While in Copenhagen last spring for the Architecture Festival, I decided to stay in an assortment of hotels in various neighbourhoods to more fully enjoy the flavour of each.
The two places below provided lovely 180 degree views as I managed to secure rooms on the top floor of each building.
Steel House Copenhagen bills itself as a "luxury hostel", which admittedly it is perhaps more upscale than most generic hostels, but the descriptive of "luxury" is questionably relative! It is, however, well-located on the edge of the Vesterbro area and on a quieter street next to the Lakes (and my double room on the top floor under the STEEL sign has a small terrace overlooking the end lake, as well as the nearby iconic SAS building by Arne Jacobsen).
This steel-clad building was originally the headquarters for the Danish Union of Metalworkers, and the admirable task of re-purposing it into a hostel was undertaken with some care to preserving the industrial and minimalist character without being too institutional in the comfort zone. I must confess that I had one long night of the most satisfying sleep here, but that could also be attributable to the cumulative effect of days of power walking!
*****
Located diagonally across central Copenhagen to near the waterfront with the Little Mermaid and a block from the Designmuseum (which my room overlooked onto its courtyard with the prunus in full bloom!) is the more conventional Hotel Babette Guldsmeden with a complete opposite of decor aesthetic from Steel House. Although my attic room (in the white building on the right above) was only slightly larger than the private room at Steel House, its rate was almost twice as much. But the neighbourhood is lovely with stately buildings on elegant streets leading to the Royal Palace.
*****
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