Where to stay in Denmark

[Bulkypeepants]

Hi everyone! Just posting to see if anyone has any good advice regarding areas to stay in and visit in Denmark - ideally not Copenhagen as we have been there previously. My partner and I (+ our 1 year old) have flights booked to Billund in June and we now need to book accomodation in the form of an Air BnB but have no idea where to base ourselves. We will have a hire car so can get anywhere provided it isn't too far from Billund. At the moment we are open to anything so inland or coastal or cities are all options! Thankyou very much for your help :)

What do you like to do? Jutland Denmark is pretty rural .
If you love beach, cycling white sands youll be sorted. Søndervig is lovely and you can rent beach houses around the fjord there are Hvide Sande and Rinkøbing all interesting but v small places but is long beaches sand dunes etc. . We also love Ebeltoft area north of Aarhus but again its woody, small towns baltic beaches . Aarhus is an interesting city to visit though . Further north Fyr and Mors islands are lovely and furthest north Skagen where the two seas meet .

Ribe is a cute wee town not too far from Billund.

Rømø
Staying in Billund would be a bit of a waste I think as there's so much for kids but your 1 yo won't appreciate it.

Thankyou for all your help - I'm learning my Danish geography!

Aarhus has an art gallery which has an incredible rainbow walkway at the top: https://www.aros.dk/da/

Lalandia in billund, just opposite Legoland has loads of cabins to stay in. I have a holiday house on Romo, not far from Ribe.

Billund is great for families - Legoland, Lego House, Lalandia and WOW Park etc. - but maybe not so interesting for a week for a couple with a one-year-old. Accommodation in Billund is also expensive compared with places a few km away.

But it is a great entry point to Denmark as a short drive in any direction gets you to numerous interesting places. Don't worry about driving in Denmark - roads are excellent and compared with the UK traffic is very light.

North of Billund is Silkeborg, which is the main town in the Danish Lake District. There are activities in Silkeborg (Aqua, the paddle steamer, Tollund Man in the museum) and small lakeside beaches at places like Sejs.

Going North-east takes you to Aarhus, Randers (for the Rainforest) and Djursland, where Ebeltoft is a lovely old village. There's also Djurs Sommerland amusement park, but again, this is for older children and families.

East of Billund - Vejle and Kolding. The Okolariet ecology centre in Vejle is interesting for adults as well as for children. Kolding has a castle (Koldinghus) in the town centre, a big shopping mall (Kolding Centre), a nursing museum and a design museum.

South-east - The island of Fyn, with Odense and all things about Hans Christian Andersen, a railway museum, an open air museum. Or continuing south on Jutland there's Christiansfeld, and right down south near Germany is Sønderborg, a bustling coastal town with a castle. You could also visit Flensborg in Germany.

South-west - Tønder and Ribe. Historical old towns with links to the royal family. Esbjerg, which has a maritime museum and is the southern starting point for the long beaches that stretch the entire length of Jutland's west coast.

West of Billund - The Jutland west coast. Hundreds of km of sandy beaches with occasional coastal towns comprising of summerhouses and camping sites, or based around a harbour (e.g. Hvide Sande and Ringkøbing).

If you want to stay in a city, then perhaps consider Aarhus and explore the eastern side of Jutland. If you want beaches and tranquility, then book a summerhouse or a holiday apartment at somewhere like Henne Strand. Granted, these are small quiet places, but for many that's exactly the attraction - you're away from the hustle and stress of a big city and can enjoy the nature, empty beaches and glorious sunsets.

We looked at Aarhus for this year but decided against Denmark for a variety of reasons.

One thing we found when looking for a s/c place, lots of them asked you to bring your own bed linen and towels or you had to pay extra on top of an already quite expensive rental price.
Do read the full description carefully.

The bed linen arrangements for self-catering (bring your own or rent) are standard throughout Scandinavia and much of Europe except in apartment hotels. It is usually possible to rent linen on site - we usually pay about £10 per bed per week, which in the bigger picture is not a deal breaker.

The really expensive items on a Scandinavian holiday are eating out and alcohol. Self-catering solves both - or at least makes eating and drinking a bit more affordable.

I rent quite frequently in Germany and didn't have it so far. Neither Belgium or Netherlands.

It was a while ago, but we found nappies to be far more expensive than we expected. If you can, it might be worth taking some if that's still the case.

Wow, thankyou! I think we will stay in the middle of Jutland so that we can see a lot without having too much driving each day. @Havanananana, your reply is really comprehensive - I am very grateful. I have seen some of the places you mentioned in passing in guidebooks etc so will do a bit more investigation. As I said, we're quite open to anything so perhaps would like a city one day, beach the next, museums another day, forest and fjords the day after that and so on. Henne Strand to watch the sunsets sounds idyllic!

@lidolemon noted about the nappies - will see if we can jam a pack in our suitcase

@reluctantbrit also noted about the linen/towels. Really want to avoid having to drag these along with us!

I have seen the cost of eating out - it's pretty eye watering 😖 What are supermarket prices like, and is Lidl (and Netto) a cheaper option like it is the UK?

As a regular visitor to Denmark, I would say that supermarket prices are a little bit higher than in the UK, but by no means eye-watering. Competition in the grocery sector is fierce, and there are also discounters like Lidl.

One place that I somehow missed off my list of places to visit is Jelling, east of Billund, which has a Viking museum and Viking relics. Well worth a couple of hours (perhaps combined with a trip to Vejle or Kolding).

If you are going to stay in the middle of Jutland, I'd suggest Silkeborg as a base as long as you have a hire car from Billund.

@Havanananana can you suggest how one might find a summerhouse to book?

@PollyPut Summerhouse rental:

The big, nationwide rental agencies are Dansommer, DanCenter and Novasol, but you can also look at the usual booking sites such as Booking.com, VRBO or airbnb.

Each area of Denmark also has local booking agencies. You can google "Sommerhus [location]" to find these, or look at the local tourist office websites.

For the Jutland west coast around Henne Strand we've used Købmand Hansens Feriehusudlejning > Sommerhus i Henne Strand ved Vesterhavet (kobmand-hansen.dk)

For Ebeltoft we've used Ebeltoft Feriehusudlejning > Sommerhuse i Ebeltoft på Djursland - Ebeltoft Feriehusudlejning (ebeltoft-feriehusudlejning.dk) If flying from the UK, Aarhus airport (Ryanair) is only 10 minutes from Ebeltoft. Billund is about 90 mins. from Ebeltoft.

Thanks @Havanananana Very helpful and lots of options out there. Have been looking at Romo but without a car I am trying to work out how to get taxis if needed? The bus covers much of the island but not all of it as far as I can see and it's rather isolated.

Rømø is really isolated (which of course is one of the attractions of going there) but without a car, you'd be rather stuck and reliant on the few buses. You can get to the mainland by bus 285 to Skærbæk and from there by bus or train to Esbjerg, Ribe or Tønder, or Niebüll in Germany, but otherwise it is difficult to get to anywhere else for a day trip.

For getting around the island, do what Danes do and cycle:
"www.romocykler.dk"

I'm back from this trip as of two days ago, so if anyone in the future wants any tips on central Jutland, let me know!

My BIL has a holiday house on the island of Romo. There is a harbour at Haveneby where you can get a ferry (car, walking or bike) to Sylt, Germany.