20250621_115735Kronborg Castle in Helsingør (June 2025)

Besides visiting Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands, my partner and I also spent half a day visiting the city of Helsingør. Also known as “Elsinore,” this coastal city serves daily ferries through the Øresund Strait, between Denmark and Sweden. Helsingør is also historically-known as the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and we spent some time exploring the Kronborg where much of the play took place.

Established back in the 1420s, Helsingør was built for maritime trade and as a result grew over the centuries. The Kronborg Castle was commissioned around the same period and later expanded in the 1570s. Helsingør’s port was especially vital during the Second World War, when the Danes assisted in smuggling over 7,200 Jews across the Øresund Strait to seek asylum in neighboring Sweden.

My partner and I had booked a day tour to Helsingør and Sweden (more on the latter to come soon) and left early in the morning to get to our meeting point on time. It turned out to be a bus tour with over 40-50 passengers, partly with commentary from the driver-guide and partly from pre-recorded audio, which we listened to through earbuds.

Any case, we spent 45 minutes driving through the beautiful Danish countryside (so green in the summer!) before reaching Helsingør by 10h30. From there, our guide gave us two and a half hours to either explore Kronborg or the city itself. My partner and I opted to visit the former, as we were both English majors and have read many of Shakespeare’s works, Hamlet included. Admission was pretty hefty at 150 DKK ($23 USD) per person, but our tickets allowed us to visit both the ramparts outside and the castle inside.

20250621_111116Entrance to Kronborg

Kronborg was big and spacious, and even though we didn’t see all that there was to it during our visit, we covered a lot of ground and hit many of the highlights, including the Great Hall, the Royal Apartments (where King Frederick II of the mid-16th century resided), the Chapel, and the statue of Holger the Dane, a knight of Charlemagne in the 11th century and considered protector of the castle grounds. The architecture inside the rooms were more-modest than extravagant ones I’ve seen in châteaux in France, England, or Austria, but still elegant and lovely to admire. In the end, I also climbed the Clock Tower to get panoramic views of Helsingør, as well as the deep-blue Øresund Strait.

20250621_114424King’s Room


20250621_114850The Great Hall


20250621_120001Holger the Dane statue


20250621_121623Views of the Kronborg courtyard from the clock tower


20250621_121719Views of Helsingør from the clock tower

Following our visit, we still had about a half-hour to kill before we had to return to the bus. That said, we checked out a food hall called Værftets Madmarked, located near the castle and featured many food stalls with cuisines from all over the world. My partner got a falafel wrap while I tried my hand at flæskesteg, a Danish roast pork dish, which I had in sandwich form. Paired with fries, it was a hearty, decent meal!

20250621_124842Flæskesteg with fries

That concluded our time in Helsingør, and we soon left around 13h00 in order to catch the next ferry over to Sweden, which due to a few stragglers getting back on the bus, we ended up missing and had to wait for the next one. Frankly, it was a lousy tour, as it was fast-paced and also unreasonable. We were given practically no time to eat or use the bathroom, and it didn’t help that we were visiting Sweden during Midsommar, when 90% of shops were closed. Our guide wasn’t the friendliest, either, as he kept hurrying us up and getting mad when a few passengers were three (3!!!) minutes late to the bus following our time in Helsingør.

Honestly, my partner and I were fed up with the tour and, once we took the ferry over to Sweden, we notified our guide that we were basically ditching the tour to explore Lund (the following city), and we would just take the train back to Copenhagen by ourselves. This was the first time I’d ever abandoned a tour, but given that we’d paid $220 USD each for crappy service, we were dissatisfied with the quality of it and decided it’d be better if we just visited Sweden on our own. It turned out to be a good decision in the end!

All the same, I will recap our time in Sweden in the next post. Stay tuned! 🙂

— Rebecca

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Published by Rebecca

Blogger, world traveler, poet, foodie, part-time penguin. Welcome!

39 thoughts on “Destination: Helsingør, Denmark”

  3. Love the two English majors at Kronborg. I imagine you quoting Hamlet to one another, Alas poor Yorek, I knew him well… Get thee to a nunnery… Beautiful King’s room, less gilded that others I’ve seen. The beginnings of Danish design.

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    1. Indeed! “To be, or not to be…” so many quotable lines from this Shakespearean tragedy! We actually attended a Hamlet re-enactment this summer, and it was really cool to see the play and have it come full circle!

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      1. Yes, it’s such an oft quoted play! Eagle’s school took the students to see it four years ago at a local outdoor theater. It made a big impression on them. I was lucky enough to be a chaperone for the outing. The re-enactment this summer sounds cool.

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    1. Honestly, I think you can just visit Helsingør on your own, no need for a tour. There are trains that depart from Copenhagen regularly, bringing you to Helsingør in just 45 minutes.

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  5. I didn’t make it up to Kronborg Castle, but it looks lovely, especially its location between the charming city and the water. What a bummer about that tour. Ditching something that expensive sends a strong message that I hope was received loud and clear by the tour guide.

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    1. Yes, the tour was such a disappointment! If anything, it was a glorified mode of transport to get us from place to place; at least it brought us to Helsingør and later, Sweden!

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  6. Oh yikes, that’s an expensive tour to end up with such a poor experience. What a bummer. It sounds like bailing was the right call, it’s nice that was an option. Your flæskesteg looks delicious, and like something I would really enjoy. I also enjoyed seeing your castle photos and I’m looking forward to seeing what you got up to in Sweden too.

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    1. Yes, it was honestly not a great tour. It was so bad that we decided it wasn’t worth being stuck with the group all day and being miserable. My partner and I were lucky we’d gotten lunch at the food hall, as the other passengers didn’t and virtually no restaurants were open by the time we got to Sweden due to Midsommar. Sweden’s post will be up next week, and it’ll be the last of my trip’s series!

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    1. Yes, the tour was a letdown, and in retrospect, it was a good decision to leave. We ended up visiting Sweden on our own, which I’ll recap in the next post!

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  8. For travellers who are used to travelling independently, it’s always quite frustrating to go on an organised tour, but sometimes it’s the easiest option. Kronborg seems to me to be a decent place to explore.

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    1. The tour was supposed to be the easiest option, but considering that we were given limited time to sightsee (let alone eat or use the bathroom), it wasn’t worth it at all. Honestly, it was easier that we’d ditched the tour to explore on our own.

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  9. Admittedly, I had never given much thought about Helsingør, until today. It does look quite interesting, although I’m making a mental note of not taking a guided tour there. The flæskesteg you had looks delicious though.

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    1. I was initially drawn to visit Helsingør (Elsinore) from Hamlet, but learning more about the castle itself and its history turned out even more fascinating! I’d just recommend visiting Helsingør on your own– there are frequent trains that depart from Copenhagen and only take about 45 minutes. Easy for a day trip!

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  13. Looks lovely to explore, especially for anyone interested in Shakespeare. That is such an expensive price for a disappointing tour – though I can understand why the guide ushered people back on to the bus if you ended up missing the ferry, so annoying! I guess at least you got from A to B.

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  14. Kronborg is such a smart half-day pick — standing in Hamlet’s “Elsinore” gives me literary goosebumps just thinking about it. We’ve found big castles like this are a surprisingly easy sell with our kids too; the ramparts plus a ferry ride turn a history lesson into a proper adventure. Did you get a clear view across the Øresund to Sweden?

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    1. I agree! Helsingør is such an accessible day trip from Copenhagen, offering both history and lovely views of the Øresund. We could see Sweden off into the distance, albeit a bit hazy!

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    1. The tour sucked, but at least it brought us to the sites we wanted to see anyway. Kronborg was a stunning castle and worth a visit if you’re ever in Denmark!

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  16. TBH we are not great tour people nearly always opting to go it alone.
    That being said we did have to join some tours in Costa Rica purely to see everything we wanted to experience.

    I’m guessing that Scandinavia as a whole is expensive although the price for the tour seems incredibly high? You seem to have enjoyed the castle and I’ll look forward to reading about Sweden

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    1. In retrospect, my partner and I should’ve just done Helsingør and Sweden on our own, as they’re just a quick train ride away. All the same, you live and you learn! Sweden (specifically Lund) will be up next!

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  17. It’s so cool you got to see the “Hamlet” castle. Good for you for not tolerating a subpar tour and going off on your own. I look forward to reading about your visit to Sweden!

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    1. Yes, it was a good decision to ditch the tour and just visit on our own. Especially since the tour didn’t add much substance to the sites we visited. Kronborg, aka “Hamlet’s castle,” was a real treat, though, and our time in Sweden was brief, but lovely. Post on Sweden will be up next week!

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  18. Sorry to hear you had a rubbish experience with the tour operator; like you, I’d be really disappointed to have paid so much money and received such a poor service. It sounds like you made the right call to ditch it and explore Lund yourselves (look forward to reading about that in due course!). Kronborg Castle looks much more pared back than some of its European counterparts, but worth seeing nonetheless.

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    1. The tour was a bust, but we managed to redeem the day by leaving and visiting Lund on our own. It turned out okay in the end! Kronborg was a lovely castle– not as extravagant as others in Europe, but still worth a look inside. My post on Lund is coming soon, and it’ll be the last of my European summer series from last year!

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