Cycling in Denmark: Is this Europe’s most bike-friendly country?

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be treated like royalty for a few days, there’s no need to move into Versailles or even Windsor Castle. Just go leisure cycling in Denmark instead: it’s what the royal family here do most days anyway.

To leisure cycle in Denmark is to re-enact how it was to be carriage-riding nobility in the days of the cap-tipping yokel. Such is the time, grace and respect given to cyclists not only by motorists here, but pedestrians too, I swear the commoners could well have been curtsying me as I passed.

2022 is the Year of the Bike in Denmark, which hosted the first three stages of the Tour de France earlier this month, and I can’t think of a more pleasant, better equipped European country to cycle through in summer. Escaping the intense heat and tourist throngs further south, Denmark offers accessible, scenic routes, an agreeable climate and a respectful, bike-centric culture (let’s say nothing of the prices, though, for now). At least 70 per cent of people in Denmark own their own bike, and most roads have some class of cycle lane; where there are none, the calm, patient drivers pass you with as much caution and berth as to confuse you with a landmine.

With almost 5,000km of national cycle routes, the first of which was established in the 19th century, where should you begin?

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I opted for a multi-day leisure cycling trip around Copenhagen and the “Danish Riviera” arranged by Inntravel, which offers self-guided cycling tours of northern Zealand. Effectively mirroring the south-western coast of Sweden, Zealand is the largest and most populous island in the country, with roughly 2.3 million inhabitants.

Just how many light years away Irish cities are when it comes to the ease and joy of cycling is immediately apparent when you get pedalling in Copenhagen. Denmark’s capital has been judged the most bicycle friendly city in the world each year since 2015, with more than €200 million in cycling infrastructure constructed over the last decade.

While the standard Inntravel deal entails a single night in Copenhagen, I went with an additional two nights in the perfectly located Copenhagen Strand Hotel (copenhagenstrand.dk DKK 1,815/€240 per night), within 10 minutes’ cycle of all the major sights on a city bike, available to rent from the hotel for €17 per day.

The Copenhagen Card (copenhagencard.com, €88 for 48 hours) is pricey but worth it, as it allows entry to 90 attractions and free public transport. I found my bearings on a guided river and canal cruise, before a compulsory visit to the Danish National Museum to view its vivid, multisensory exhibition on the Vikings, the Museum of Copenhagen for a well-curated overview of the city’s evolution, and the Museum of Danish Resistance, located close to the most I’d-Rather-Watch-Paint-Dry city icon in Europe: the Little Mermaid statue.

The more culturally curious should check out the Danish National Gallery with the least inviting title imaginable: the Statens Museum for Kunst. The National Museum of Photography is worth popping in to, as is the canal-side, modern art Kunstforeningen GL Strand gallery. But I found that the greatest joy of the city is simply in aimless, instinctive wandering, pooching about on your city bike, stopping for curios or coffee, beer or wine when the mood takes you.

Departing the city, it was a 40km cycle to the north-eastern edges of Zealand, where hamlets of thatched homes separate white sand beaches lined with modest, Insta-friendly summer villas, high on style but utterly unpretentious.

Basing ourselves in the large coastal village of Snekkersten, we skirted inland to see the lakeside, uber-regal grounds of the early 18th century Fredensborg Castle, before ambling northwards to the town of Helsingør and explore the shoreside stronghold of Kronberg Castle, eternalised as Elsinore in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The next day, we ventured south from Snekkersten to the Karen Blixen Museum; a far more atmospheric, rounded package than its Kenyan counterpart. The museum is set within her airy, ancestral home — left to the state upon her death - along with generous acres of woodlands and gardens where she lies buried beneath the almighty arms of a giant beech. The unmissable Louisiana modern art museum was next, laid out over a series of low-slung, connecting buildings weaved through sculpture gardens, in a compelling combination of world-class art, architecture, landscape architecture and shoreline scenery.

On the final full day, it was back on the bikes to venture up the coast past Helsingør, to the pleasant fishing village of Gilleleje at the most northern point of Zealand, to experience the “Danish Riviera”. Aside from glorious beaches and attendant villages, this stretch also packs in exquisite residential architecture within small plots festooned with native trees and flowers.

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Jamie Ball was a guest of Inntravel. The Copenhagen & Danish Riviera trip is a flexible, self-guided cycling holiday, with one night in Copenhagen (extra nights optional), three in Snekkersten and two in Gilleleje, between mid-May and late September. Cost is from £1,195 per person sharing, and includes six nights’ B&B, two dinners, luggage transported between hotels, bike hire and routes notes and maps. See: inntravel.co.uk. Ryanair flies Dublin-Copenhagen from €140 return.