Denmark 2026 visiting Copenhagen, Odense and a Cycle Trip around Funen and Islands.

This was a three week  holiday (15 th May to 5 th June) incorporating visits to Copenhagen, Odense and Svenborg in Funen, Denmark. A two week period of the trip was planned to cycle along the east coast of Funen, across the centre to Faaborg and then cycling around the islands of Aero and Langeland starting and finishing in Svenborg on the south coast. The cycling route followed parts of the route 51, 8 and the Castle routes and was planned to do short distances each day (about 50 km maximum was estimated but usually30 -40 km), allowing for coffee and lunch stops and also historic site/beach visits along the way. The journey involved two sea ferry crosings, the first fron Svenborg to  Aero island and then from Marstal on Aero to Rudkobing on Langeland. We hired two electric pedal assisted cycles from Sydfyns Cykeludlejning starting and finishing the tour in Svenborg. The rest of the trip was by rail, Copenhagen to Odense and then Odense to Svenborg, both return, and booked through the DSB railway site.

The airport is about a 15 minute train ride from the city centre. We chose to use the DSB rail connection with tickets bought through the phone app. As we were delayed on route, it was dark when we arrived making the connection between terminal 2 and 3 (were the station is) more challenging. 

Unfortunately we had dull and rainy weather on both our visits to Copenhagen. We purchased the "City Sightseeing" bus tours which included the "Classic", "Colourful" and "Home of Carlsberg" buses to get to know our way around. These tickets were valid for 1 year and so we could also use them on our visit at the end of the trip. We went to the area where the "Little Mermaid" is on the harbour where the cruise ships dock (on our first visit, the city was very busy with day trippers from the ships). We then walked along the harbour to Nyhavn with all its restaurants. After that we continued on the bus to the Botanical Gardens and had a snack lunch there before wandering around the gardens. This is well set-out and most of the trees and plants are labelled.

On both visits we stayed at the Scandic Copenhagen hotel which is convenient for the main rail station and also Vesterbro area with the cafes and restaurants. Our favourite breakfast cafe was "Granola", about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. The hotel is near the Planetarium that makes a good landmark. It does take some time to get use to the thousands of cyclists whizzing around on cycle paths and being careful to watch when crossing roads that also have cycle lanes and sometimes separate traffic lights. The good thing is that usually pedestrains and cyclists have precedence over motor vehicles. 

Rainy day in Copenhagen. A view near Nyhavn on our walk  from "The little Mermaid".

View across a lake in the Botanical Gardens, one of our stops on the"Classic Copenhagen" bus tour. There are several old (150-170 years) Gingo Biloba trees in the garden.

The following day it was back to the train station and the 12.32 h to Odense in a quiet carriage with reserved seats. This took just under one and  half hours with varies stops on route. Our next hotel was "Milling Hotel Plaza", again a short 10 minute walk from the station and an easy stroll through a park to the city centre. The hotel is very comfortable with great service which included free coffee and cake in the afternoons.

Sign of the times with a protest about the deaths in Palestine caused by the current ongoing war. 

Helen near Hans Christian Anderson's birthplace and the museum featuring his life story and examples of his stories.

From Odense we travelled on by train to Svenborg in the south of the island and there we picked up our bicycles (rented from Sydfyns Cykeludlejning at the harbour), helmets and pannier-bags ready to start our cycling trip the next morning. We stayed a little out of the centre at the hotel " Chistansmide" which is nicely situated to the east of the centre by the shoreline. Here they stored our bikes and we had a pleasant walk along the coast seeing wildflowers and some swans in the evening sun and our first "fish and chips" at the "Royal" cafe  on route.

 The bikes had the batteries under the rear pannier and were smaller than we are use too (just 400Wh batteries with 40 Nm torque) but proved fine for our journey with days less than 60 km and undulating terrain. I doubt they would be any good on our Devon hills. The panniers were also different with one either side of the rear wheel and one larger one than sat on top of the rack and connected to the two side bags and also doubled as a ruck-sack for walking. They also came with a rain cover that hopefully we want need very often. One thing that did take us both some time to get on top of, was the rear braking. The front wheel had a caliper disk brake but no rear brake as such and instead you had to push the pedal backwards to apply the brake. I think we had met this once before in Sweden and can recall trying to start off with the rear brake applier and wondering what on earth was happening.

View on our evening stroll with the bridge from Tasinge in the distance. We will cross this on the last day of our cycling trip when we return to Svenborg.

In the morning it was cold and looked like rain but that didn't really materialise. The plan for the first two days was to follow route 8 (the BalticCoastal route) to Nyborg on the east coast. I had downloaded all our routes onto GPS Ride app on my phone but in the event, route 8 was well signed. On route we stopped at a beach cafe for coffee and then later at Hesselager to get supplies for an evenig meal and breakfast as we were self-catering at a cabin on a campsite at First Camp on Bosore strand. This was about 40 km and best described as "undulating! with a net elevation gain of 333 m, suprising as Denmark is "flat"; we learned later that this area is a glaciated landscape with the moraines generally runnig north to south. My first impression was of  open country, mostly rural farms that were mainly arable, with small roads inland or tracks near the coast.

A rest-stop on a forest track just off-route.

The harbour at Lundeborg, but nothing was open so we had lunch outside the supermarket in Hesselager.

A peek through the trees to Hesselagergaard Gods castle (privately owned) just before Hesselager town. This is the oldest Renaissance building in Denmark (built 1538-50)

The shoreline near sunset at the campsite at Bosore. Found an old Massey Ferguson 35 here and posted a photo to Kenneth, my brother in-law, who was repairing one we we last visited Scotland.

A  rest stop along the way to Nyborg, this is in the village of Tarup.

The following day we planned to get to Nyborg for a city stop and had booked an hotel in the northern part of the city near the shoreline and close to the bridge from Zealand that we had crossed on the train from Copenhagen. On route we had to don raincoats and puts our rain covers on the panniers, as shown below, but we only had a light shower, the first and last for the cycling trip. 

Vew of the courtyard in the museum with its distinctive architecture..

 We left route 8 near the centre for a coffee stop before visiting the nearby history museum (Borgmestergard). The castle was opposite but closed for renovation work. The museum was informative and gave us a good feel for the background to life in the past. The city was Denmark's medieval capital and home of the countries early parliament. We finished our visit with a pleasant lunch at restaurant Apoli with views of the castle.

View of the castle (Slot) in Nyborg close to our lunch stop.

We made our own route to the coast and the Nyborg Strand hotel were we stored our bikes outside with the hire bikes. Incidentally, we used the wheel clamp locks only and removed the batteries as we were assured this was a safe enough area. We had a pleasant evening walk along the strand with a view of the bridge.

The following two days we followed route 51 across country to Faaborg on the southern coast. We divided this into two days so that we a more or less had a full day in Faaborg and also because we couldn't find good accomodation on route. The first day was one of our longest at about 52 km to a bed and breakfast near Korinth. We stopped in Orbaek at Aldi's to get some sandwiches for lunch but had difficulty finding the route out of town. Although the signs were generally good, we noticed some changes from the mapped route with new developments and cycleways. 

Village pond and typical thatched building we saw often on our rural route. This is "Lille Molle" (Little Mill) a restored water mill at Sulkendrup before Orbaek.

Always a welcome sight (Aldi's) when we needed lunch or supplies for an evening meal. They were in most of the smaller towns.

Near Ellested we stopped at a picnic bench for lunch and also noticed a cycle repair station nearby.

Cycle repair station; we didn't see many of these on our trip and I'm not sure how you can find their location, but good to see anyway.

We soon found our bed and breakfast (Safine B&B) near Korinth and were welcomed with tea and cake and a rest in the sunshine. The weather had improved alot but we did have some head and side wind on the way and a few hills amounting to a gain of 402 m according to my GPS ride app. We had planned for an evening meal at a pizza restaurant just 15 minutes walk from the B&B but this didn't work-out because the Net system in Denmark had been "down" for the day that meant card transactions were not working. We didn't carry cash at this stage, so were relieved to learn that foreign visa cards were working for some reason. This meant we could get some bread and a tin of tuna with drinks from a local supermarket. The pizza restaurant was out of the question has they had an internet failure as well.

The second day on route 51 was short (only 11 km) and we were told the forest route, although hilly, was more scenic but diverged as far as I could tell from the marked route 51 or maybe it didn't ?. This was a pleasant ride through mature woodland and into Faaborg. Here I found that the rear tyre had a puncture as I entered the town (the hire company had challenged me jokingly to get a puncture as they hadn't had one in two years; so never tempt fate). Anyway, I was lucky as there was a "Fri Bike Shop" a short walk across town and even though their cycle mechanic was on holiday, they said they;d get it fixed by 4 pm, which they duly did. I had the tools to do the repair but didn't have a pump and had been instructed to contact the hire company with any problems, including punctures. Meanwhile we had to find a laundrette to wash clothes and some-how we succeeded with the assistance of a couple of helpful people.

Our lunch stop in Faaborg in the main square with the sun shining.

After a wander around the town, we collected the bikes and went to the Hotel Faaborg Fjord which is on the coast to the east of the centre. and next to a cycle path that joins to route 8 near Bogebjerglund on the coast.

Just outside the hotel looking east with our cycle path next to the road in view. This wasn't route 8 or the Mansion route but joined 8 in a couple of kilometres. This is in the morning before we set-off  to Svenborg with a promising blue sky.

The ride along the south coast to Svenborg was one of the best days cycling with the sunshine and undulatingroute along minor roads through arable land aside wheat, barley, maze, grassland and some sugar beet. As it was a Saturday, we met other cyclists in family groups or racing bikes and made several stopos when the route touched the coastline.

An example of one of the minor roads on the way to Svenborg.

Even on a Saturday we didn't find a coffee shop on route until we were within 6 km from Svenborg at Rantzausminde harbour.

Our ice cream stop at Rantzausminde harbour, forget the coffee now.

We followed route 8 to the harbour and ferry port where our accomodation, Hotel Aero, was situated. They let us into the room early and allowed us to store our cycles in a locked cycle store room adjacent to the hotel. We had lunch at a Turkish bar and planned to eat at an Italian restaurant "Bella Italiana" on the harbour front. It was interesting just watching the activities  in the port with the ferry to Aero every hour and boats coming and going. Our first visit was very brief so we took the chance to look around the cobbled street of the city and the main square.

In the morning we made an earlier start to the island of Aero, and although I'd booked the later ferry on their website, we took an earlier one as they seemed quite flexible. The cycles got on last and we just stood them where there was space and went up on deck. The crossing was quick (about an hour) and we were soon unloading and cycling with a stiff wind in Aeroskobing.

Ferry to the island of Aero loading, again a bright calm day here.

We first visited the peninsula with the colourful sea side huts bordering the beach. It was windy so we went back to the  beach for a coffee stop at the harbour.

View of the harbour from the cafe with a view of the ferry returning to Funen..

The plan for the day was to go to the south of the island to Vederup Klint, a nature reserve and cliffs, return to Aeroskobing for lunch and then make our way on the castle route to Marstal for the night.The ride to the cliffs was great with other cyclists on route and our first encounter with a gravel lane that took us to the cliff path. 

The path from the car park down to the beach with lots of plants (spotted sea kale, great yellow rattle, hounds's tongue, dropwort, speedwell and beet) and also a slow-worm crossing the path.

 

The cliffs descend in steps to  reach the final drop to the sea.

We returned to the port by a different route but with a steeper incline and more cross-wind until we reached sea level again.

The cobbled streets that were typical of the harbour town.

After lunch we made our way on the mansion route to Marstal via a gravel cycle track alongside the shore line.

A pleasant cycle through arable crops next to the shoreline. We met a few walkers and a couple of cyclists.

The Aero hotel in Marstal was in the west part of the town away from the harbour. The next morning we took the ferry to Rudkobing on the island of Langeland. Most of the rest of the cycling route was on the Mansion route around the island going in a clockwise direction, so in a generally northern direction to start with. However, before leaving Rudkobing, we needed lunch and supplies for breakfast and dinner as we were self-catering in an apartment that evening. We were soon directed to a cafe for a light lunch and then supplies (being Monday, Aldi's was closed!). A noticable thing about the ferry ports  on the islands was the brief period of busy roads as the ferries land and then back to near desertion.

After lunch a wander around including the central square with bars open and busy.

After lunch and shopping we did a short ride to near Frellesvir to an apartment on a some-what run-down old farm.(Hasselsro). This proved difficult to find as the coordinates and name on Booking.com were incorrect. However, after enquiring locally, we were directed to a remote farm house with an apartment. The host was friendly and the situation was ideal with great views of the garden (I think I got about 12 bird calls in a coupke of minutes on the Merlin App, including a thrush nightingale), but the accomodation was in need of care and cleaning. It was rewarding to get breakfast on a terrace in sight of a deer approaching the walled garden. We'd already seen several deer in arable fields whilst cycling.

The woodland view in the early morning sun.

The next day we headed in a northerly direction of Lohals situated at the north of the island and a rest day from cycling. The minor road went through some dense beech forests that were shaded and cooler before abruptly turning off down a series of tracks to get to Dagelokkevej. One of the farm tracks was very cause gravel that didn't suit cycling (at least our cycling) so we had to dismount for a short distance.

View to the beach at Dagelokkevej, slightly off route but the cafe was closed and everywhere seemed deserted; obviously a July-August resort.

The beach at Dagelokkevej, a great spot for a ramble and picnic snack.

A quick walk along the beach and I noticed several interesting plants including Sea Mayweed, Chickweed Anther Smut, Common Silver Weed and lots of Sea Sandwort. A pleasant spot to stop and have all to ourselves in the morning sunshine.

We then returned to the route and followed minor farm roads to Lohals, eventually joining a more urban road to the harbour.We only saw one other cyclist and notable, a group of Highland cattle. It seemed puzzling that we hadn't seen cows or pigs in the fields only arable crops where ever there was space. We often passed tidy farms with definite odours of pigs but they were all indoors.

On reaching Lohals, where we were staying in an apartment for two nights, we had a bit of a shock to find everything is closed on Tuesdays. Luckily The supermarket, Brugsten's, was open so we were able to get supplies for an evening meal and breakfast. This was only a kilometre to the east of the harbour. The apartment was well situated with views of the harbour and a sunny patio and a short walk to the beach in a north-easterly direction. This area is known for it's mature woodland with massive beech trees some 100-250 years old, Oak, Grey Poplar, Hornbeam and Wild Apple. We did a gentle morning walk through the forest and back along the beach.

A Danish shelter, Lejrplads med Shelter 2, that we came across in the forest. This used the facilites in Lohals but had a BBQ area, pinic tables and shelters for sleeping. There were other shelters in Lohals harbour (Lohals Havn) that looked to be cabins.

After that we found the "Grill" at harbour was "open everday" and closed Tuesdays, was now open and busy. The menu was restricted to basics such as "fish and chips" and burgers but this was welcome. Later we found a bar "Den Gyldne" open, but just drinks but pleasant enough outside in the sunshine away from the smokers!. We certainly had a relaxing time for our "rest day" and we were able to get a feel of the northermost tip of Langeland and our cycles were perfectly safe outside in the car park.

The beach and woodlands at Lohals.

The following day, after picking-up a picnic lunch at Brugsten's, we headed south on the east side of the island. This also involved some off-road tracks, some scenic through woodland or arable fields, at one point very close to the road.

Helen taking a stroll along the beach Strand Ved Tressebolle Vej on our way to Tranekaer.

An example of a good track near Sonderskov Huse just before we hit the beach road near Tranekaer. Notice the blue waymarker.

Couldn't resist this; three Ferguson 20's on display ar Lejbolle and all looking in good condition.

By the time we reached Tranekaer, we were ready for a coffee but that was not to be as the cafe at the castle was under going renovations. We did get a chance to see the medicine plant gardens (Medicinhaverne) which was very well organised into varies groups with all the plants clearly labelled, quite a unique garden that we'd never seen before. The castle itself looked very picturesque 

A view of Tranekaer Slot (castle) from the road. The gardens are just opposite here.

So many photos from here, Medicinhaverne, the herb gardens at Tranekaer on a hot sunny day.

Shortly after this we found a shaded picnic bench at the road side for a lunch break. We had a slight problem leaving Tranekaer as we missed a turning from the main road off to a minor road. Our destination was a "Tiny House" (a cabin) on a campsite at Spodsbjerg near the coast. Here we found a small supermarket and a cafe near the cabin and also an e-bike charging station at the car park on the harbour. The cabin had a great view across to woodland and grassland and we could hear the continues sound of cuckoos and even a Marsh Harrier swooped by in the evening sun with a couple of grazing deer in the distance. Spodsbjerg seemed busier than most of the places that we had stopped with tourists, campers and groups of motorcyclists with small bikes but dressed like they had Harvey Davidson's bikes, a funny combination. Here we had to use the shower block, bringing back memories of our camper days, but we did have a small toilet in the cabin. It was great to have breakfast on the veranda in the early morning sunshine.

The next day was one of the longer rides as we continued south to the southerly section of the island and then northwards on the west side to finish just beyond Bakenkop. Here we planned to get a late lunch and supplies for a meal and breakfast as we were stopping at another "Tiny House", this one more self-contained on a residential property in a remote rural location. The weather was still good with sunshine and little wind so we made good progress on some off-road tracks (again we had to dismount on some of the loose gravel tracks) but generally on minor roads. We did follow a minor road to the coast and then along the shoreline where the track had been eroded and was closed to vehicles. This made a convenient stop with a picnic table and long-drop toilet. We decided to walk the short section along the shoreline as the track further on gained higher ground and was in good condition.

The eroded track at Paovej just past Konabbe Skov (the cafe at the manor was closed), a pleasant section of deserted beach. 

It was near here that we saw a group of horses in a field (unusual for us to see animals free to roam). This area in the south is known for its wild horses but I'm not sure that the group fell into that catogary.

Domesticated or wild horses near Paovej

Following this we ended up going through a visitors complex, Brolokke Herregard near Magleby that, although on the Mansion route, was loose gravel not intented for cycling on. We eventually made it to Bakenkop and found a busy "Fish Grill" next to a small supermarket when it decided to give us a shower so on with the waterproofs, but only for ten minutes.

The harbour at Bakenkop with the sunshine resumming after our lunch.

From here it was a short 6 km distance to our night stop:

Our cabin for the night outside Bakenkop. 

Just down the road were some thatched houses that seem typical of many of the farm houses that we came across on the island. One had a open shed or garage with "bits and bobs" for sale. and we had seen many of these with their Danish flag flying to indicate a seller.

House with a structure typical of the ones we saw on the route around Langeland. Notice how the wood on the apex braces the roof, a style we'd often seen.

The next day was shorter to reach Rudkoping along minor roads passing a nature reserve, Norreballe Nor, together with a large neolithic burial mound next to the lake.

Norreballe Nor part of the EU Nature 2000 Network, an important wetland sanctuary. We could see nesting birds but couldn't identify them at the distance but they were pretty vocal.

After this we did stop at the location of another Danish shelter, Krejbjerggaard, and were unexpectingly shown around and offered breakfast and coffee by the farmer and his wife. As we were similar ages, we had quite alot in common and spent a very pleasant hour or so chatting. They were well travelled and explained they don't see many people from the UK passing through and using the shelter and camping area. Sometimes they've had as many as 20 tents on the farm.It was interesting talking about the farming system in Denmark as compared with England.

Sometimes a picnic table does not appear and you have to "rough it" on a woodland track.

After this we were soon in Rudkobing in the Hotel Rudkobing at the harbour. We had an eveniing meal at the Gaardhaven restaurant in town and a stroll around the area. In the morning after breakfast we had a later start as it was Sunday, and then went to Netto's for supplies as we were booked into an apartment on Tasinge island. The weather had cooled to 14 C but without rain. The traffic was busy in the area of the bridge but we only met one or two cyclists on the one-way cycling path on the bridge. The island was not hilly with much the same terrain as on Langeland and quite a few road cyclists and small motor bikes. buzzing around. We stopped at Tasinge Vejile, a dammed coastal lagoon with meadows and wetlands.

Our coffee stop at Tasinge Vejle with Great Egrets, Heron, Coots and some ducks visible in the distance.

Soon after this we reached the apartment near Troense with new housing devlopments nearby. and realised we were nearing the end of our cycle tour. The next day it was a short ride to the bridge and back to Svenborg on Funen where we planned to find a laundrette and visit the "Naturama", a Natural History Museum, in the northern part of town. As it was a Monday, most of the other attractions were closed.  The museum exibited animals preserved from all over the world and was generally interesting to see. I was surprised by the size of an adult male polar bear that towered above me. The museum also has a nice restaurant and outdoor area.

The main square, Gerrits Plads,  in Svenborg watching children making use of the fountains to cool down.

Saint Nicholas Church, a Romaneque brick church originally built in 1180 dominates the main square.

After this, we found the hotel Aero and returned our bikes (the rental company was situated at the harbour) and had a relaxing evening and meal at a Thai restaurant.

To end the holiday we returned to Odense and then Copenhagen before flying home to Bristol and by coach to Dartington. Overall, the cycle ride was 430 km with 2965 m of ascent