Denmark holidays

Denmark is one of Europe's most-livable countries and a quietly excellent travel destination — Copenhagen has reinvented itself in the last two decades as a Nordic-design and food capital (Noma was the world's number-one restaurant for years and put new-Nordic cuisine on the global map; Geranium is the current top Michelin three-star; the city has more bicycles than cars and a deeply cycle-friendly infrastructure). Add the Little Mermaid statue and Nyhavn's colourful 17th-century townhouses; the Tivoli Gardens amusement park (the world's second-oldest, the inspiration for Walt Disney); Roskilde's Viking-ship museum and royal cathedral (UNESCO); the medieval-and-renaissance Helsingør (Shakespeare's Elsinore in Hamlet); Aarhus (Denmark's second city with the ARoS art museum and the open-air Den Gamle By); the lighthouse-and-cliffs coast of Møn and the rolling-hills Funen island; and the Lego company's headquarters town of Billund (Legoland is the original theme park).

A 5-8 day Denmark trip: Copenhagen (4-5 nights — Nyhavn, the Little Mermaid, Tivoli Gardens, the Round Tower, Christiansborg Palace, the Black Diamond library, Rosenborg Castle with the Crown Jewels, Christiania the autonomous artistic-commune district, the Refshaleøen creative quarter with Reffen street-food, day-trip to Roskilde's Viking ships and Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød) → Helsingør and Kronborg Castle (1 night, accessible by S-train) → optional Funen island via Odense (Hans Christian Andersen's home town) and Egeskov Castle (1-2 nights) → Aarhus and Jutland (2-3 nights — ARoS rainbow-rooftop art museum, Den Gamle By open-air old town, day-trip to Legoland in Billund for families or the Lighthouses of Northern Jutland) → optional Møn cliffs (1 night for the Møns Klint chalk cliffs).