Just considerring the idea of getting the ferry to Esbjerg from Harwich and driving over the BRIDGE to Sweden.

Can anyone reccomend it as a summer holiday.

We would be driving & camping, taking my bike(s) for about 2 weeks.

Been many times as we have friends in Malmo and my wife lived and worked there when she was younger. Great holiday location in my opinion. We tend to go around August and base ourselves in Malmo. We’ve also camped further South West along the coast near Ystad which has fantastic deserted beaches.

Our friends have a summer home further North near Bastad. We may just have been lucky but every time we go we have fantastic weather. Not overly hot but more like a perfect British Summer day.

I really fancied moving there a few years back.

Edit: just seen that below. We’ve always flown but would also be interested to hear updates re the ferry as we’d probably drive next time.

Edit Edit: Yep. Closed. 😐
http://www.dfdsseaways.co.uk/ferry-routes/harwich-esbjerg-route-closure/

Check your dates – we went Harwich > Esbjerg last August and I think they closed that route in September as it wasn’t profitable.

I think the nearest you can get to Scandinavia now is Hull > Amsterdam.

Let me know if I’m wrong – it’s scuppering our summer hol plans for this year!

edit: here – http://www.dfdsseaways.co.uk/ferry-routes/harwich-esbjerg-route-closure/

We went in May, last year, driving up through Germany and then Denmark (we were living in the South of the Netherlands at the time) and then across the bridges into Sweden. We spent three nights in Denmark, one at Legoland and then two in Copenhagen, before a week in the south of Sweden. The weather was beautiful (we may have been lucky!) and I even got sunburnt, while we were at Legoland!
The drive was fantastic, although there really isn’t a lot on the mainland of Denmark. The bridges were quite an experience, although quite pricey. Sweden itself, I absolutely love. Malmo and Lund are really nice cities and some of the smaller places we went to, like Ystad, are very nice too. The countryside inbetween was stunning too and would have loved to have had my bike with me.
I’d definitely recommend it as a holiday destination and I definitely plan to go back, sooner rather than later.

Yes, I can recommend it. I was massively surprised by how good it was.

We did almost exactly what BeardedDave did – couple of days at Legoland, on to Copenhagen then across and up to Angelholm.

Beaches were stunning, sea was warm, clear and calm.

In southern Sweden I recommend going to Søderåsen which is a national park around a deep wooded valley with camping grounds and a couple of nice youth hostels in the area.

Cheers guys.

Regarding ferries I was looking at http://www.reginaline.dk

We drove to Sweden last summer to ride the Vätternrundan. We did the journey in one go via Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark. Ferry and bridge on the way out, two bridges on the way back as I got hacked off waiting around for the ferry in Germany. We stayed in Vadstena which is in the Swedish lakes. It seemed like a really lovely area and we’d like to go back.

Vadstena Camping was the place.

We took the Harwich – Esjberg ferry to Denmark and onto Sweden at (Gothenburg) last year for 3 weeks in the camper van. We loved it.

We came back via Ystad (Wallender), The Bridge, and Copenhagen (Borgen / The Killing) and drove back via N Europe.

Had not heard the ferry had stopped, we said when we went again we would go both ways despite the cost. Much nicer way to go.

If you camp and cook looking after yourself it is not to expensive either. Waitrose prices rather than Tesco!

Harwich to Hook of Holland torture s working?

Did a similar journey last June. (With 2 under 4s)Though we got ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam. The Dam to Hamburg, Hamburg to CPH, the bridges to Sweden. Stayed in a lovely wee beach house in a place on West coast called Asa. Idyllic weather and perfect family holiday venue. Then got ferry from Rotterdam to northern tip of Dennark and drove to Aarhus(Denmark’s second city) from there it was to Bremen for a glorious few days, then a eco house on campsite near Groningen in northern Netherlands before returning to Ansterdam and the ferry back. Ev

Bear in mind we had two Young ones to deal with so journey legs were short to cut down on tantrums etc. We pretty much arranged all our accommodation through Air BnB which I’d seen discussed on here. Everywhere we stayed were cycling friendly(by chance really except Copenhagen)

Highly recommend this part of the world for a summer holiday!

Seriously thinking of coming back here for a summer hol. Looks beautiful of course, as forest, hills and coast generally do.. will look even better in the summer 🙂

We’ve done various car and camping holidays in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

We’d be going this year but ferry routes keep vanishing. There are serious-ish business plans and a pressure group to restart the Norway ferry in 2016 and still talk of Denmark ferry running 2015 (but wouldn’t pin hopes on either of them).

There is a (mostly) cargo ferry that takes passengers (Immingham-Gothenburg I think).

Denmark is really nice but a bit flat – kind of like a clean and uncrowded version of UK. Very safe – saw lots of unlocked bikes in town centres. Some OK ish mtb around Silkeborg and the north coast is nice.

Found southern Sweden a bit flat – preferred it once you go north from Gothenburg. Singletrack mtb trails needs passage of wheels so with a small population it will be most common in the countryside near to big towns and cities. Out in the sticks it was mostly gravel roads unless you get lucky or some local advice. Happymtb is the swedish singletrack forum equivalent.

The last trip was a nice circular route Harwich-Esbjerg-Friedrikshavn(fast cat ferry to Sweden)-Gothenburg-Oslo-Bergen-(overnight ferry back to Denmark)-Esbjerg-Harwich.

Denmark felt really cheap after Norway! Sweden somewhere in between.

I just want to mention how awesome SATW is, in passing 🙂

Actually, it’s probably quite useful. You’ll learn a lot about the culture of the Scandiwegian nations.

Hi , as a resident of Sweden I can highly recommend summer. It is utterly beautiful and the last two summers have been fantastic. Everyone really embraces it due to the cold long winters and really makes the most of it, barbecuing all the time and so on. The beaches in the south are wonderful clean and the water does get warm eventually. Plus you have the literally thousands of lakes so you can find one to yourself and have it to yourself the whole day. It’s all very unspoilt with no Harry Ramsdens , nestle litter bins , life guards etc, just natural beauty.

One thing though, July is like August is to Spain , everyone is on holiday and places are busier. I.e you might actually see someone else at your personal lake. (Some of the major campsites get very busy)

I’m on the west coast which I think is the best in summer, but we have also made trips to Gotland (medieval island with white beaches) and Öland , both of which are amazing

I can whole-heartedly recommend Sweden as a destination for a two week bike trip. I did the same last summer; http://singletrackworld.com/2014/09/swedish-adventure.

We were mid-Sweden though, so a fair drive up from Malmö. We did a mix of natural trail riding in the wilds through to techie bike park action. Åre Bike Park is well worth spending a couple of days at.

I have friends in Gothenburg, and they say there’s some lovely natural riding there. My boyfriend’s pal runs Vallåsen Bike Park, which is an hour and bit north of Malmö – and whilst small, is supposed to be lots of fun too.

http://happymtb.org is the central point for all things mountain bike in Sweden. Google Translate should help!!

Stockholm is worth a visit and that frome someone who hates cities. Kayak trip for a few days wildcamping on the stockholm archipelago was great.

Hey. Good timing. We have done 2 summer holidays cycle touring around Denmark and camping. With 4 and 2 year olds and then 5 and 3 year olds (the same ones, just a year later!) . We have always driven there over 2 days from the Alps.

This year we are toying with Sweeden and heading there by train. Has anyone any ideas about cycle touring with children in Sweeded? They will be 7 and 5 this year!

Did I read right that someone was saying they found Copenhagen uncycel friendly. Really? We had greta fun there for 3 days just riding around: we never wanted to stop!

I have friends in Gothenburg, and they say there’s some lovely natural riding there. My boyfriend’s pal runs Vallåsen Bike Park, which is an hour and bit north of Malmö – and whilst small, is supposed to be lots of fun too.

That’s cool I’ve heard really good things but never been. It’s about 2 hours from me so I need to go. hafjell where the has the worlds is about 5 hours away , so that sounds like a nice little trip .

Had a surreal experience once when I lived there. Got invited to a summer house in the forest by friends of my girlfriend. Turned out they enjoyed being naked during the warm summer months 😯 an interesting weekend that was.

Gothenburg has fantastic riding, drop me a PM if you’re over and I can point you in the right direction.

Can also highly recommend Båstad in summer, (not tennis week though unless that’s your thing) for a south of Sweden destination.

I moved to Southern Sweden (Skåne) in 2006 and since lived in a small seaside town called Ängelholm, quite popular as a summer destination with its long golden sand beaches.

Lots have already said some good points; Hallandåsen, Söderåsen, Kullaberg, south of Lund have some amazing riding spots of pure natural trails.

Vallåsen DH was started by me and the previous owners back in the day. But it was sold a couple of years ago and the new owners were not so interested in the DH summer. Shame as we’d built a great resort for the summer and I’d even had the Swedish Cup DH race there. I even got offered the job to run Vallåsen DH, but turned it down as my day job pays too well and give plenty of time off to ride my bike. If you look on YouTube there’s some video footage and in the past I used to do some promo work as well, along with the comps etc, there some photos and stuff here from back in 2010: Vallåsen 2010

Happy fun times 8)

I hear now though there is a renewed interest in the DH summer scene, probably as the winters have been rubbish just late so in these winters’ cash is hard to come by. At least with the summer DH they can keep staff on and run the lift to a degree. So I think they are even considering to open the 4 seater lift up again this year, which would be great to open the whole area back up again. They have a new home page will give more info: Vallåsen BP

Some really fantastic riding in Skåne, but you will need local guidance to really find it. Posting on HappyMTB will get you this, as long as you are friendly. If you are ever near Ängelholm then drop me a line and I’ll show you the fastest single track in Skåne in the forests behind Ängelholm’s train station towards the sea.

Sweden make a great holiday destination, simple clean, quiet, natural; but don’t come here looking to be entertained, that you have to do yourself.

Since I arrived in Sweden I have never been anywhere else for a summer holiday; there’s no need as everything is perfect right here (apart from if it’s a wet summer then that sucks a bit).

Everywhere we stayed were cycling friendly(by chance really except Copenhagen)

Not sure what this means – that they people you stayed with didn’t like cyclists? Hard to think of a more cycle-friendly city than CPH !!

We flew into Stockholm and rented a car and stayed in a couple of “cottages” on the coast. I was about to click on renting a tent on A brittany campsite and Ferry deal. But at the last moment we bottled it and s thought surely the same money will buy something more exciting IMHO it did

We went to the the Stockholm Archipelago which is a great Tourist destination. Loads of day trips by boat. Stockholm itself was good as well

We took the kids to SSWC in Stockholm – trailering them around the city centre was a doddle – far safer than any town I could think of in the UK. The race itself was on fab techy rocky outcrop forest trails within easy riding distance of the centre.

Denmark was even more friendly – went to a power station museum out in the sticks somewhere and the local school was also visiting, with the entire class using bikes as transport for their school trip – all happily abandoned outside without a lock in sight.

Not been since 2010 and desperately want to go back.

Bream, I’ve been to Angelholm! We loved it around there ourselves. I seem to remember an enormous wooden structure that some artist had built out of driftwood not far away from there which stretched out into the sea in the middle of nowhere.

I can’t for the life in me remember what it was called but it became an unofficial tourist attraction and people used to climb all over it. I can’t imagine anything like that being allowed to stay over here.

Edit: found it by googling the words enormous wooden structure near Angelholm 🙂

Nimis

Well I have been over twice ( to see Bream ) and ride with him and as he says its a great place to be as long as you don’t want beer and night life