Helsingor

Helsingor is Elsinore, and Kronborg Castle is where Shakespeare set Hamlet. Whether or not the Bard ever visited is debatable — the castle’s power is not. It commands the narrowest point of the Oresund, the strait between Denmark and Sweden, and for centuries every ship passing through paid a toll. The castle is Renaissance grandeur on a strategic scale, its casements, ballroom, and the dark cellars where the statue of Holger Danske — Denmark’s mythical defender — sits waiting to rise when the nation needs him.

The town around the castle is worth its own time. The medieval quarter has colourful houses, excellent restaurants, and the Danish Maritime Museum, designed by BIG architects inside a dry dock next to Kronborg. The ferry to Helsingborg in Sweden takes twenty minutes and costs almost nothing. Stand on the ramparts and the Swedish coast is so close you can see individual buildings.

When to go: May through September for Shakespeare performances at Kronborg in summer. June through August for the best weather. The castle and maritime museum are open year-round. A day trip from Copenhagen by train takes forty-five minutes.