Denmark

If you weren’t already enchanted by Danish design, prepare to be the moment you step inside. Architect Made celebrates (and sells) pieces created by Danish architects as they began their careers and throughout their creative histories. A wooden dog by Hans Bøllings here, a Finn Juhl tea set there—Architect Made is a fine-design shop peddling pieces intended to be loved by all ages.

Located in an old building (so old that Det Danske Spiritus Kompagni, one of Denmark’s leading spirits distrubutors, formed in the townhouse in 1882) in an even older part of town, Ruby is a thoroughly Copenhagen cocktail bar. The featured drink menu changes with the seasons and incorporates ingredients like lovage and fennel seed. Champagne, beer and wine round out the list, along with non-alcoholic drinks as enticing and creative as their boozy counterparts.

French classics all day, with a focus on seasonality and sustainability—and a view of Tivoli Gardens. Located in the beautiful and bustling Hotel Nimb, this is the place for the escargot or steak-frites with a side of history: The entrance to the hotel is the original 1909 Moorish façade. The Brasserie serves breakfast, brunch (overvactioned? Green juice served here), lunch, and dinner and has a children’s menu. If you’re visiting in the warmer months, grab a table on the balcony on for the Friday Rock dinners, a menu that starts with bubbles and serves dinner while musical acts perform in the garden below.

The singularly best way to see the Tivoli Gardens is to spend the night at Hotel Nimb and enjoy the modern Danish design along with the view. (Tivoli, if you aren’t familiar with it, is basically what would happen if you put a beautiful and tasteful amusement park inside New York’s Central Park.) Originally a bazaar and restaurant, Hotel Nimb has called the amusement park and gardens in the center of Copenhagen home since 1909. Behind the original Moorish-style exterior, the hotel is home to a half-dozen places to eat and drink, a wellness center and hammam, and Denmark’s first rooftop pool. If you don’t spend the night, hit up one of the rooftop terrace’s events after dark or grab a drink at the hotel bar. The old-school Danish charm and modern Scandinavian design are the exact recipe for highbrow hygge. Note you’re in Denmark now and sustainability is king: The hotel gets its power from a wind farm and serves organic food throughout its restaurants.

At this point—several documentaries, World’s Best Restaurant awards, and multiple cookbooks later—chef Rene Redzepi of Noma fame is a cult figure in the food world. Despite several residencies from Oaxaca to Tokyo and a new restaurant with greenhouses, a roof garden, and a fermentation lab, Redzepi is still steadfast in his dedication to the New Nordic. The culinary practice is resolute when it comes to seasonality and indigenous ingredients which, given Denmark’s frigid winters, is no small feat. The new Noma splits the year into three menus—game in autumn, seafood in the winter, and vegetables in the summer. A table in the farm-style, nearly all-glass space is one of the most impossible seats to snag anywhere in the world. A few tips: Plan months ahead. Consider the number of food-obsessed friends you might have who will get on an international flight to eat with you. And stay at the design-forward SP34 hotel. Then prepare to eat the most creative, delicious (and expensive) meal of your life—with wine pairings, of course.

The minute you set foot in Copenhagen and take a look around it’s obvious: The Danish know design. So it makes sense that the luxury travel company Indagare paired up with Architectural Digest to mastermind the perfect trip for the kind of people who know Eames is spelled with an E. The trip is six days long (September 16 to 21), and the itinerary includes touring the best design museums in Copenhagen as well as private design studios, visiting the archives of Georg Jensen, seeing the best of the city’s architecture by boat, staying at Hotel Sanders (one of the nicest in town), and did we mention the food? There’s room for only two dozen people, so get to it.

Another incredible furniture and design emporium in a city celebrated for its aesthetic, Illums Bolighus stocks everything you could possibly need to create a modern Scandinavian-style home. Furniture, bed linens, lamps, window treatments, bathrobes—visiting this emporium is like walking through an edit of the best home collections from Denmark's design heavyweights. Literally impossible to leave empty-handed.

All the artisanal chocolates and ice-cream sold at this tiny store are made on site in the back room—which explains the rich, chocolatey scent the second you walk in.

In Copenhagen's rapidly changing Meatpacking district, Prolog Coffee occupies what was the old neighborhood bookstore. It's one of those coffee shops that has indie magazines and books stacked on the counters, encouraging you to stay awhile and read. The best-kept secret here is their interpretation of the classic Italian afternoon pick-me-up, affogato: Prolog pours their coffee over soft serve ice-cream using a syringe and tops it with grated chocolate.

Known for its organic bread, cakes, and most importantly, the best kanelsnurrer in Copenhagen (it's essentially a cinnamon bun layered with Vahlrona chocolate), Meyers Bageri is the brainchild of Danish entrepreneur and chef Claus Meyer. It's tiny (read: fits five people) so it's always packed. Get there early before everything sells out.