Island hopping in Denmark

Denmark is a nation of over 444 islands, with around 70 inhabited – which is great news for island-hopping.

There are islands with fairy-tale castles that inspired Hans Christian Andersen and islands powered by community wind farms. There are garden islands, summer islands, and hiking and cycling islands. There’s Copenhagen, which spreads over two islands plus – in the not-too-distant future – a manmade ‘Parkipelago’ of floating islands with bee-friendly wildflower meadows and saunas, all made using traditional Danish boatbuilding techniques.

An excellent public transport system makes it easy to island-hop by bike, as well as by ferry, train and bus. Cycling culture runs particularly deep in Denmark, with over 12,000km of signposted bike routes that cross sea bridges and skim whole islands. The extensive rail network is designed with cyclists in mind, too, with dedicated carriages for bikes on most trains.

So – will it be the island routes of the South Fyn Archipelago or the cool cities of Zealand? Read on and we’ll help you decide

There’s nothing new about Zealand – it was formed by glaciers during the Ice Age. Or, if you go by the Old Norse Heimskringla sagas, it was created by Gefjun, the goddess of abundance and agriculture. Zealand’s main claim to fame, though, is being home to a large part of Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen. Most of our holidays start or end here – or both – so we recommend adding a few days to make the most of the city with a little help from our Copenhagen travel guide.

Our Copenhagen cycling holiday takes you through and then beyond Copenhagen’s streets, revealing exactly why Denmark gives the Netherlands a run for its money when it comes to smooth cycling. We’ll whisk you south to Køge Bay, where long, sandy beaches come with beachside meadows and harbour baths. This might be the Baltic Sea, but water temperatures reach a very pleasing 20°C in July and August. Køge is well worth a look too. It’s one of the oldest cities in Denmark – which is saying something in a country where many settlements are older than written history.

We can also take you north, to Klampenborg – a Copenhagen suburb with beaches like Bellevue, where sands stretch for over half a kilometre. It’s the work of legendary Danish architect Arne Jacobsen that steals the show, though. His distinctive functionalist style left a stamp on everything from the geometric holiday kiosks to the theatre, with its striped lighthouse-inspired interior.

Helsingør marks the north-eastern corner of Zealand, just an hour’s train ride from Copenhagen and practically a pebble’s throw from the Swedish mainland. It’s a ferry port, but it’s also a coastal city with cobbled streets of half-timbered houses and churches with pews bookended by scallop carvings. Kronborg Castle is the jewel in the crown – the crown of Shakespeare’s doomed Prince of Denmark, in fact. This ornate Renaissance castle is the setting for Hamlet.

From here, the dune-swept north coast is temptingly close, so we recommend getting on your bike and following the coast onwards if you can, to the fishing town of Gilleleje and the golden sands and beach huts of Tisvildeleje.

How to get to Zealand:
a 15-minute Metro ride from Copenhagen Airport to the centre of Copenhagen

Fyn is Denmark’s fairy-tale island, parked in the centre of the country, between the mainland and Zealand. It was the birthplace of master storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote European fairy tale favourites like The Princess and the Pea and The Little Mermaid.

Immerse yourself in the world that inspired Andersen by strolling the timber-framed houses and cobbled streets of Odense. The design-led H.C. Andersen’s House museum is a great place to start. Afterwards, follow the brass footprints for a free walking tour and check out the sculpture trail. If you fancy covering more ground, bikes are the best way to get around Odense. A dedicated cycling path goes through the city centre, leading to an island with a harbour pool and a holiday vibe.

Beyond Odense, there are green hills and rivers decorated with turreted castles, along with seaside towns, a Viking ship burial, sea baths and even more islands to hop, all connected by bike-friendly bridges and ferries.

How to get to Fyn from Copenhagen:
around 1.5 hours by train, car or bus

Bornholm is the Sunshine Island, where spring arrives earlier and summer is slow to leave. The island is closer to the Swedish mainland, but only a 2.5-hour ferry ride or 35-minute flight from Copenhagen. Take your pick of beaches for sun-seeking: the rugged coastline includes long stretches like Dueodde Beach with sand so pale and fine it was once used for filling hourglasses. These days, it’s better known for its fine-dining beachside restaurant with a Michelin star.

Bornholm is also the island where you’ll realise that rumours of Denmark’s flatness seem greatly exaggerated. The north coast is a rise of sheer cliffs and rocky outcrops pinned by lighthouses. Even the churches are rugged – Østerlars Round Church comes with fortifications designed to protect villagers and deter raiders, including a steep, coiled stone staircase. There’s even more challenging climbing elsewhere on Bornholm, with cliffs and quarries popular with climbers, abseilers and boulderers.

All that varied terrain means that Bornholm is brilliant for cycling. There are over 250km of bike routes here – and all on an island that’s only 40km from north to south.

How to get to Bornholm from Copenhagen:
2-3 hours by combined bus/train/car and ferry, or a short flight

Lolland is the fourth largest island in Denmark, closely tied to its sister island Falster – both part of the South Sea Islands that make up Denmark’s southernmost point. This is where you’ll arrive on our Holland to Denmark cycling holiday, catching the ferry from Germany to Rødbyhavn. The unassuming ferry port is home to a record-breaking engineering project – an underwater car and train tunnel between Denmark and Germany which, at 18km long, will be the longest submerged tunnel in the world.

From Rødbyhavn, expect flat, scenic bike rides across the two islands, including 600km of coastline and white-sand beaches, nature parks with lakes speckled by even more islands, seaside villages and farmland. That farmland includes sugar beet fields and factories that sat at the centre of Denmark’s Industrial Revolution. Visit the Danish Sugar Museum for a look into traditional production methods, but also make time for the Polish Barracks Museum, which tells the story of the seasonal workers who powered Denmark’s ‘white gold’ industry.

How to get to Lolland-Falster from Copenhagen:
1 hour 45 mins by car (or a ferry ride from Germany)