After cycling through Germany, we entered Denmark through the border pass north to Flensburg on a cold and rainy day. Denmark is reported to be the happiest country in the world, but we couldn’t feel more miserable when we wheeled in it.
After crossing the border with a warm smile from the officer after breaking his monotonous day of greeting car after car, and who urged us to cycle quickly not to stop under risk of hypothermia, we passed through a quite active industrial state. To celebrate our new country to explore we decided to stop to get something warm to eat.
We were cycling Denmark!
Is there when you realise you have entered into a richer country. A burger could easily cost 15€, but as the prices are in NOK, there is a new system of wonders. We were observing static in front of the menu as if we would just have landed on a different planet. Wait until we get to China!
After having a warm lunch indoors heating and drying up our pre-hypothermic bodies, the weather had a turn, and we had an amazing ride for the rest of the day, as the landscape was beautiful
Climate and weather
Denmark is a low land country, which means that is about 50m below sea level. That, and the fact that the country is mostly flat, are the reasons why the ocean has a lot of influence on the weather, which was nice and cool in summer. We were surprised by some downpours, but it is quite a common thing at this time of the year. One thing to have into consideration when your cycle is the wind. It is SW predominantly, but if it can change, it will, and it will blow towards you!
Route cycling Denmark
The route we followed was route 3 on its most part, and then up to Hirtshals, where we took a ferry to Norway.
The track was a mix of nice segregated cycle paths, perfectly preserved and even marked with white lanes, secondary roads with almost no traffic, trails through the middle of the forest, gravel roads as part of the cycling route (where Dace, on here avid will to test a series of potholes, broke one of the hooks of her Ortlieb panniers and almost her teeth) or even some rail tracks transformed in trails, like the one that goes from Silkeborg to Randers with an amazing landscape.
The layout was mainly flat. It made us think that we were back in the Netherlands for a moment! The north is a bit more hilly compared to the rest of the country we cycled on, but nothing serious. There are areas with heavily glaciated terrain such as south-east Jutland, this can give rise to some short but steep hills!
If you are looking for some cycle routes in Denmark you can find a map of and detailed descriptions of the routes at www.trafikken.dk
A lot of people takes the west coast, as it is quite nice. We tried to avoid the heavy winds, as the interior is more protected. We would have enough wild coast in Norway.
Camping
As a difference with the rest of the Scandinavian countries, wild camping is restricted only to some spots
In Denmark there are the ‘Teldsplats’ or ‘Primitive overnatningspladser’ or ‘Shelterplads’ these are basic bivouac sites, they are marked on the Danish tourist board cycling maps with a scout style tent icon rather than the wigwam style icon of the main campsites.
They are usually off the road in small woods and generally have a hand pump for water, a fireplace and some even would have facilities to store and cut wood for the fireplace. Some even have sleeping huts as well. I was well impressed at the level of protection and preservation of these shelters.
You can plan your trip based on information about where the shelters are to overnight. Most of this kind of accommodation is free, and are based on the “first come first served” basis.
Campsites app
To locate the shelters and plan our distances to be able to overnight in one of them, we used the app “shelter” available for Android and iOS.
Here you can filter the available content shelters, fire sites, tent sites, drinking water and other options.
The app operates mostly from data provided by utinaturen.dk but it is mobile and has the mentioned feature of filtering shelters only.
The language is Danish again but and the provided in-depth information to each place will only get you further if you speak the language or translate it.
The shelters in this app can be very different from each other and while some might be new, others can be very old or even destroyed.
Unfortunately, the app maps also a handful of shelters that are not free of charge. This information is usually outlined in the details of a respective place.
You can scan the text for any signs of numbers in combination with DKK (e.g. 30 DKK), which usually means that there is a fee in Danish Krones.
Useful words
- Filterindstillinger: filter settings
- Shelterpladser: shelters
- Teltpladser: tent sites
- Bålplads: fire sites
- Drikkevand: drinking water
Some advice based on experiences
You should also be aware that many places are built by local communities or also private. Treat these facilities with respect and be grateful that you are allowed to use them. Leave them in the same or even in a better condition as you found them.
- Don’t be shy to ask some locals for help. You might be surprised how friendly and helpful they will be if you make the first step towards them. At least 9 out o 10 will help you. We had the experience of finding the only unfriendly person in Denmark who wasn’t very welcoming, but maybe wasn’t having a good day. Thanks to the fact that he stood in our way not letting us camp in a free primitive camping place that was nearby his property, we found our first shelter.
- Fire sites and shelters are usually great places to get in contact with locals or fellow roamers. That’s a great place to meet like-minded people and get some information about your route and the surroundings. Not so good if you are a sleepy walker and have night terrors. If that is the case, is recommended to warn all the parties, as sometimes people can get scared. It happened to me after camping next to a nice family and the next morning they couldn’t run away faster after seeing me.
- Danish are open, cool and sometimes loud people.
- Is not advisable to use gasoline at a fire starter if you don’t want to cause serious trouble. Also, don’t make a fire outside the designated areas.
- You can always ask in tourist centres for detailed information on various topics. Some of them even have showers and they are happy for you to use them!
- Use all facilities that you encounter with the greatest respect and don’t take these excellent services for granted. We have first hand witnessed instances in other countries where shelters were closed permanently due to misbehaviour of individuals. So take that very serious to give others the chance to take advantage of these excellent facilities too.
- Don’t leave any trash behind if there is no designated place for it. You can take your beer cans and empty wine bottles to a supermarket and interchange them for money. You will not be rich but you can get a warm soup. It’s a win-win situation!
To summarise, cycling in Denmark was an amazing experience. The norther you travel, the more wilderness you see. The people are quite close to nature since they are little kids, which is an advantage as they learn to be compassionate with it and it is embedded in their values.
We met some Norwegians on the way who stated that they prefer Denmark for cycling. Perhaps they find its flatness attractive?
The network of shelters is the best of its Scandinavian neighbours. You don’t even need to carry a tent.
Danish people are very welcoming. They like to drink in good company and play with their hatches. Viking gens are all over the place.
Everybody speaks English, so even if you are not very confident in the Danish language, you can still have nice chats with people. They will be interested in you!
Always follow the rules! Once I didn’t have my glasses on and didn’t take a street properly and a lady chased us down with a bike for about 50m to let us know what we did wrong. To this day we don’t know it was the police or an overly excited citizen avid with the norms.
GPS maps resources for Denmark
You can download maps for your GPS from the following sites:
- OSM Map On Garmin
- talkytoaster.co.uk
- frikart.no
- garmin.openstreetmap.nl
- mapas.alternativaslibres.es
- gpsmapsearch.com/
Download GPX: Shelters_Denmark.gpx
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