V.I.P.Limousine Service
Copenhagen, Denmark
The discriminating (and rather wealthy ?) Copenhagen tourist could use a limousine for:
- the transfer from the airport or cruise vessel to the hotel
- going on a 2 or 3 hour sightseeing tour through Copenhagen with a (well informed) driver/guide
- going on a 5 or 7 hour   North Zealand tour with a (well informed) driver/guide
- the transfer from the hotel to the cruise vessel or airport. 
Most tourists, who arrive  in Copenhagen by cruise vessel or by plane from the U.S., arrive early in the morning.
They have a problem: 
They cannot get into the hotels until 1 or 2 PM when the "old" guests of the hotels have checked out and the rooms have been cleaned up.
For that reason this is a very good time to get an introduction to Copenhagen by going on a 2 or 3 hour city tour by limousine.

THE LITTLE MERMAID. 

ROSENBORG CASTLE. 

CHRISTIANIA.
 
A  2 or 3 HOUR CITY TOUR.
The chauffeur will take you through the central and oldest  part of Copenhagen with many 17th and 18th century houses, the "Rundetårn" ( in English: Round Tower) and the pretty Rosenborg
Castle (**)(***) built four hundred years ago.
The oldest buildings in the medieval part of town date back to 1500.
Until approx. 1600 Copenhagen was so small that you could walk from one end of the old town to the other in 15 minutes. If you have the time to do it, you should definitely go back later and take a walk through the old part of town in order to see more details and  to "get the feel" of Copenhagen.
You will cross the "Castle Island" with the Christiansborg Castle (**)(***) and the old "Bourse" built four hundred years ago - the famous Tivoli Gardens  - and the New Carlsberg Glyptotek,  (**) the top art museum in Denmark. You will visit the part of town called "Amaliestaden" where Amalienborg Castle,    (**)    the royal winter residence, is located, and where the "landed gentry" built Copenhagen residences in the 18th century.
Next to Amaliestaden is Nyhavn, the old waterfront section of town next to a canal filled with old wooden freighters (sailing vessels) and many sailors' inns which have now become nice bars and restaurants.
You will visit Langelinie with the statue of the Little Mermaid.
The chauffeur will also take you to Christianshavn - perhaps on a short walk through "Christiania" - a rather large hippie area where hash is sold openly.
Perhaps you will visit a Garden colony (Get Internetpictures by clicking on the Danish text on the left) located just outside the 1600/1860 city limits. Around Copenhagen there are more than 10.000 such "Garden colony" gardens with small houses. The Garden Colonies are a unique and very special Copenhagen feature.
You will also be driven through the northern suburbs and, if time permits,  probably see the enormous Grundtvigs Church which is very much "Danish Design".
You will find that 3 hours go very fast.

 

THE OPEN LAND MUSEUM 

THE OPEN LAND MUSEUM 

FREDERIKSBORG CASTLE 
FREDENSBORG

PARK AT  FREDENSBORG
 

KRONBORG CASTLE
COASTAL  VILLAGE 
(HUMLEBAEK)
 
VIEW FROM LOUISIANA

THE HUNTING  CASTLE
5 OR 7 HOUR TOUR TO NORTH ZEALAND.
Several bus companies offer tours to North Zealand. These tours are not bad at all, if you are interested in seeing castles. They take you up the coast to Elsinore and Kronborg ("Hamlets Castle") - you pass Fredensborg with the Fredensborg Castle and you go to Hillerød where you get a tour of the Frederiksborg Castle (The Danish National Historical Museum). The difference between the  long and short North Zealand bus tours is that on the long ones you stop for lunch.

The routes and time schedules for the North Zealand bus tours were established 50 years ago, when most American tourists had never seen the inside of a castle before. However, very few Danes lived in castles and compared with English, Scottish and French castles the Danish castles are not that fantastic. 
Unfortunately most limousine chauffeurs who do a North Zealand tour simply follow in the tracks of the busses. But: by using a limousine you avoid going by bus and you have a little more time at the different castles. 

The chauffeurs of V.I.P. Limousine Service try to do more than just "follow the busses".
If the weather permits, the tour can, for example, start by going via Lyngby and the old Lyngby Village to my favorite museum: Frilandsmuseet - The Open Land Museum.  Lyngby is located only 8 miles north of Copenhagen but going down Hovedgaden ("Main  Street")  you get an idea of what a typical Danish provincial town looks like.
The church in Lyngby is typical for the more than 1100 churches built in Denmark between 1100 and 1200: they were built on hills where the vikings had been praying to the old Nordic goods Odin and Thor - so that further prayers to those old gods were not possible.
The Lyngby Village is unique. In Lyngby the new town was built next to the old village instead of on top of it - so the old village is intact with many typical half-timbered houses and houses with thatched roofs.
Frilandsmuseet (Open Land  Museum)  was founded more than 100 years ago as a division of the National Museum.
Old, typical  farmhouses from all parts of Denmark have, over the years,  been  moved to the Museum where they have been painstakingly reconstructed. What makes the museum unique is that the farmhouses are fully furnished the way they were more than 100 years ago, so it is possible to get a very good idea of  what life was like for the more than 90% of the population living on farms at the time. For many that life was pretty rough!!
(You can now click here, get a clickable map of the museum - and see many of the houses.)
After spending an hour seeing a selection of typical houses at the Open Land Museum, the tour will probably go north, round the beautiful Sjælsø (Sjael-Lake) and through the forest to Hillerød and Frederiksborg Castle. The chauffeur will take you through the Castle which houses the National Historical Museum, and point out some of the many interesting items of the Museum. (Here you can click and take a video tour through the castle.)
Then on to the Fredensborg Castle which is the Royal Residence for more than 7 months of the year. It is a very old tradition, that during the month of July it is possible to go on a guided tour through the private rooms of the castle and you can visit the private garden. Many tourists want to do that - getting to see how the Royal family lives is for most people more interesting than seeing just another museum-
castle. If the visit is not made during the month of July you might still want to take a stroll in the baroque park.
From Fredensborg we use the nice, narrow country road round the Esrom Lake to Tikoeb and via Gurre to Helsingoer (= Elsinore) with the Kronborg Castle(**).  Walking up to the Castle is a must if the weather is nice. There is a very nice view across the Oeresund to Sweden. But  the rooms of the Castle are very sparsely furnished - and really not that interesting. The Danish Maritime Museum is located in a part of the castle. That museum is interesting - it illustrates not only the history of the Danish merchant navy, but also Denmark's rather non - glorious role as a colonial power in India, Africa and  the Virgin Islands - but there is really no time to see that Museum on an ordinary  North Zealand tour.
After Kronborg we then drive back to Copenhagen using the coastal road, passing on the way the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art   (**) (probably the best museum of modern art in Denmark) and, in Rungsted, we pass the museum for the writer Karen Blixen (Pen name: Isak Dinesen), famous outside Denmark as the author of "Seven Gothic Tales" and "Out of Africa." 
We also pass The Deer Park with the small Eremitage Castle,
Taarbaek and Klampenborg with the Bellevue Beach, the main beach of Copenhagen.

In 5 hours it is possible to see Lyngby - The Open Land Museum - Frederiksborg Castle - take a walk in the garden at Fredensborg and taking a walk at Kronborg - but no lunch.
In 7 hours it is possible to stop for lunch and spend a little more time at some of the sights - or skip the lunch, grab a burger or a sandwich  and spend more time at the sights.

Return to the top of this page.      Return to the front page.

(You may try to click the company logo and the pictures.)

Web master:    Peter Horsten.

Updated: July 2004.