Backpacking Denmark: A 10-Day Guide

This ten-day route is for travelers who want to see how Denmark changes once you leave the capital: Hans Christian Andersen’s Funen, Jutland’s design-minded second city, the glacial hills of Djursland and the sandy far north. It runs at a moderate pace with five bases and travel legs of one to five hours, using intercity trains, regional buses and the local Skagen line.

Days 1-3: Copenhagen

Two nights in Copenhagen keep the focus tight here. Start at Glyptoteket, the brewer Carl Jacobsen’s museum, where you sit under palm trees in the glass-domed winter garden between rooms of Roman portrait busts and French impressionists. It sits directly across the road from Tivoli Gardens, so pair them on the same day and stay in Tivoli into the evening. Use the second day to explore Vesterbro’s Meatpacking District and swim at the harbor bath at Islands Brygge if the weather allows.

On day three head west, breaking the journey in Roskilde for a few hours at the Viking Ship Museum and the cathedral before … read more 👉

This ten-day route is for travelers who want to see how Denmark changes once you leave the capital: Hans Christian Andersen’s Funen, Jutland’s design-minded second city, the glacial hills of Djursland and the sandy far north. It runs at a moderate pace with five bases and travel legs of one to five hours, using intercity trains, regional buses and the local Skagen line.

Days 1-3: Copenhagen

Two nights in Copenhagen keep the focus tight here. Start at Glyptoteket, the brewer Carl Jacobsen’s museum, where you sit under palm trees in the glass-domed winter garden between rooms of Roman portrait busts and French impressionists. It sits directly across the road from Tivoli Gardens, so pair them on the same day and stay in Tivoli into the evening. Use the second day to explore Vesterbro’s Meatpacking District and swim at the harbor bath at Islands Brygge if the weather allows.

On day three head west, breaking the journey in Roskilde for a few hours at the Viking Ship Museum and the cathedral before boarding the train to Odense, about 1 hour 10 minutes onward.

Days 3-5: Odense

Odense is Andersen’s birthplace, and the city leans into it: the H.C. Andersen House museum, designed by Kengo Kuma, is half underground and threaded with timber pavilions and gardens, and the old quarter around his childhood home is a pocket of low yellow cottages and cobbles. Two nights give you time for the museum, a riverside walk through the Munke Mose park and an evening in the student bars around Brandts Klædefabrik, a former textile mill turned cultural center.

Days 5-7: Aarhus

The train to Aarhus takes about 1 hour 40 minutes. Spend a full day at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, worth it for the rainbow panorama alone, then wander the Latin Quarter for cafés and vintage shops. The next morning belongs to Den Gamle By, the open-air town museum, where actors in period dress run a baker, a pharmacy and a 1970s electronics store.

Days 7-8: Ebeltoft and Mols Bjerge

A bus from Aarhus reaches Ebeltoft in roughly 1 hour 15 minutes. The town has one of the smallest old town halls in the country, crooked cobbled streets and the 1860 wooden warship Fregatten Jylland in dry dock by the harbor. Stay one night and spend your day in Mols Bjerge National Park, rolling heather hills left by the last Ice Age, with marked trails that climb to viewpoints over Ebeltoft Vig and the Kattegat.

Days 8-10: Skagen

Day eight is your long transfer: back to Aarhus, then train to Frederikshavn and the local line to Skagen, about 4 hours 30 minutes in total. Two nights at Skagen Beach let you walk to Grenen, the sand spit where two seas meet, and spend a slow afternoon among the yellow houses and the Skagens Museum paintings. A bus takes you to Råbjerg Mile, the migrating dune, which feels like a stretch of desert dropped into a Danish pine forest. On day ten, the train back to Copenhagen takes about 5 hours 30 minutes, or you can fly from Aalborg.

For a bonus, look into Tunø, a tiny car-free island in the Kattegat reached by ferry from Hou south of Aarhus, where the lighthouse sits on top of the church tower.