As we were visiting Copenhagen at the height of the Summer, I really wanted to spend a few days on the North Zealand coast, which can be reached in under an hour from Copenhagen. The area is rich with history and has several palaces and castles, charming coastal wooden houses, miles of coastline flanked by sand dunes and many fantastic restaurants, serving the fresh catch of the day. It’s no surprise that many Copenhagen residents have holiday homes here and it’s often termed as “The Danish Riviera.”
We boarded the train at Copenhagen central station which took just 1.5 hours to reach Tisvildeleje, with a short stop at Hillerod Station, which has a cafe on the platform to while away any time you are waiting there. The trains to Tisvildeleje are frequent and punctual so it’s a very accessable trip to make.
We had booked The Strand hotel in Tisvildeleje, recommended by Becca at Malmo & Moss who stayed there while she was researching for her interiors book Scandi Rustic. You can read Becca’s blog on her stay here.
The hotel is a large white wooden structure, rising above the High Street like a huge beach house as you walk into the town. The outside entrance to the hotel is furnished with plenty of outdoor seating and low tables, with baskets of blankets dotted around and is the perfect space for an alfresco drink before or after dinner.
Inside the hotel is furnished with natural textures such as loose linen covered sofas and wicker furniture, low lighting and masses of candles. Jazz music was was playing through the public rooms as we entered. The perfect cosy and relaxing ambiance after having just spent 6 days in 2 cities.
Image credit The Strand Hotel
We had booked dinner in the hotels restaurant for our first night. The restaurant was reassuringly busy and buzzy with light streaming in through the bank of windows around two sides of the room. The waiter recommended the set menu which was around 5 or 6 courses of freshly cooked seasonal and local food and absolutely fantastic and great value for money at only around £55 per head without drinks. I would most definitely recommend booking a table here, even if you aren’t staying at the hotel. Breakfast the next morning, included in the price of the room, was also excellent, with a great choice of home made breads, meats, cheeses, eggs, fresh fruit and yoghurt, over night chai seeds and fresh juices, tea & coffee.
The owner of the hotel, a former professional ballet dancer, also owns another hotel in Tisvildeleje Helenekilde Badehotel. This is located on the beach and is also lovely,although much more expensive and I liked the location of The Strand. Being in the centre of the town, surrounded by the shops, restaurants and bars was really convenient and the hotel provide bikes which you can hire, for riding down to the beach and through the pine forest which continues along side the beach. On our second day we cycled through the forest towards the next coastal town Hornbaek but after riding for 1.5 hours we realised we were lost. Although there are wooden arrows on the trees there is no signage to tell you what direction you’re going in and although we also had maps on our phones we were just going round in circles so we gave up and headed back to the beach for a swim. Maybe next time if we have more time, we’ll try our luck again 🙂
Image credit above and below Helenekilde Badehotel
If you’re also looking to go to Copenhagen, the owner of these hotels also owns Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen, which I’m assured is also lovely.
So what is Tisvildeleje like? It’s a very upmarket seaside town with lots of private holiday homes for the Danes living close to Copenhagen, many of which can be rented on sites such as Airbnb. The High Street has plenty of beautiful homeware and clothes shops, antique shops, restaurants and bars. There’s an ice cream parlour and even a fast food outlet, Cocks & Cows although it’s much more civilised than anything we have in the UK and has lot’s of comfortable outdoor seating under a canopy. The beach has a wooden hut which serves great fish and chips, coffees and ice creams and sundowners until around 9.00pm and if you don’t have a car, there are regular buses and trains to take you to towns along the coast & inland. We didn’t travel any further than Tisvildeleje as we were happy to just relax before heading back to Copenhagen for our last few days befoe flying home.
The antique shop next to the petrol station in Tisvildeleje
Deck chairs to watch the sunset outside the beach bar
Fortaellinger a lovely shop with a great mix of antiques and contemporary homewares and clothes
Delicious Danish Ice cream
Another favourite shop in Tisvildeleje – No.17 Limited
It’s a lovely relaxed town and I would most definitely plan another holiday there tagged onto a trip to Copenhagen again.
