"To be or not to be" Top 5 Page for this destination Helsingør by mindcrime

Helsingør Travel Guide: 149 reviews and 441 photos

Helsingor is a small port town, located 45km north of Copenhagen at the NE part of Zealand in Denmark. It is easily accessible by train.

A lot of people come for a relaxing day trip from the capital to visit the famous castle (Krongborg Slot) that lies near the port(only 15’ walking from the train station), a castle that became famous because William Shakespeare decided to put to story of Hamlet there (you probably know the place as Elsinore)

It’s worth to spend some extra hours if you like relaxing holidays, the city centre is lined with small cobbled streets, picturesque corners and some interesting churches. Take it easy here, the daily rhythms seem less stressful... If you think that drinking coffee/beer is a boring activity you may try a visit to the Oresund Aquarium(at Strandpromenaden) or the National Museum of Science and Technology(at Fabriksvej 25), we skipped them both.

There’s a tourist information opposite the train station but they wont really have much to tell you. Just take a map to orient yourself, it’s hard to get lost here :) Unfortunately there are no storage lockers in the train station so if you come just for the castle don’t carry much luggage with you. Another alternative is to leave them at Allegade 2, there’s a building (Kulturvaerftet Helsingor) that you offer storage lockers with a deposit but we didn’t use it so I don’t know timetables etc

photo from Gallery at Kronborg Slot

After a long week with serious sightseeing we decided to overnight in Helsingor because we had to recharge our inner batteries :) There are not a lot of things to do in the evenings in Helsingor though, after checking some interesting churches (St Mary and St Olai) we just relaxed in the city centre, most of the local people gather at the main square enjoyed the summer sun, drinking beer and eating ice cream which is a nice thing to do for a tourist too :)

If you want to visit a great museum take the train to Humlebaek, it’s always 10 minutes away from Helsingor and has an excelent Museum of Modern Art.

Don’t forget that you can also take the ferry and visit Sweden from here! Helsingor lies at the narrowest point between the 2 countries (only 4km wide) with its twin town Helsingborg clearly seen at the other side. Helsingor’s name comes from “Hals” (neck) due to the narrow strait (Oresund) between the twin cities of Helsingor and Helsingborg.

There are records that people settled in the area since 70BC but the first official records come from 1231 talking about Helsinger people used to live here (actually in Helsingborg and they may just had the castle at the other side).

At the same period church Sct Olai was built, it was just a village church while in our days is the cathedral of the city. King Eric of Pomerania built Krogen castle which later expanded and became Kronborg

Pros and Cons

Pros:nice castle, beautiful location

Last visit to Helsingør: Jul 2011
Intro Updated Mar 13, 2012
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Reviews (18)

Church of St Mary (Sct. Mariae Kirke) Things to Do (10)

We went there to visit the monastery but finally we realized that it’s the church that really worths a visit. Church... more travel advice

Karmeliter Monastery of Our Lady Things to Do (10)

After checking Sct. Mariae Kirke we visited the Monastery of Our Lady. The monastery is large four winged building and... more travel advice

St. Olai Church (Helsingor Cathedral) Things to Do (10)

St. Olai Church is the Cathedral of Helsingor. It’s located in the city center and we visited after our visit to... more travel advice

Kronborg Slot for free! Things to Do (10)

Kronborg castle (pic 1) was built in 1420 by the Danish King Erik of Pomerania. The fortified castle controlled the... more travel advice

Transportation (3)
See All how to go there
Shopping (1)
Super market KVICKLY

Comments (7)

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Jim_Eliason Jul 27, 2012 at 6:46 PM

Nice page!
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slothtraveller Feb 1, 2012 at 7:02 AM

Looks like an interesting place to visit, K. The castle does look very popular with tourists though.
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Aitana Sep 25, 2011 at 12:24 PM

Thanks for a new nice page and good tips. Your pictures of Helsingor are fantastic.
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oriettaIT Sep 21, 2011 at 7:57 AM

Good job! amazing how different their architecture is to Italy or even Greece
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Kuznetsov_Sergey Sep 17, 2011 at 12:08 AM

Helsingor and its Kronborg Castle are worth a visit I'm shure! I couldn't see the interiors of the castle because of lack of time. Thank you for showing them to me. May be next time...
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iblatt Sep 6, 2011 at 1:10 PM

Interesting to get an idea of what the town is like, not just the famous castle! I also didn't know only 4km separate Danmark from Sweden.
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Tuna_ank Sep 3, 2011 at 2:09 PM

Hej fra Bodrum. Yes, Denmark was really nice place. God nat.