Traveling to Bornholm in June

Hi,

There are many ways of getting to Bornholm!

But first of all, Allinge-Sandvig on the northern coast of the island is home to the annual democracy festival Folkemødet, which this year is held 11 - 13 June. This completely transforms most (if not all of) Bornholm for those days, and probably a few days before and after. Best to avoid these dates, unless Folkemødet is your destination.

You can fly to Bornholm with Danish Air Transport (DAT) from Copenhagen, or take the slow ferry from Køge. But the most common route is using the fast ferry from Ystad. For this route, you can:

• Go with a combined train+ferry ticket, which you can buy on dsb.dk. For your destination, you can e.g. write Rønne Havn (Færge), meaning Rønne Harbor (Ferry). It does involve a train transfer at Malmö Hyllie Station. I’ve done it a few times, and it’s always been an easy transfer.
• Travel by coach bus, which is done on kombardoexpressen.com. They also include the ferry ride, and sometimes the bus goes on the ferry, but not every time. I only took Kombardo Expressen to Bornholm once, as the legroom was so limited my knees did not fit. Maybe I was just unlucky to be on a bad bus - who knows?

Regardless of which you choose, make sure to pre-book, as tickets can and do sell out. Bornholm is a popular holiday destination (for a good reason). And they sell out quite early just before, during and just after Folkemødet - so does accommodation.

There are buses on Bornholm, but it is a rural island so frequencies can be limited. Consult bat.dk and journeyplanner.dk. A car is advisable to most, but with some planning you can get around without one. Taxis are relatively expensive in Denmark, so using them should be for special occasions or one off trips where needed, not regular everyday transportation.

A small rental car makes sense to explore Bornholm.

Hammershus Castle and Christiansø are remarkable attractions on Bornholm.

I recommend a view into the local events of Bornholm. The Folkemødet in June is a very special event from and for the locals. Decent behaving guests are welcome.

Thank you the comments and information. Sadly, we will miss the Folkemodet but it sounds like a terrific festival. And we mostly behave decently. Somehow, when booking my train tickets, I accidentally booked a non-refundable bus ticket from Copenhagen to Malmo. Will that be extremely inconvenient to get to the train station in Malmo to get on the train to Ystad? Thanks in advance.

One more question - are there rental cars available at the ferry terminal or do we need to take a taxi to the airport rental center?

Two rental car companies near ferry terminal by short walk (Avis, Europcar).

That is an unusual routing for going to Bornholm. Where did you buy that ticket?

I'm not sure which bus you've booked, thus I don't know where it will drop you off. If the transfer is at Malmö Central Station it will be easy enough though, as all trains to Ystad stops at Malmö C as well.

I bought the tix on the Omio app and may have mistaken the bus icon for the train icon. LOL. It does appear that the bus drops off at the Central Station so no problem there.. I think I'm better off booking tix with DSB in the future, yes? Thanks again for the advice. This horrified and embarrassed American appreciates it.

Hmm… When I look on Omio, they don’t seem to sell tickets to Bornholm. Presumably you’re buying the ferry ticket separately then?

Omio is a 3rd party ticket seller, and it is usually best to cut out the middle man when you reasonably can. At least in Denmark, Omio is never cheaper than DSB on train tickets in Denmark. If you end up buying a separate ferry ticket, you have probably also overpaid a bit for the transport to Bornholm. But don’t let that discourage you - Bornholm is worth a visit either way.

Omio is a renowned and reliable travel search and ticket provider from a team in Berlin, Germany.

Their search across all means of transport is very comfortable for travelers which are not familiar with national or even regional providers.

A big advantage is that travelers only need to register once and not at every provider separately.

Sometimes they can offer better conditions on selected travel requests by using unusual search algorithms which find for example the same train connection for a cheaper price.

So, while it looks better for a single booking to use the original provider, it is often easier to manage a lot of bookings by just one provider, e. g. Omio. And this without paying more for the journeys.

Indeed Omio is legitimate and I have also heard it works well in many other countries. But for whatever reason, it does not work that well in Denmark. Limitations include offering only the most expensive type of train tickets (consistently at a small extra charge) and some transportation companies, such as the significant long distance bus company Kombardoexpresssen, not being featured on Omio at all.

Combo-tickets for Copenhagen-Bornholm should be bought in advance as said.

But for Copenhagen-Ystad train tickets are sold in unlimited numbers at a fixed price, so need to buy well in advance. I think you bought tickets the day before the train tickets were released and ended up with a bus ticket instead (or bus+train?). At least you will getter a better view of the bridge from the bus.

As far as I can tell, the combo tickets are not offered on Omio either, but they're bookable on DSB's website, continuously released 2 months ahead like all other domestic train tickets in Denmark.

There are usually always ferry tickets available for gangway passengers, but I have experienced even these being sold out in the peak season if you try to book last minute - though it’s not something you see every day. So while one can always get a train ticket to Ystad, it's not a bad idea to book the ferry ticket a little bit ahead.

Thank you all for the good information. It is appreciated. I understand the Omio - DSB connection pros and cons now. I did book ferry tickets separately and it was quite affordable. We're very much looking forward to our trip. One more question - When we leave Bornholm we have a 5 days until we have a stay in Skagen. Any suggestions about places we shouldn't miss?

Yes, you ended up with a lot of into on that.

There’s a lot of options of where to stop en route to Skagen. It’s hard to point out one or two “must do’s”, but here’s a few options that come to mind:

If you have appetite for more cities:

• Aarhus a personal favorite of mine. It’s a nice city with a good mix of culture, history, etc. And it has some great museums/attractions.
• Odense is also a good option, especially if you’re interested in the fairytale author H. C. Andersen. Odense is not that big though, so don’t spend more than a few days here.

Both Odense and Aarhus are right on the way to Skagen, and really easy to reach by public transport. You can also do day trips from both.

If you want to stay in the countryside and nature:

• Møns Klint with the tall chalk cliffs. But realistically, you’ll need a car.
• A small detour, but the western coast of Jutland can also be nice - including the Wadden Sea. The small, old town Ribe is worth a visit if you do this. Ribe is easy to reach by train, but having picking up a car to explore the area is the way to go.

You can also go via Sweden. Stena Line has a ferry service from Gothenburg to Frederikshavn, which will take you back to Denmark and just a short train ride from Skagen. There’s train service all the way, but gangway passengers are not allowed all ferry departures.