Sample Itinerary
Day 1 - Depart for Copenhagen
Day 2, Sunday the 17th of July (D) Arrive in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and check-in to your hotel. In the evening, you’ll enjoy the first dinner of your trip at a restaurant where great Nordic ingredients and seasonal greens set the agenda. This restaurant strives to be as sustainable as possible, to minimize food waste and several times taking place in the rankings of the Michelin Guide 2021. Overnight in the hotel. Day 3, Monday the 18th of July (B,L,D) After breakfast, your local tour guide will meet you in the hotel lobby and take you on a tour of beautiful Copenhagen. The guide will give you a great introduction to the must-see highlights of Copenhagen, and during the tour you will stop for a coffee break with danish pastry at a café – a must – when in Denmark. The tour will end at Torvehallerne, Copenhagen’s popular marketplace designed by architect Hans Hagens and opened in 2011. Here you will find Danish delicacies, local vegetables, fresh fish and foreign specialities. It is a food market for the original, the new, the well thought-out and the slow-cooked – an open marketplace focusing on variety, diversity, taste, and quality. At lunch, you’ll get acquainted with Danish smørrebrød (open sandwiches). Perhaps the most famous of the Danish food classics – an important part of Danish food culture and a distinctly Danish way of eating. At a restaurant in the center of Copenhagen, where it is all about homemade food and coziness, you will experience these edible wonders. Curious about seeing what it’s like to be a chef in a Michelin-starred kitchen? This afternoon and evening you’re going to find out, as you get the chance to participate in the work of Michelin chefs, conjuring up your own gourmet dinner in a kitchen based on four elements: nature – simplicity – flavor – Denmark. During the evening, the kitchen staff will show you how craftsmanship, quality ingredients, and sound logistics combine to deliver a sublime experience for their guests every night. And there will, of course, be time for a good glass of wine as you go along. You will create several courses, which you get to enjoy later on with a matching wine menu. Overnight at the hotel. Day 4, Tuesday the 19th of July (B,L,D) Enjoy an early breakfast and get ready to check out of your hotel as the tour continues towards the island of Funen. On the way, you’ll visit a seaweed company and Michelin supplier to some of the best restaurants in the world. Seaweed from Denmark is popular because of the taste and the clean sea, and it’s probably the most sustainable food that exists – it lives off the sun and nutrients from the water. You’ll be introduced to the company, and you’ll hear how it contributes to the UN Global Goals. You’ll experience a unique seaweed safari, learn how to identify, and forage for delicious seaweed by hand like our ancestors would have done, and the health properties and future prospects for seaweed will be explained, illustrated and taught. As the cherry on top, you’ll enjoy a nice lunch, which of course contains seaweed, and you will get the chance to taste beer made with seaweed. After an enlightening and tasteful seaweed adventure, it’s time to set the direction towards the Great Belt Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Europe, connecting the island of Zealand with the island of Funen. Funen is the birthplace of the world-renowned fairy tale writer and multi-artist Hans Christian Andersen. But it’s also called “the Danish pantry” and is renowned for its stunning Archipelago and scenery. Before arriving in Odense, the capital of Funen, you’ll make a detour to a small ship burial site from the Viking age. After an exciting insight into the Viking age, you’ll reach Odense and check-in at your hotel. Dinner tonight is at a local restaurant, in walking distance from your hotel, focusing on flavor and wonderful Funen produce. The kitchen is somewhere between modern and classic, and you can hear the culinary heartbeat of Funen. Overnight at the hotel. Day 5, Wednesday the 20th of July (B,L,D) After breakfast at the hotel you will be meeting your culinary host for today. His name is Mikkel - a cookbook author, sommelier, freelance writer at the acclaimed Danish food magazine GASTRO, twice Oyster Chef of The Year award winner, and once made an 11 km solo gastronomical bike odyssey from Denmark to Antarctica. Mikkel is a true foodie who has made his passion his way of life. Together with Mikkel, you’ll visit the little bi-weekly fresh produce market a stone's throw from your hotel with everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to fresh fish and freshly smoked cheese. Here you will gather the ingredients for today’s lunch which you will prepare later together with Mikkel in a private home in the countryside of Funen. After a delightful lunch, it’s time to get acquainted with Danish wine. Despite its northerly location, Denmark has been fostering a developing wine industry since the late 20th century. Together with Mikkel, you’ll visit Jacob and Helle at their small family vineyard in a small village on the eastern side of Funen, beautifully surrounded by undulating green fields. Jacob and Helle make white and sparkling wines in accordance with modern, organic principles, and their wine has among many acclaimed restaurants latest made it to the wine list at the Michelin-restaurant Atelier Robuchon in Paris. Alongside wine, they have a great passion for caviar. Jacob started selling caviar 25 years ago, and today they select their own caviar. The sturgeon are farmed in big, natural lakes in Schleswig-Holstein, which used to be part of Denmark, but today is part of Germany. Dinner tonight is in a garage in the true sense of the word, as the restaurant is in an industrial area of Odense in a former car repair shop. A small restaurant whose owner and chef has a past at well-known restaurants like Geranium and Pluto in Copenhagen and abroad. It is a restaurant with a dogma-free kitchen focusing on pure taste. Overnight at the hotel. Day 6, Thursday the 21st of July (B,D) After breakfast at the hotel, you will experience the southern part of Funen and the archipelago, which comprises more than 60 islands and islets and is one of the most scenic regions of Denmark. In the charming city port Svendborg – Capital of the Archipelago - with its hilly cobblestone streets, small alleys, and quaint old townhouses and the first city in Denmark to become part of the international network of Cittaslow cities, the owners of a specialty store, selling different types of kitchen equipment, are waiting for you in their fascinating store, where you will learn how to make flødeboller. Danes have a sweet tooth and, beyond their world-famous Danish pastry, they just love flødeboller (kind of chocolate-coated marshmallows) – especially the gourmet varieties, which are hugely popular. Danes love them so much that they like to believe they’re of Danish origin. But their history is controversial, and they are hardly a pure Danish invention. Supposedly a man named Elikofer imported the recipe from America back in 1912! Lunch at leisure in Svendborg. In the early afternoon you will go on a stunning ferry trip from Svendborg to the island Skarø, known for its scenic nature, it’s very active population of about 30 people and last but not least its organic ice cream in a class of its own. Arriving at the small island harbor you will be welcomed by Martin, the owner of Skarø ice cream. Martin will accompany you from the harbor to his and his wife’s charming ice cream shop and factory, where he will tell the story behind the ice cream. For more than a decade, ice cream from Skarø has been at the forefront when it comes to the taste and content of gourmet ice cream. Through its unique understanding of nature’s ingredients – found in seaweed and birch trees, for example – Martin and his wife have been able to create a taste experience unique to ice cream from Skarø. After, you will enjoy a light dinner of local specialties served with homemade accompaniment before heading back to Funen. Overnight at the hotel. Day 7, Friday the 22nd of July (B,D) After breakfast at the hotel, a local tour guide will meet you in the hotel lobby and take you on a walking tour of Odense - the hometown of fairy tale writer and multi-artist Hans Christian Andersen. You will hear the many fascinating stories of the writer's early life in Odense while walking through the old parts of the city and narrow cobblestone streets. Along the tour, you’ll stop for coffee and brunsviger cake – a Funen specialty being considered a kind of “national dish” of the people of the island. In the afternoon, you’ll return to Copenhagen. We’ll enjoy a 1-hour audio-guided public canal tour and have a delicious late dinner at a restaurant characterized by its great love for Danish cuisine and Danish food culture located inside TIVOLI Gardens amusement park, a spot full of wonder and a national treasure. Fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen visited the gardens many times and so did Walt Disney, who even found the inspiration for his own Disney World here. Overnight at the hotel. Day 8, Saturday the 23rd of July (B,L,D) Breakfast at the hotel. Today, in an old apartment with a lot of Nordic charm, just a few blocks from iconic Nyhavn, you are going to join a fully hands-on cookery class where you will prepare the Danish national dish - crispy pork with parsley sauce - for lunch. A fun experience and a perfect way to delve into the Danish food culture. Afternoon free. Tonight, you’ll enjoy our farewell dinner at a restaurant located in a rustic and cozy two-story apartment in one of Copenhagen’s oldest and most picturesque streets from the 16th century. A restaurant which has been a Michelin Bib Gourmand nominee several times. A delicious gem of a restaurant where you’ll delve into Nordic gastronomy, with a menu based on seasonal ingredients from small local producers and mainly organic produce. The kitchen exhibits great curiosity for new, interesting tastes and textures, and the wine menu offers a mix of organic, natural and conventional wines. With a wealth of sensory experiences to savor, you’ll make your way back to the hotel leaning back in a hooded rickshaw, and with blankets for your legs, while enjoying the last evening images of the city for now. Overnight at the hotel. Day 9, Sunday the 24th of July (B) After breakfast, it’s time to say goodbye and make your way home. |
Over the past three decades, Danish food culture has rediscovered its roots, and traditional Danish food, based on what was historically available or farmed, has been re-invented as New Nordic Cuisine. Denmark has developed into a treasure map of authentic and mouth-watering temptations and is today holder of the No. 1 & 2 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2021.
Everyone is talking about the Nordic way of cooking, and Denmark is at the forefront of the movement. A small but nonetheless savory country edging into the gastronomic limelight of genuine culinary destinations worth visiting. Discover the Copenhagen food scene with its great food experiences around every corner. From classic fine dining to New Nordic Cuisine, wine, beer, and from local cider to street food from all over the world, great coffee, and all sorts of artisanal pastry and bread. Spice it up with a trip to the fairy-tale island of Funen and the South Funen Archipelago, where you’ll meet the islanders who proudly and passionately embrace their culinary heritage and local produce. 
© Robin Skjoldborg
© World Mappers
© Robin Skjoldborg
© Kim Wyon
© Kim Wyon
© Niclas Jessen
© Daniel Villadsen
© VisitOdense
© Robin Skjoldborg
© Kim Wyon
© Claes Bech-Poulsen
© Michael Fiukowski & Sarah Moritz
© Jacob Lisbygd
© Michael Fiukowski & Sarah Moritz
© Kim Wyon
© Kim Wyon
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Joan Peterson, co-leader - Joan Peterson received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology/Electron Microscopy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1993 she began a second career. She started a publishing company, Ginkgo Press, and created the EAT SMART series of guidebooks designed for travelers and cookbook lovers. There are 14 culinary guidebooks available covering the foods of Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Morocco, Sicily, India, Peru, Norway, France, Germany, Denmark and Portugal. Joan has written or co-written 11 of them. She has traveled extensively for many years, and leads culinary tours to Turkey, Croatia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Portugal, and Sicily.
Susan Chwae, co-leader - Joan Peterson's business partner and daughter, Susan has a degree in Graphic Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She began her career in the travel industry in 1997 when she joined the family’s publishing company. Since the inception of the company’s tour business, Susan has worked intimately with destination management companies and tour operators to create luxury culinary and cultural travel experiences. She has been assisting Joan or leading her own Culinary Tours since 2005.