Skagen town
First-timersThe yellow houses, the museum, restaurants and the station. Everything walkable or a short cycle.
Skagen city guide
Things To Do In Skagen
Denmark's northern tip, where two seas meet on a sandbar you can stand on with a foot in each, under a light that drew a whole school of painters here in the 1870s.
2
Seas meeting at Grenen
1870s
The Skagen painters arrived
15m
A year the Råbjerg Mile dune moves
The end of the country
Skagen sits at the very top of Jutland, where the Skagerrak and the Kattegat meet on a curving sandbar. You can walk to the point and stand with one foot in each sea, watching the two swells collide — it is a genuinely strange thing to see, and you cannot swim there because the currents are lethal.
The light at this latitude, reflected off water on three sides, brought a colony of painters here from the 1870s, and the Skagens Museum holds what they produced. The yellow houses with red tiled roofs and white trim are a protected local style.
Inland, Råbjerg Mile is a migrating sand dune of four million cubic metres, moving about fifteen metres a year, and the Tilsandede Kirke is a church tower sticking out of the sand that buried the rest of it.
Two days. It is a summer town and much of it closes otherwise.
Where to stay
A small town between the harbour and the beaches, with the point a few kilometres north.
The harbour
Fish and eveningsEast of the centre: a working fishing port, fish restaurants and the summer evening crowd.
Gammel Skagen
Sunsets and quietOld Skagen on the west coast, four kilometres away, with dunes, the best sunsets and a calmer feel.
Map © MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Things to do
Things to do in Skagen
Walk to Grenen, the sandbar at the very tip, where the Skagerrak and Kattegat meet and the two swells visibly collide in a line of breaking water. It is about a forty-minute walk from the car park along the beach, or a tractor-bus runs in season. Standing with a foot in each sea is the thing everyone comes for — and swimming there is prohibited and genuinely dangerous.
Skagens Museum holds the paintings the artists' colony made here from the 1870s, and Anchers Hus, the home of Michael and Anna Ancher, is preserved as they left it.
Råbjerg Mile is a migrating dune of four million cubic metres, walkable across and shifting about fifteen metres a year.
The Tilsandede Kirke — the Sand-Buried Church — is a tower standing alone in the dunes, the rest of the building lost under sand in the eighteenth century.
Free things
Free things to do in Skagen
Grenen itself is free — only the car park and the tractor-bus charge — and the walk out along the beach is the best hour here.
Råbjerg Mile is free and open, and climbing the dune costs nothing.
The beaches are free, and Sønderstrand near the town is the swimmable one. Gammel Skagen on the west coast has the sunsets.
The harbour is free to wander and the fish auction still runs.
The yellow houses of the old town, and the Skagen lighthouse area, cost nothing.
Food and drink
Eating and drinking in Skagen
Fish, from a harbour that still lands it. Fresh plaice, cod and the local shrimp are the things to order, and a harbour restaurant main is €22 to €35.
The cheap version is better: smoked fish from the harbour smokehouses, eaten outside with bread and a beer, at €10 to €16.
Skagen is also where Skagenröra comes from — a shrimp, dill and mayonnaise mixture served on toast or rye — though the Swedes have claimed it more successfully.
A beer is €6 to €9, and the town has a summer drinking culture centred on the harbour that goes late in July.
Prices rise noticeably in the peak weeks.
Nightlife
Going out in Skagen
Seasonal and concentrated on the harbour, where in July the bars and restaurants run late and the town fills with Danes on holiday — including a substantial well-off Copenhagen crowd.
Gammel Skagen has a more expensive and sedate version of the same thing.
A beer is €6 to €9.
Outside June to August there is very little: a couple of places in town, and early nights.
The appeal here is a long evening outdoors in light that barely goes at midsummer, rather than anything resembling a club.
Getting around
Getting around Skagen
Bikes. The town is flat, everything is within a few kilometres, and rental is €10 to €15 a day — it is how Danes do Skagen.
Trains run from Frederikshavn in 35 minutes on the Skagensbanen line, and Frederikshavn connects to Aarhus in about two hours and Copenhagen in five.
The Sandormen tractor-bus runs out to the point at Grenen in season for about €6 return, which saves the walk both ways.
Buses connect the town, Gammel Skagen and Råbjerg Mile in summer, and much less often outside it.
Ferries from Frederikshavn reach Gothenburg and Oslo, which makes this a plausible route into Norway or Sweden.
Costs
What Skagen costs
A Danish summer resort, which means it is not cheap. Beds are €30 to €60 in July and considerably less either side, a harbour main €22 to €35, and a beer €6 to €9.
A day is €60 to €100 in season.
Skagens Museum is about €17 and the tractor-bus €6. Grenen itself, Råbjerg Mile, the beaches and the sunsets are free, which is most of what the place is.
Denmark uses the krone at around 7.45 to the euro, and cards and MobilePay work everywhere.
Safety
Staying safe in Skagen
Skagen is a very safe town, and there is one serious hazard.
Do not swim at Grenen. Where the two seas meet, the currents and undertow are powerful and unpredictable, swimming is prohibited, and people have drowned there. Wade to the ankles at the tip and swim at Sønderstrand instead.
The North Sea beaches on the west coast have rip currents and no lifeguards outside the main summer weeks.
Råbjerg Mile is exposed with no shade and no water, and it is bigger than it looks from the car park.
Ticks are present in the dune vegetation and grass. Emergency number is 112.
Day trips from Skagen
Dunes, a buried church and a ferry port with boats to two countries.
Tilsandede Kirke
The Sand-Buried Church: a tower alone in the dunes, the rest lost under sand in the eighteenth century.
Hirtshals
A North Sea aquarium with one of Europe's largest tanks, and ferries to Norway and Iceland.
What's on
What is on while you are there
A festival in the harbour and a very short summer.
Late June or early July
Skagen Festival
Harbour and town
A folk and roots music festival in the harbour, running since 1971 and the busiest weekend of the year.
June to August
Summer season
Townwide
When everything is open, the tractor-bus runs and the beaches are staffed.
Spring and autumn
Bird migration
Grenen
The point is a major migration bottleneck, with raptors and seabirds passing in numbers.
23 June
Sankt Hans
Beaches
Midsummer bonfires on the sand, as across Denmark, in almost full daylight.
October to April
Off season
Townwide
Most of the town closes. The light and the storms are the reason to come anyway.
When to go
June to August is the season and July is the peak. Outside it, a lot is shut.
Jan
Cold, windy and closed. The light is remarkable and nothing is open
Feb
Same. Storms off the North Sea
Mar
Still quiet. Birdwatching season starts
Apr
Reopening slowly. Bird migration through Grenen
May
Good. Long days and very few people
Jun
The best month. Light until eleven and the town wakes up
Jul
Peak. Danish holidays, full beds and higher prices
Aug
Warmest sea and still busy
Sep
Quietening and good value. The light is at its best
Oct
Closing down. Storms and empty beaches
Nov
Shut. Wind and dark
Dec
Closed. Very few visitors
Bar height is temperature. Colour is how busy it gets:
quiet
busy
peak
Average highs. This is the windiest corner of Denmark and the season is genuinely short — much of the town operates only from June to August, and September has the best light with a fraction of the people.
What your trip will cost
Pick how you travel. Per person per night, in euros, in season.
July runs well above these figures. May, June and September are considerably cheaper for better light.
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- Beds—
- Food and drink—
- Getting around—
- Doing things—
Skagen travel questions
The ones we get asked most.
Can you really stand in two seas?
Yes. At Grenen, the sandbar at the very tip, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat meet and you can see the two swells colliding in a line of breaking water. Standing with a foot in each is the thing people come for.
Can I swim there?
No, and this matters. Swimming at Grenen is prohibited — the currents and undertow where the two seas meet are powerful and unpredictable, and people have drowned. Wade to the ankles and swim at Sønderstrand near the town instead.
How do I get to the point?
About a forty-minute walk along the beach from the car park, or the Sandormen tractor-bus in season for around €6 return. The walk is the better version if the weather is with you.
Why did painters come here?
The light. Water on three sides at this latitude gives a quality of light that drew an artists' colony from the 1870s — Krøyer, the Anchers and others — and the Skagens Museum holds what they made.
When is the season?
June to August, and it is short. A lot of the town closes outside it. September has the best light with a fraction of the visitors, and July is the busiest and priciest.
What is Råbjerg Mile?
A migrating sand dune of four million cubic metres, twenty minutes away, moving roughly fifteen metres a year. It is free, open and considerably bigger than it looks from the car park — take water, there is no shade.
How do I get here?
Train from Frederikshavn in 35 minutes, and Frederikshavn is two hours from Aarhus and five from Copenhagen. Frederikshavn also has ferries to Gothenburg and Oslo, which makes this a workable route into Sweden or Norway.
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