Our Guide to Visiting & Driving in Denmark with a Motorhome

Odense

This guide is part of the new format of 'Country Guides' we will write to try and provide some of the information we struggled to obtain while researching our trip. It is based on our own experiences and is provided in good faith but your own experience and impressions may differ to ours. We hope that you find it of use and will encourage you to visit.


Country Facts
Country Code (DK), Currency DKK, Capital Copenhagen, Full EU Member. Schengen Country; no visa requirements for EU citizens. There are no import restrictions but there are export limitations for alcohol and tobacco.

Road Vignette Required?
NO.

Toll Roads
No, but there are tolls on bridges. Oresund Bridge joining Denmark to Sweden costs €40 for motorhomes up to 6m and €80 for motorhomes over 6m. Storebaelt Bridge (linking eastern and western Denmark) costs €31 up to 6m and €47 over 6m.


Road Condition ★★★★★
Excellent. 
All main arterial and side roads which we encountered in 2011 were excellent.

Driving Standard ★★★★★
Excellent.
Be wary of right turns as pedestrians have right of way.


Winter Tyres Required
Not by law but is highly recommended


Diesel, LPG & Autogas
Diesel/Bifyl. Fuel prices vary depending on the time of day, the only pattern we could muster is that it seems cheaper in the evenings. Be wary of Automatic stations which have a surcharge. Practice filling up where you see it cheapest rather than when you are nearly empty as the variation can be as much as 25p!
LPG is rare and expensive but is available if required. Click HERE for a list of LPG Stations in Denmark.



Official Aires / Service Points ★★★★★
Generally Good. There are a handful of aires but the ones publicised in 'All the Aires' as being free, now largely charge so beware. Wild Camping opportunities are frequent and this is perfectly legal to do so, especially around beaches and marina locations. There is a 'grey area' between the 'No Camping' signs and what constitutes as 'Camping' - i.e. getting your chairs out etc. If you don't fancy risking it you'll be sure to find somewhere else to stop just down the road.




Campsites ★★★★★
Generally Good. 
When it comes to campsites, they are geared up to cater for the Danish obsession with Caravans, although stopovers are encouraged through the 'Quick Stop' scheme. That said, Denmark is an expensive place to visit and in our view the best way to offset that cost is to Wild Camp - which is perfectly legal and practised by all the visiting nationalities. There are plenty of signs emerging specifying "No Camping" in some popular locations as to be expected, but finding somewhere to stop close by is not hard.


Availability of Fresh Water / Waste Disposal ★★★★★
Generally Good. 
Fresh water and waste disposal is available at a number of dedicated service points on the main motorway networks (click here for link) We also found both fresh water and chemical toilet disposal at many marina's, check with the harbour master before doing so to avoid ruining it for future visitors.


Free / Wild Camping ★★★★★
Excellent.
City Camp is available for central Copenhagen or there are lots of Wild Camping opportunities, see our blog posts and summary's below for more info.

Price Index / Food and Supermarkets ★★★★★
You'd be wise to stock up with food and alcohol prior to entering Denmark; the Lidl's in Germany are excellent for doing so. If you have the capacity to bring enough food and alcohol for your visit then do so, we found bottled water especially hard to come by (due in part to the 35p refundable deposit you pay on bottles, vs 8p in Germany) and a strange absence of fresh fish. If you're making your way to other Scandinavian countries afterwards, you'll be wondering why you didn't stock up with more food! We found fuel prices on par with Germany and other EU countries nearby.

Ribe

Eating & Drinking Out
Generally expensive, we found that a takeaway sandwich and drink could set you back up to £14.


Availability of Open Wifi ★★★★★
Our success rate for finding unsecured Wi-Fi in Denmark was 59%.



Denmark is a clean and safe country and from the look of some of the improvements which are on-going, it stands to get even better. Every town has an excellent tourist information office with thick, full colour glossy materials available in every language. The reality when you scratch the surface is a lot of the attractions are manmade and some of the towns offer little by way of history with any real narrative. The flat terrain is perfect for cycling and if beaches are your thing Denmark holds countless prestigious "Blue Beach" awards and the beaches are worthy of any Mediterranean destination (fingers crossed for the weather, 27c Easter Weekend 2011). Anyone under 40 will without doubt speak fluent English and many older people too, we heard very little other than English music on the radio during our time there.

Denmark is made up of three main Islands: Jutland, Funen and Zealand. The trip to the most northern point of the first island, Skagen, is a worthwhile visit to see the mysterious sight of the two seas lapping over each other but the journey there and back is largely unrewarding save for a handful of nice bits and pieces. Ribe, Arhus (if you're under 40) and the mysterious dune covered Ringkobing Fjord were our personal highlights, not forgetting Lego Land - worth a whip round and free to get in 30 minutes before the rides close where the park stays open for a further 2 hours.

Much of Denmark’s parking is free but limited by time; you will need a Parking Disc displaying your arrival time so best get one before you set off.


Our Summary and Posts on Denmark:
Summary of our tour of Denmark
First Taste of Denmark
Windy Denmark
Hirtshals, Skagen and Grena
Aarhus
Vejle & Legoland
Faaborg, Svendborg & Island of Langland
Svendborg & Odense
Kalundborg & Roskilde
Copenhagen in a Motorhome

Europe By Camper Outtakes

We had an interesting conversation with someone who has been following our blog recently, in that she said you always have such an amazing time surely something must have gone wrong during your trip? Well, yes actually – it did


Wrong Turns

As a Navigator, Sophie usually does a good job – after all we’ve got three navigation aids mounted to the dashboard! However they don’t document cycle tracks particularly well and while in Norway we managed to head off down such a track narrowly passing between cafes and their outside seating arrangements while getting some bemused stares from the locals!


Breakdowns

We actually broke down twice while we were away. The first time was in the South of France when the van alerted us to the fact that the oil was low. A quick inspection revealed that it wasn’t so much low as it was pouring out of the bottom of the engine! This fortunately happened literally outside of Fiat Professional agent who after an initial assessment of “catastrophic!” was later downgraded to a loose oil filter and a bill for £30. We blame the Romanian roads!

The later breakdown was in the worse possible place. Morocco. Or so we thought! When the van failed to start some drama ensued finding and bringing Mechanics back to the van only for them to twist two wires together and it start in a few seconds. Fuel cut off solenoid was the diagnosis.


Parking Tickets

We picked up a fine in Bergan while Wild Camping at the side of the road because we were “within 12 metres of a bus stop”. A fairly obscure offence but probably not to Norwegians! We didn’t pay the fine and we’ve not heard anything about it over a year later.


Getting Stuck

When Wild Camping in Greece we arrived at a beach near Parga where at least 15 others vans were present camping on the pier. We pulled off the road to check it out on foot to decide where we were going to park up. Easy enough, only we’d inadvertently pulled onto a particularly soft patch of sand and consequently got stuck up to our axels in the soft stuff. Bollocks! With help from two Germans and a Dutch, we eventually rock and push the van out of its rut.

Toilet Incidents

We have a degree of bad luck when it comes to our chemical toilet and after a year of use it’s fair to say we have experienced much of what can go wrong with such a setup. The two incidents which stand out among others are when poor Sophie was having difficulty opening the trap after a Number 1. It turns out that the pressure had built up in the cassette after climbing over 1,000 metres into the Greek hills and when she eventually managed to open it the pressure blew the contents back into the van and all over unsuspecting Sophie. Fortunately our toilet is also in our shower room so a quick shower ensued and we both joked over how things could have been much worse if other “debris” had come into play!

The second incident was when our cassette indicated it was full with the red light illuminating on the tank. We continued on to our destination but unfortunately a mixture of an ill-fitting disposal lid and again altitude pressure resulted in the unit overflowing. Upon arriving at our destination we were greeted with, shall we say a large brown go-faster stripe down the side of the van where the contents had leaked out and dried while in motion. We feel sorry for anyone traveling behind us! We are now firmly of the belief that when the red light comes on, it’s already too late.

Nasty Water 

We usually fill two water containers before filling our fresh tanks, but on one occasion at Katakolo in Greece we didn’t. We had wondered why the cafes had refused to serve us tap water with our coffee and it transpired that the local water supply was a murky brown. Unfortunately we didn’t realise this until nearly 90 litres later, thank goodness for the drain down plug!

In Poland we noticed a nasty plastic taste in our on-board tanks, so bad that it actually felt like it was burning your mouth! We tried all sorts of flushing out and drops but couldn’t get to the route course. Two weeks later we discovered by accident that there was nothing wrong with our on-board tanks, but the high chlorine content of the water in Poland had reacted with our ridged hosepipe we were using for filling, which was contaminating the tank on every fill!

Brakes

Upon arriving in Morocco our van promptly informed us that our brake pads were low. We found a brand spanking new Fiat dealership on the outskirts of Marrakesh where men in white overalls were unpacking diagnostic equipment and polishing their Snap-On tool chests. Brake pads were below them but the parts centre in Marrakesh did have them. After a couple of hair raising attempts we decided we’d manage – and manage we did for another 5,000 miles. Needless to say new discs and pads were fitted as soon as we got home!  

Adria Twin - Live In Review

She scrubbed up well, despite having covered over 44,000 miles through 21 countries

We purchased our 2007 Adria Twin shortly before it’s 3rd birthday and owned it for just shy of two years. In that time it received more use then many, having spent over 370 days occupied by us with 334 during our 11 month tour of Europe. It seems the Twin is a popular van; one of our most popular and earliest blog posts is our Adria Twin Modifications and Improvements post and has received over 5,000 views.

At 5.98m, a panel van conversion might seem like an odd choice for a year touring Europe. Many who full-time or travel “long term” often choose vehicles much larger in size and with a bigger, all important payload. By comparison I recon we travel fairly light, but we still managed to take loads of stuff with us which came back unused a year later!

The fixed rear bed layout while still relatively unknown in the UK (where the “rear lounge” is king)  is the most popular selling panel van layout in Germany and was pioneered by Adria on the X244 Fiat Ducato, but the extra width and length of the X250 Ducato really made the layout work well. It has been replicated and reproduced by over 10 different manufacturers, of which only a few other than Adria have started to make their way over to the UK.

The Twin makes light work of parking everywhere a regular car would 

- including underground parking garages!

While motorhoming is often about compromise we never felt we had to make one in the Twin. For us it was the perfect combination of being able to squeeze into regular car parks in towns, cities (and even underground parking!) and we even used it to wild camp in the centre of 7 capitals cities. It also meant that all of the ferries through Norway and also the Denmark to Sweden Storebaelt Bridge was the same price as a car, saving us over £350 in tolls overall.

What we loved:

The fixed bed

One thing we would not be without. If we ever felt like lounging we’d hop on the bed and watch a film and when we did want to go to bed there was no “setting up” or “putting away” required. There are also masses of storage space underneath the van which only a fixed bed can give you. We utilised this with 6 large stacking boxes which fitted perfectly, with four being accessible from inside. The bed also lifts up so is great for carrying bikes or even moving furniture when at home!

We changed Adria's seat covers for
something a bit more hard wearing.

The ability to fully utilise the cab seats. Many panel vans (rear lounge vans especially) lose all functionality of the cab and driver seats. This is a shame because you effectively gain half a metre of living space and two of the most comfortable high backed seats in the van.

The large gas locker meant we could take 2x 11kg refillable cylinders equating to 44 litres of gas. Gas consumption when off hook up worked out to just under a litre a day to run the fridge, hot water daily and ad-hoc heating. An under slung tank is of course an option, but we already had a 2x 11Kg Gaslow refillable system.

It's not the size that matters, it's how you use it. Under bed storage was maximised through the use of 

stacking boxes and a partitioned area for chairs, screens and ramps.

The 80L waste tank also helped with wild camping. Our 90L fresh usually lasted us 3-4 days even with a shower daily or every other day thanks to a trigger action shower head we installed.

What we’d change:

We didn’t like the tambour door on the bathroom and in the bathroom cupboards. A good idea at the time but we much prefer the solid wooden door in the Globecar as these start to fail over time and can rattle fairly badly and fall apart.

The fridge was small, but had enough
room for all of the essentials.

We’d swap the wardrobe for a full size fridge/freezer as found in the Trigano Tribute 650 and some pull out storage underneath, although many might be grateful for the hanging space.

While two rings are perfectly adequate, a larger cooking area for long term touring might be advantageous. The grill was surprisingly versatile, cooking fish, meat and chips.

Of course, a few things we changed ourselves! Check out our Modifications and Improvements post.

Summary

Where to dry the underwear when wild
camping? In the windscreen of course!

The van is a perfect if you are active and don’t want to spend several days at a time lounging around inside, but as a drive, explore, eat, sleep vehicle it is first class. Ours covered nearly 30,000 miles in our time of ownership and the build still looked fresh and new when we came to sell her with over 44,000 on the clock which is a testament to the build quality of these vans.

Also Consider: Globecar Globescout (599DB), Possl Style 599DB.

June 2012 Motorhome Monthly

It's that time again!

We got asked a few times recently if we write the content specifically for Motorhome Monthly Magazine, the answer is no - they have just been lifting it straight from our blog (warts and all!) and we send them through some high resolution images.

We never really thought when we wrote our blog that our mutterings would be worthy of printed media but I must say we're really enjoying seeing our photos in full colour print! To read it in full online and for free click here: Motorhome Monthly Magazine - June

Quick update from Adam & Sophie

We're really, really sorry we've not updated the blog in so long. We promised it wouldn't happen just because we were back in the UK and we won't let it happen again, we'll be updating at least once a week from now on!

In recent news, Sophie and I are just back from the Peterborough show after launching a little business venture, Motorhome WiFi. We did this on the back of the several thousand people who have read one of the most popular pages on our site ‘Internet Access in Europe’ and e-mailed us asking for information and advice. We thought, rather than promoting someone else’s products on our site, we’d take the products that worked for us along with some custom mounts and put them to a wider audience and the result was a resounding success.

What overwhelmed us most of all were the 100+ people who recognised us personally and had been following our progress as we toured around Europe. It really means a lot to us to know that you have enjoyed reading about our travels enough to recognise us and come up and say hello! Hello to all of you and I’m sorry if we didn’t remember you all by name, although a few stand out!

If you would like to be kept up to date with new products and information about WiFi and 3G in Europe, please like MotorhomeWiFi on Facebook as we won’t be promoting it too heavily on here. Click to view the website.


Like MotorhomeWiFi on Facebook here: 

So what’s next for us? We’ve had lots of e-mails asking how we’ve adjusted to life back in the UK and apart from the weather we’re doing OK. Adam is still working for himself with lots of web projects on the go and Sophie is working for SMART so we’ve got an awesome little convertible SMART car to run around in… a bit of a change from a 6m camper van!

We’d like to replace our van soon but we’re not sure what route to go down next… Perhaps we try a Self Build? We’ve looked at some UK based panel van conversions so watch out for some information on those as we look into them!

May Edition of Motorhome Monthly

We're in Motorhome Monthly Magazine again this month with 12 pages dedicated to our trip through Norway, Finland, Russia and Estonia.

You can view the magazine online completely free of charge by clicking HERE. (Pages 54 - 65)

Watch out for next months edition which will be covering Latvia and Lithuania.