ZEALAND

Denmark’s largest island offers much more than the dazzle of Copenhagen. North of the city lie some of the country’s finest beaches and most impressive castles. Here you’ll find dazzlingly ornate Frederiksborg Slot in Hillerød and the hulking Kronborg Slot at Helsingør, Shakespeare's Elsinore. Helsingør also features the excellent Maritime Museum of Denmark. West of Copenhagen awaits history-steeped Roskilde, home to a World Heritage-listed cathedral, Scandinavia’s classic rock music festival, and a tremendous Viking Ship Museum. History also comes to life at nearby Sagnlandet Lejre, an engrossing, hands-on archaeology site.

• Fascinating Helsingør commands the narrowest point of the Øresund, the sound that separates Denmark from today's Sweden. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the city became immensely wealthy by taxing shipping that had to pass this way between the Baltic Sea and the open ocean. For a sizeable town, Helsingør has done a pretty good job of maintaining mementos of its medieval character, best appreciated by strolling through the grid of narrow cobbled streets between the harbor and the bustling shopping core. Here, half-timbered back-alley houses lean precariously behind towering hollyhocks and creeping ivy. The main sight, however, is the gigantic Kronborg Slot, made famous as Elsinore Castle in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, although the intimate psychological nature of the play is a far cry from the real-life military colossus.

• Pretty Køge (koo-e) is well worth a look if you're taking the ferry to Bornholm or driving via Stevns Klint towards Denmark's southern islands. The one-time medieval trading center retains a photogenic core of cobbled streets flanked by some well-preserved 17th- and 18th-century buildings. At its heart, Torvet is claimed to be Denmark's largest square. Around 7km south, Vallø's moat-encircled Renaissance castle makes a great destination for a cycle ride along quiet, tree-lined avenues and country lanes. Either side of Køge bay there is passable beaches, though the semi-industrial backdrop of the modern commercial harbor detracts a little from some of the coastal scenery. Further beaches at Solrød and Greve (8km and 17km north of Køge respectively) are popular S-train escapes for Copenhagen city-dwellers.

• Most foreigners who have heard of Roskilde know it either as the home of one of northern Europe’s best outdoor music festivals, or the sight of several remarkable Viking ship finds, now housed in an excellent, purpose-built museum. To the Danes, however, it is a city of great royal and religious significance, as it was the capital city long before Copenhagen and is still the burial place of 39 monarchs stretching back several hundred years. Located on the southern tip of Roskilde Fjord, the city was a thriving trading port throughout the Middle Ages. It was also the site of Zealand’s first Christian church, built by Viking king Harald Bluetooth in AD 980.

• Many Møn-bound visitors will need to change transport in Vordingborg. If you're doing that, it's worth stopping at least briefly to visit the site of the town's central, once-formidable castle that played a starring role in early Danish history. Today, all that remains are a few moated bastion ruins plus a single round tower, but the site forms an appealing park with views down across a pretty harbor. Danmarks Borgcenter brings the site's history vividly to life using an imaginative self-led tour guided by a tablet-computer.

MØN

One of Denmark's most magical islands, Møn's best-known drawcard is its sweeping stretch of white cliffs, Møns Klint. Crowned by deep-green forest, they’re a popular inspiration for landscape paintings, possibly explaining the island’s healthy artist headcount. But the inspiration doesn’t end there. Beautiful beaches span sandy expanses and small secret coves, there are haunting Neolithic graves, and several rural churches are adorned with whimsical medieval frescoes. Every year more stargazers come for what are said to be Denmark's darkest night skies, and now they're joined by hikers flooding in to walk the well-organized network of trails known as Camønoen, named with a punning nod to the classic Camino pilgrim trail.

BORNHOLM

The sunniest part of Denmark, Bornholm lies way out in the Baltic Sea, 200km east of Copenhagen (and closer to Sweden and Poland than to mainland Denmark). But it’s not just (relatively) sunny skies that draw the hordes each year. Mother Nature was in a particularly good mood when creating this Baltic beauty, bestowing on its rocky cliffs, leafy forests, bleach-white beaches, and pure, ethereal light that painters do their best to capture. Humankind added the beguiling details, from medieval fortress ruins and thatched fishing villages to the iconic rundekirke (round churches) and contemporary Bornholms Kunstmuseum. The island’s ceramic and glassware artisans are famed throughout Denmark, as are its historic smokehouses and ever-expanding league of food artisans, doing brilliant things with local harvests.

FUNEN

Funen (Fyn in Danish) is Denmark's proverbial middle child. Lacking Zealand's capital-city pull or Jutland's geographic dominance, it's often overlooked by visitors, who rarely do more than making a whistle-stop visit to Hans Christian Andersen's birthplace, Odense.

Certainly, the master of fairy tales makes a worthy favourite son and Odense is a lively cultural and commercial center. But there is much more to Funen. Thatched farmhouses, picture-book coastal towns, and grand Renaissance castles dot the island’s patchwork of fields and woodlands. There's a remarkable Viking-era ship grave near Kerteminde. Rolling southern pastures and orchards grow some of the country's best produce. Curiously minimalist shelters are set up for cyclists and kayakers. And handsome harbor towns give access to a yacht-filled archipelago of idyllic seafaring islands. All in all, if you take the trouble to explore, you'll find Funen is a microcosm of the very best of Denmark.

JUTLAND

Denmark doesn't have a north-south divide; culturally, spiritually and to a great extent politically, it is divided into Jutland…and all the rest. You'll find old-fashioned hospitality here and an engaging frankness – Jutlanders stem from hardy fishing and farming stock, and they're proud of their points of difference from big-city Danes. Then there are those picture-book Jutland landscapes, an incredible melange of windswept sand dunes, boat-filled harbors, glittering lakes, and thatch-roofed villages. These are the scenes that have inspired centuries of great Danish art – visit Skagen for a brilliant introduction. Add to this, top-notch museums, ample outdoor adventures, Denmark's oldest town, endless family attractions, and the understated cool of 'second city' Aarhus, and you'll come to understand why Copenhagen isn't the only Danish destination to put on your itinerary.