's 1909 bones, an off-season stay lets the Moorish arches and the hammam's 50°C steam take centre stage instead.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.