North Zealand’s beaches by train

The local train called, Grisen, is an easy way to reach the magnificent coastline if you don’t own a car. Find our tips here.

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By Bente D. Knudsen

The beaches along the coast north of Copenhagen are north bound making them sheltered from the winds often blowing from the west and hen the wind blows from the south they are sheltered making them really great to enjoy on many a sunny day.

Of course they would be perfect to visit when there is a heat wave reaching Denmark from the south as it will this week, but even without a heat wave they are really nice for a one day excursion when the sun shines to spend a day at the beach for a walk or, if you dare, a swim. Even on a good summer’s day the water will reach a max of 20 to 21 degrees Celcius.

To reach them, you can take your car, but what to do if you don’t have one?

Easy, take the train.

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To reach Hornbæk for instance, take the train from Helsingør (reachable by the Kystbanetog (also called the Airport train as it runs from Helsingør all the way to Copenhagen airport and on to Malmø). Take note that there are some changes on the Kystbaneline until 18 May – find our information article here.

You will find the small yellow train very easily at Helsingør Station, it will take you along the Hornbækbanen from Helsingør to Gilleleje, stopping of course at Hornbæk train station and Gilleleje train station, but also along a range of “trinbræt”, small local stops within the summerhouse compounds along the way.

If you get off at one of these stops, you are just a short walk from the beautiful Hornbæk Bay and its long stretch of white sandy beach.

Remember, as these stops are not at real train stations, you need to press a bottom on the train to get off, and actually likewise when you are waiting at one of them to get on.

Otherwise the train will not stop to pick you up or let you get off.

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If you want to go to the beach at Tisvildeleje, another magnificent long white sandy beach, you need to take the “Pig Train” from Hillerød.

Hillerød can be reached by S-train from Copenhagen, and from Hillerød again you need to catch the small yellow train further down the platform. For this one it makes best send to get off at the end Station at Tisvildeleje and walk down through town to the large parking lot, which lies adjacent to the beach.

On both trains you can bring a bicycle, however, on very warm weekends they may be quite crowded.

The Pig train, Grisen in Danish, used to be redish in colour, but the modern versions are yellow.

The name has stayed though and the locals still use the old knickname.

Weekends they only run hourly, whereas on weekdays they are more frequent.

Find the timetables here.