Hotel Sanders

Hotel Sanders

Copenhagen's old harbour district runs north from the royal palace of Christiansborg along a canal lined with 17th and 18th-century merchant houses, their painted facades reflected in the water, the most famous stretch being Nyhavn, the former sailors' quarter that is now the city's most photographed address. The neighbourhood between Nyhavn and the Royal Danish Theatre, Kongens Nytorv and the old town to the south, is the most historically dense part of the city centre: the theatre itself, the Amalienborg palace complex, the old East India Company warehouses along the harbour, the graceful arc of the Marble Church visible above the roofline. It is the Copenhagen that was built to impress and has spent three hundred years succeeding at it. Hotel Sanders occupies an 1869 building on Tordenskjoldsgade, a quiet side street between Kongens Nytorv and the harbour, 200 metres from Nyhavn. It was opened in 2017 by Alexander Kølpin, a celebrated Danish ballet dancer who performed for twenty years with the Royal Danish Ballet in the theatre a short walk from the hotel's front door. The interiors were designed by London-based studio Lind + Almond, who transformed what had been a rather ordinary building into something that is emphatically not: a warm, layered, deeply personal hotel of 55 rooms that feels closer to a well-loved private house than a designed hospitality concept. Velvet, aged leather, timber, botanical prints, bookshelves, vintage bar trolleys, artworks acquired rather than commissioned: the aesthetic has the coherence of someone with genuine taste rather than a brief. The rooms vary considerably in size and configuration, all individually styled, the best with views over the rooftops toward the harbour. The minibar is complimentary. Bar Tata, named for a nickname within the Kølpin family, is the hotel's social centre, its vintage setting and classic cocktails drawing both guests and the Copenhagen creative crowd that tends to cluster around places opened by people with strong personal visions. The Sanders Kitchen restaurant serves a Mediterranean-inflected menu using seasonal Danish produce that changes weekly. The rooftop conservatory garden handles breakfast and lighter eating with city views. The hotel holds one Michelin Key, was named Denmark's Leading Hotel in 2024 and ranked number one city hotel in Scandinavia by Travel + Leisure readers in 2025. The guests are those for whom a hotel opened by a ballet dancer, designed with genuine personal taste and located between the Royal Theatre and the old harbour constitutes a considerably more compelling proposition than anywhere larger. Design-literate, culturally engaged, predominantly European and international couples in their thirties and forties who tend to have done their research and find the combination of founder story, design pedigree and neighbourhood positioning exactly right. The price point is five-star, the atmosphere closer to a very stylish private member's club with bedrooms. The short version: A 55-room boutique hotel in an 1869 building on a quiet street between Nyhavn and the Royal Danish Theatre, opened in 2017 by Royal Danish Ballet dancer Alexander Kølpin. Interiors by London studio Lind + Almond, deeply personal and layered rather than designed, with Bar Tata drawing the Copenhagen creative crowd and a rooftop conservatory garden above the city. One Michelin Key, number one city hotel in Scandinavia by Travel + Leisure 2025. The intimate Copenhagen address, for those who knew why they chose it.