Danish Riviera (North Zealand's Coast)

Zealand's north coast has lived off the summer for more than a hundred years. When the railway reached Gilleleje (1896) and Hornbæk (1906) around 1900, Copenhagen's middle classes discovered the fishing villages as a summer retreat. Cottages gave way to wooden villas, the dunes became a recreation area, and to this day the coast turns into an extension of the capital in July.The painters came before the summer guests. In the late 19th century P. S. Krøyer, Holger Drachmann and Carl Locher, among others, stayed in Hornbæk before moving on to Skagen, and Kristian Zahrtmann also worked here. In Dronningmølle the sculptor Rudolph Tegner built his own museum in the middle of the heath, a bunker-like concrete building from 1938 surrounded by an open-air sculpture park. In Munkerup, Munkeruphus shows changing exhibitions in an old beach villa.The maritime tradition never disappeared. Gilleleje still runs one of the largest fishing harbours on Zealand, and the smokehouses along the quay are as much part of the scene as the cutters. Gilleleje Church holds a particular memory: in October 1943 locals hid Jewish refugees in its attic while they waited for the crossing to Sweden. Around 80 of them were discovered and arrested there by the Gestapo on the night of 6 to 7 October.

The coastal towns lie on two local railways that connect to the Copenhagen network in Helsingør and Hillerød. The Hornbæk Line runs from Helsingør via Hornbæk to Gilleleje, and the Gribskov Line runs from Hillerød to Gilleleje and Tisvildeleje. Both are part of the zone fare system, so a day ticket from Copenhagen is valid all the way.Between the railway termini, buses serve smaller places such as Rågeleje and Liseleje, though with sparse service outside the summer months. The coast is best explored by bike: regional cycle route 47, the Nordkyststien, follows the north coast for about 65 kilometres from Helsingør to Hundested. It is mostly flat and alternates between dunes, pine forests and town centres. Bikes travel free on the local trains.A car gives you more flexibility for beaches away from the towns or the forests of Tisvilde Hegn and Gribskov. On summer weekends, however, the car parks in Hornbæk and Tisvildeleje are often full by mid-morning.