Holiday homes in North Jutland: Skagen, Løkken or Blokhus?

North Jutland is the part of Denmark where the country narrows, the light turns strange, and the sea is never more than a short drive away. It is also one of the country’s most popular holiday destinations, and for good reason. Between Skagen in the north and Blokhus in the south lies a stretch of coast with wide sandy beaches, dune plantations and seaside towns that each have a personality of their own.

But precisely because the towns look alike from a distance, many people choose a holiday home in North Jutland somewhat blindly. Skagen, Løkken and Blokhus are all by the sea, all with great beaches, and yet they offer three very different holidays. This guide goes through the three towns one at a time, so you can choose based on what your holiday actually looks like, and not just on which name you know best.

Skagen: the light, Grenen and a town that is a destination in itself

Skagen is Denmark’s northernmost town and the only one of the three that is a proper town all year round. There is a harbour with fish restaurants, yellow houses with white picket fences, art museums and a town life that does not shut down when the bathers go home. That makes for a different kind of holiday: in Skagen you can easily spend a whole day without reaching the beach at all, because the harbour, Skagens Museum and the town’s streets fill the day on their own.

The nature around the town, on the other hand, is some of the most distinctive in Denmark. At Grenen, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat meet in a visible line of waves, and you can stand with one foot in each sea. A little south of town lies Råbjerg Mile, a migrating sand dune the size of a small neighbourhood, and the Sand-Covered Church, where only the tower still rises out of the sand. These are experiences that work in any weather, and a large part of the reason Skagen is also an obvious destination outside the high season.

Choose Skagen if you are a couple or a smaller group who want to combine the beach with town life, good restaurants and culture. At the same time, be prepared that its popularity shows in the prices, especially during the school holidays, and that available homes can be few and far between in July if you book late.

Løkken: the seaside town with the white beach huts

Løkken is the seaside town in the classic sense. The town grew up around the sailing trade with Norway, but today the beach is the main attraction: wide, white, and with the iconic white beach huts lined up in the sand in summer. The beach is so firm that cars are allowed to drive on it, which makes it easy to get the parasol, the cool box and the children right down to the water’s edge.

The town itself is compact and easy to get around. In summer there is life on the square and in the streets, ice cream in hand and fishcakes at the harbour, while the pace outside the season is considerably calmer. That is part of the charm: Løkken in autumn means long beach walks in the wind and hot chocolate afterwards, not shopping.

One of Løkken’s greatest advantages is the day-trip options along the coast. A quarter of an hour’s drive to the north lie Lønstrup and Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, the lighthouse on top of the enormous cliff that has become one of Denmark’s most photographed places. To the south lie kilometres of dune landscape where you can walk for hours without meeting many people.

Choose Løkken if the beach is the centrepiece of your holiday and you want a town that is big enough for ice cream, fresh bread and an evening at a restaurant, but small enough that everything is within walking distance.

Blokhus: family friendly with amusements in the back garden

Blokhus is the southernmost of the three and in practice shares its beach and hinterland with the neighbouring town of Hune. As in Løkken, the beach is wide and firm enough for cars, and the water stays shallow a good way out, which makes the place popular with families with younger children.

What really sets Blokhus apart is the number of activities for children in the surrounding area. Fårup Sommerland, one of Denmark’s most visited amusement parks, lies a few kilometres inland, and in the area itself you will find minigolf, playgrounds and the sculpture park in Blokhus. The combination of beach in the morning and amusement park in the afternoon is hard to beat if you are travelling with children aged four to twelve.

The holiday home areas around Blokhus and Hune are large and typically set in dune plantations, so many homes have shelter, an enclosed plot and a short distance to the beach. That also means the selection is broad, from older, simple houses to new homes with spas and activity rooms, and that something is more often available here than in Skagen, even during the school holidays.

Choose Blokhus if you are travelling with children, want the most activities within a short distance, and would like a large selection of homes to choose from.

The three towns side by side

	Skagen	Løkken	Blokhus
Atmosphere	Town and culture all year	Classic seaside town	Family and activities
The beach	Great, but one of several attractions	The main attraction, beach huts and cars on the sand	Wide, shallow and child friendly
Best for	Couples and adult groups	A beach holiday with a town as your base	Families with children
Off season	Works well, the town stays open	Quiet, nature takes centre stage	Quiet, Fårup is closed for most of the winter

Distances in North Jutland are smaller than many people think, by the way. It is around an hour’s drive between Blokhus and Skagen, so you can easily stay in one place and take a day trip to the others. Choose your base by where you want to spend most of your days, not by everything you might want to see once.

When is North Jutland at its best?

The short answer is that North Jutland works in all four seasons, but in very different ways. High summer is the obvious choice if swimming and beach life are the main purpose, because the North Sea needs July and August to reach comfortable bathing temperatures. On the other hand, that is exactly when you share the beach and the bakery queue with the most people.

Spring and autumn are the seasons for walkers and photographers. The light over Grenen and the dunes is at its most dramatic, the beach is almost empty, and holiday home prices are typically noticeably lower than in the summer school holidays. The Danish autumn half term in week 42 is a classic in the area, and many houses have a wood-burning stove, a spa or a sauna that turn the windy days into part of the experience rather than a problem.

Winter is for those who want the coast entirely to themselves. Skagen stays open all year with museums and restaurants, while Løkken and Blokhus are quiet and best suited to those who mainly want peace, long walks and a warm house to come home to.

How to book wisely in North Jutland

North Jutland is among the most sought-after holiday home regions in Denmark, and the best homes for the school holidays get booked well in advance. If you are after the February half term, Easter or the summer holidays, it pays to be early, preferably several months ahead. You can read more about timing in our guide to when to book for Easter and the autumn half term.

And then there is the price. If you rent through a large international platform, the platform typically adds 14 to 16 percent on top of the rent as a service fee. If you book through a classic agency, the agency’s commission of typically 25 to 45 percent is baked into the price, without you being able to see it. The third way is to rent directly from the owner, where the entire amount goes to the host and you avoid fees on top.

That is exactly the model FlyMHD is built for. Here you rent a holiday home directly from the owner with no commission and no guest fee, and the payment goes directly to the host through Stripe. You can see how it works here.

We are opening for bookings soon. Sign up on the front page, and you will be ready to book your holiday home in North Jutland without fees when we open. That way the holiday budget can go on fishcakes in Løkken and a day at Fårup, instead of on a middleman.