Tivoli

Tivoli Review

Copenhagen's best-known attraction, conveniently next to its main train station, attracts an astounding 4 million people from mid-April to mid-September. Tivoli is more sophisticated than a mere amusement park: among its attractions are a pantomime theater, an open-air stage, 38 restaurants (some of them very elegant), and frequent concerts, which cover the spectrum from classical to rock to jazz. Fantastic flower exhibits color the lush gardens and float on the swan-filled ponds.

The park was established in the 1840s, when Danish architect George Carstensen persuaded a worried King Christian VIII to let him build an amusement park on the edge of the city's fortifications, rationalizing that "when people amuse themselves, they forget politics." The Tivoli Guard, a youth version of the Queen's Royal Guard, performs every day. Try to see Tivoli at least once by night, when 100,000 colored lanterns illuminate the Chinese pagoda and the main fountain. Some evenings there are also fireworks displays. Call to check the season's opening and closing dates as well as family discounts. Tivoli is also open select hours around Halloween and from mid-November until late December.

Nimb. The Nimb, accessed from inside the gardens as well as from outside year-round, is a complex dating from 1909. It has Moorish-inspired architecture and was, indeed, once a bazaar. It was also one of the first buildings here to house a restaurant—a place for the jet-set crowd in the '20s and '30s. Today it's a modernized, multipurpose high-class playground with a luxury all-suite hotel, a bar, a gourmet restaurant, a bistro, a dairy, a chocolate factory, and a well-stocked wine cellar. Bernstorffsgade 5, 1577. www.tivoli.dk/nimb.