The short rides to the beach and back are over! From now on we are pride owners of a tremendous tandem, and the choice of the destination for our first serious biking trip was easy – Denmark. The reasons for such choice are straightforward: a country with the minimal altitude, small-sized and one of the most bicycle-friendly in Europe – in one word, it’s a perfect destination for two beginners in bicycle travelling. Denmark turned out to be absolutely fantastic. It has a stunning variety of landscapes for such a small country, about which we used to know literally nothing apart from the Little Mermaid… Let’s start with the practical info.

As you can guess, tandem transportation is not an easy thing, it often requires additional fees for “extra-large” luggage in the planes, and the cost varies from 0 to 70€. In Copenhagen we took a minivan-taxi to get to the city, and its box was left for two weeks at a local CouchSurfer’s. Danish trains allow taking bicycles, but often a small charge must be paid.

Nothing to say – Denmark is a cycling paradise! The cycling infrastructure, especially in the cities, is simply amazing. Danish love to bicycles is partially explained by a correct governmental policy – the tax for buying a car is extremely high that automatically makes a bicycle a very beneficial transport in all respects. It’s not just painted line that separates road for car from a cycling road, no, but it’s a separate road on a level between the road and pavement. There are separate traffic lights for bikes, separate viaducts, lines for those who continue forward or those, who turn. Outside the cities the drivers, as a rule, are very polite towards cyclists, so we felt totally safe riding with the cars.

During the trip we had only one technical problem – a punctured air chamber because of a nail laying on the road, but it was quickly (and for free) repaired by a Dane who had been passing near.

As navigating material, we had a great application with offline maps and GPS – maps.me. It shows not only the roads, but also camping sites, restaurants and the rest areas.  

Two weeks of August spent in Denmark turned out to be diametrically opposite. The first week felt actually like a regular summer – sunny and awfully hot, but the second one surprised us with 10-15°C and constant rain. To be honest, we naively expected only the warm weather, so we didn’t take any piece of warm clothes (we were beginners at the time, mind that!). As a result – we had to buy everything starting with the trainers and finishing with hats… By the way, one important detail – while planning your route, check the wind direction. There must be a reason why there are so many wind turbines in Denmark!

For our stay in Copenhagen it was Airbnb.

For the rest of the trip – camping! Even if officially «wild camping» in Denmark is forbidden, we took a risk. During the entire good-weather-week we slept in the tent, but our sleeping bags were not designed for the temperatures lower than 10°C, so we had to stay several times in the hotels, when the weather changed drastically. There are loads of camping sites in Denmark, but even for “budget” traveller they are quite expensive and, as a rule, demand a special camping card.

Though when we were already home, it turned out that Denmark provides around a thousand of  free camping sites with a rain shelter, fireplace, sometimes even toilets and paid shower, and without knowing that we had stayed a couple of times just there. The website showing these facilities is in Danish, so don’t hesitate to use the translator to display all the spots. More information about Wild Camping in Denmark you will find in the article of Routes North.

As Denmark is a very urbanised country, one crosses the cities and villages quite often, that spared us of carrying too much food with us for the ten days coming. Long live the supermarkets; especially considering that gastronomic tourism is not Denmark’s first interest. It’s hard to imagine how many packets of dried fruit and nuts we devoured in two weeks.

Amazing, but everyone in Denmark speaks English. We didn’t meet any single person even among some really unexpected individual, even in the most remote villages who couldn’t fluently speak English. And the people are so friendly – they gladly propose their garden for installing the tent and even to sleep in their house if we like.

The total cost of two weeks in Denmark, hotels, transportation, plane tickets and food included : 9337 kr, 310€, 860 swe.kr. All together it makes around 1660€.

974 km in total

Check out the second article: What to See During the Cycling Trip in Denmark where we tell about all interesting stops of our journey!