A long weekend in Cold Hawaii’s fishing town Klitmøller

Sandy beaches, endless dunes, and steady wind that creates the perfect waves - it almost feels like being in Hawaii, apart from the fact that it is much colder. Cold Hawaii, so to speak. This is how the region around Klitmøller, at Jutland's northwest coast, got its beloved nickname.

Cold Hawaii reaches from Agger in the South to Hanstholm in the North, accumulating to more than 40 km of beach and not less than 31 surf spots. The best way to reach the region is by car; 2.5 hours from Aarhus, 1.5 hours from Aalborg, or 4.5 hours from Copenhagen. Once there, hikers, bikers, and, of course, all kinds of surfers get their money’s worth. Depending on your goal, the best time to explore Cold Hawaii varies. Late spring or summer is your best bet if you come for hikes or biking trips. Surfers get the most out of their stay in late summer, autumn, or even winter.

In this article, I will take you with me to Klitmøller, one of the towns belonging to Cold Hawaii. Being the number 1 surf spot in Denmark, town is located at the oceanside in the middle of the national park "Thy". The former fisher town has just over 800 inhabitants but many more tourists and summerhouse owners. The name "Klitmøller" originates from the three wheat-grinding water mills that once were an elementary part of the town. Since the 1990s, Klitmøller has evolved more and more towards a tourist hotspot, especially beloved by water sports enthusiasts.

Where to stay in Klitmøller?

This year marked our second time at Cold Hawaii's Klitmøller, and this time, we traveled with our cat, Puma. Pets are welcomed in many of the numerous Air B’n’B’s in Klitmøller. We booked ours last minute and managed to get a very good deal. The year before on our first Kitmøller trip, Puma hadn’t joined our family yet, and we immersed ourselves fully into the surfing atmosphere by staying at the Cold Hawaii Surf House. The house is decorated lovingly, with all kinds of surfing, Hawaiian, and even personal memory pieces of the owners - Mor and Vahine. Both are professional surfers, winning the Danish surf tour repeatedly, who surfed the world together. Staying in their Island Style house, you will see wall-sized paintings accompanied by short diary-like texts out of the Mor’s and Vahine’s life, giving the house an incredibly cozy feeling.

True to being a surf location, we also saw many people traveling and sleeping in their revamped vans, parked right next to the beach, and enjoying the ocean view right out of their beds.

Riding the perfect wave

If your main goal of visiting Cold Hawaii is to learn how to surf, then you should definitely book some surfing classes. There are many different options and packages, ranging from single or private lessons to youth and girls camps or sunset sessions. Chances are good that you find an offer perfectly fitting to your stay. Since we only stayed for a long weekend, we took the “Surf and Stay weekend” deal, giving us access to daily 2-hour surf lessons in the morning (all gear included) and free access to the gear at any daytime. All surf schools around Klitmøller have similar offers, so you decide which one you like best.

After changing into the proper surfing gear, you will get a short theoretical explanation of how to surf, including warm-up and some dry-trying of standing up on the board. And then you’re ready to go and try yourself in the waves. Beginner or not, if you have booked a lesson, the teacher will come in the water with you, sharing tips and tricks, making sure that you will leave the water with a feeling of success - no matter what that means to you. Anything seems possible. The lesson typically ends after 2 hours, but you are welcome to stay and try longer, given the muscles in your arms let you.

If you don’t want to take surf lessons but try on your own, you can rent the gear only, which we did during our second stay in Cold Hawaii's Klitmøller. Don’t be afraid to ask the person at the rental shop for advice regarding the right board size or conditions. We experienced everyone to be super friendly and happy to help.

By the way, if you get one of those rather rare days where there just aren’t any decent surfing waves, you can still enjoy watersports. SUP, kite- or windsurfing are equally popular alternatives.

When your done riding waves

Once you have had enough of being in the ocean, if that is even possible, you can explore the area either hiking or biking. The national park “Thy” is just around the corner and offers many trails of varying difficulty levels. To explore the area by bike, you don't need to bring your own - you can rent one. If you feel like it, you can also book a guided tour. Le Garage offers guided biking-tours which include an after-bike-get-together and dinner at their restaurant.

Hiking enthusiasts can download one of the many hiking apps for inspiration. We have chosen “All trails”, in which you can choose the right trail for you depending on the location and length of the route. Since we wanted our cat Puma to explore the area together with us, we tried the rather short routes around Klitmøller. One of them, the Klitmøller Kitespot hike, starts at the beach and leads you past the town's heart and parts of the Thy national park back to the beach in only ca. 3 km. Even though it is a shorter hike, you can find plenty of perfect photo motives along the way. Pets are welcomed on the route, but must be kept on a leash.

Klitmøller’s kitchen

If you come from one of the big cities in Denmark, there might be a few things that will surprise you when it comes to restaurants. Depending on the season of the year, you can find either a large variety of open restaurants or a rather small one. Both times, we traveled in September; off-season for a vacation in Denmark. Therefore, many restaurants around the town are closed until the next season. But don’t worry - some are still open all year round, such as Geo’s Pizza Ristorante or Café Hawgus Klitmøller. We tried both. Geo’s Pizza Ristorante seems to be where the locals get their food if they feel like takeout. At least, we observed a few of them dropping by and taking their pizza home. Café Hawgus Klitmøller is more touristy and offers a wider variety of meals. Honoring the town's history as a fishing town, most dishes will include fish - making it hard to find vegetarian alternatives at first sight.

However, you shouldn’t be shy and ask the waiter/waitress if they could alternate the dish to make it vegetarian. I got a - not on the menu listed - pasta with a creamy tomato-mushroom-paprika sauce that was to kneel down amazingly delicious. Plus, portions are huge - and I mean huge.

Since we also had access to a fully equipped kitchen, we mainly cooked our meals ourselves - which is also cheaper if you travel on a budget. Klitmøller only has one supermarket. However, it is very well-sorted and has a mini bakery where you can get classic Danish pastries. Over the past two years, I also observed that the assortment of vegetarian alternatives grew.