Things to Do in Aarhus, Denmark: One Day in the World’s 2nd Happiest City

According to the latest World Happiness Index Report, Aarhus is the second happiest city in the world. Only Helsinki is happier, whatever that means. And after spending my last two birthdays in full UK lockdowns (shout out to my late March/early April pals who had to do the same!), I wanted to be somewhere special for my next one in 2022.

No offence to Helsinki, but Aarhus is where my friend Ellen lives, so I couldn’t have chosen a better place. This post details all the things to do in Aarhus that we did on my 29th birthday. And with my wee Danish pal, as Ellen is also known, acting as my local tour guide.

Aarhus isn’t just the world’s second happiest city but it’s also Denmark’s second city. Whereas Copenhagen is practically hanging off Denmark’s eastern edge, Aarhus is in the heart of the country in Jutland. It’s one of the oldest cities in Denmark and, yes, even Vikings lived here back when it was a small market town called Aros.

Today, it’s a lively university city which is compact enough to be walkable (or cyclable, but damn it has some steep hills). But there are many Aarhus attractions, bakeries, museums, and restaurants so there’s no way you’ll get bored. Aarhus is too far away from Copenhagen for a day trip but you should tag on a couple of nights here at the end of your city break if you like to visit less-touristed places.

One Day in Aarhus Itinerary

Things to Do in Aarhus in One Day

Breakfast (First Breakfast): Briançon

I’m always an early bird but especially so when I solo travel. And even though cold windy weather meant I had to bury myself in every layer I’d packed to venture outside, my quest was worth it. And that was the quest for Danish pastries. I’d struggled to research a good bakery for my first birthday treat but at long last found Briançon just across the river from my hostel.

It’s definitely a bakery and not a cafe. In fact, it’s a French-style bakery specialising in pastries, bread and champagne of all things. Other early birds on their morning runs stopped by to pick up loaves of fresh rye bread for their Sunday meals. I bought some kind of chocolatey cinnamony knotted doughy drop of heaven to take back to my hostel to devour. Divine. Though Briançon isn’t a cafe, they did have a couple of tables outside so you could eat there in warmer weather.

Brunch (Second Breakfast): Juliette

A couple of hours and a few chapters of Emma later, I set off to meet my wee Danish pal at Juliette. We met at the hostel I worked at in Edinburgh in autumn/winter 2020 and just clicked. She’s incredibly thoughtful and an absolute joy to be around. As we’d say in England, there’s never a dull moment with Ellen. She’s also seven years younger than me so, since we met in Scotland, she’s my “wee” Danish pal.

After 18 months apart, she came running toward me waving the Dannebrog before enveloping me in a huge hug. That’s the Danish flag and the Danes use it to celebrate birthdays and other milestones. I knew of its significance and was immediately touched she’d gone to so much effort. See? So thoughtful!

Juliette was also great for brunch (or my second breakfast, as hobbits would say). They had two main brunch options, one for meat-eaters and one for veggies, and it was perfect. The overloaded plate had granola, eggs, rye bread, salad and more. I’m sure my body was thankful for nutrients after days of eating only sugar and starch in Copenhagen. 

Become Immersed at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum

Time to start our Aarhus sightseeing tour! ARoS Art Museum is, hands down, the number one Aarhus museum that every traveller should visit. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had in an art museum. ARoS mainly displays contemporary and temporary installations you can interact with rather than dozens of rooms filled with paintings and sculptures. We’re talking exhibits of fuzzy material and curtains hanging from the ceiling, cool light displays and more.

In 2011, they added a panoramic circular walkway to the roof of the building with rainbow-coloured glass. It’s awesome! You can take a lift or stairs to the top and see the whole city through a veneer of reds, blues and greens.

Pose for Photographs on Møllestien

After leaving the art museum, we crossed Mølleparken and onto a cute cobbled street called Møllestien. Like Edinburgh’s Circus Lane and Warren Mews in London, it’s simply a beautiful, Instagrammable cobbled street with a row of pastel-coloured crooked cottage homes. It’s one of the top places to visit in Aarhus if you’re a blogger, like me.

My wee Danish pal, unfortunately, knows me too well. And when I told her if she was free to be my tour guide on my birthday this year, she knew that meant being my personal photographer too. If you don’t have a local Danish pal to take photos of you, I recommend shunning the shame and embarrassment and bringing your own tripod. And if you’re not bothered about photos, it’s still a lovely little street to visit!

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Walk Around Aarhus City Centre and Harbour

What to do in Aarhus next? Well, we strolled around the main shopping district or what I would call the city centre. We passed Aarhus Cathedral (which was unfortunately closed during my visit) and walked along the canals. Store Torv and Lille Torv and the streets around here are very picturesque.

We stopped at Emmerys, a bakery and coffee shop you’ll see everywhere in Denmark, for sustenance (AKA Easter-themed sweet treats) before heading out to the harbour. Ellen took me inside the Dokk1 Library which was huuuge (it’s Scandinavia’s largest library) and it was mesmerising to watch the machine organise the books people had returned. If you’re a book nerd and you want to visit Aarhus, visit this library! Even for just 10 minutes.

One of the things I loved most about visiting Aarhus was seeing where my pal lived and worked and the places she likes to go. It really is a different and usually better experience to travel to a place with someone who has insider knowledge.

For example, we walked passed a signpost covered in cinnamon (like a lot of cinnamon) that I would have assumed to be sand from a construction site. But Ellen explained that, in some parts of Denmark, if a man turns 25 and he is unmarried, his friends will throw cinnamon on him. And they will usually splash him with water and tie him to a pole first! How could I have possibly figured that out alone?!

Dinner: Aarhus Street Food

We walked all over the city, all day, and the wind barely let up for even a minute. Ellen had done an amazing job of showing me her adopted home city but I think we were both ready to sit down when we went to dinner at Aarhus Street Food. It’s an indoor market (it would have to be indoors in a country like Denmark!) serving cuisine from all over the world with rows of benches in the middle. It has a relaxed, casual vibe and all the food I ate was inexpensive and excellent.

I’d visited the market the night before when I first arrived in Aarhus for a slice of pizza and empanadas. For my birthday dinner, I enjoyed a couple of pints of påskebryg (Tuborg’s seasonal easter brew) and a Greek falafel wrap. The perfect end to a wonderful 29th birthday, all thanks to my wee Danish pal.

Other Fun Things to Do in Aarhus, Denmark

If you’re spending an extra day in the city, there are a few more Aarhus museums and attractions to explore. The KØN – Gender Museum Denmark and the Viking Museum both look super interesting. I would add these activities to my list too:

• Den Gamle By – This means “The Old Town” in English. It’s an open-air museum that is a recreation of what Aarhus would have looked like during the 1800s. There are over 75 period homes in the exhibit and I’m sure it’s a great activity on a summer’s day. I visited in spring but it was pretty chilly so we tried to dip inside as often as possible. 
• Aarhus Botanical Garden – Dem Gamle By is right next to Aarhus Botanical Garden and, again, probably a great activity for warmer weather.
• Endless Connection Bridge – This is something I definitely would have done had it been open. This bridge is a circular platform that the city installs on Aarhus’s harbour every April until October so you can see better views of the coastline. Unfortunately, I visited slightly too early to see it. This entire post’s throughline is that Aarhus is a beautiful place to visit any time of year but especially in the summer!

How to Travel from Copenhagen to Aarhus: Train and Bus

Aarhus does have an airport but I think the only direct flight between the city and the UK is to London. I always check Skyscanner before booking flights with the airline direct. 

Otherwise, you will likely head to Copenhagen first, as I did, before travelling back from Aarhus to Copenhagen. You can travel by bus, train or ferry and bus. Because construction on the rails affected the train services, I chose to travel by bus and it was so easy. I booked a return ticket on FlixBus and the journey was around three hours each way. I paid £13.99 to travel from Copenhagen to Aarhus and £17.99 from Aarhus to Copenhagen and usually, there are several services departing every day. 

You can also hop on direct trains between Aarhus and Copenhagen Central Station. They take around the same amount of time as FlixBus, approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes. Search and book train tickets on DSB which is Denmark’s national rail service. You get far better prices the sooner you can book your tickets. They start from around 99 DKK/£11 but can surge to 629 DKK/£70 if you book last minute.

If you want to travel by ferry, you’ll need to hop on a Kombado Expressen bus from Ingerslevsgade in Copenhagen to Sjællands Odde. This drive takes around 75 to 90 minutes. Then, you’ll take a Molslinjen ferry to Aarhus Harbour which takes around 75 minutes. Taking the ferry would be cool but if you’re an ignorant tourist, like me, FlixBus is going to be the easiest public transport option to navigate.

Accommodation in Aarhus: Hostels & Hotels

There aren’t many hostels in Aarhus and they are usually my accommodation option of choice when I travel solo. Luckily, the Aarhus hostel I booked was awesome. The Book1 Design Hostel is absolutely enormous, modern, clean, centrally located and everything else you could want in a hostel. Their bar and lobby area was a great place to read with a beer which is exactly what I did on my first night. I was only sorry that I couldn’t stay longer.

I didn’t stay in a hotel on this trip, obviously. But if I did, I’d have used Booking.com to find one with a good cancellation policy.

And those are things to do in Aarhus, Denmark based on my trip there from Copenhagen! Are you planning to visit Aarhus too? Let me know in the comments below!

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