Holiday apartment in Aarhus Municipality: City, Forest and Beach

City, forest and beach come together in Aarhus Municipality, providing easy access to green experiences all year round. Aarhus Municipality is home to museums, historic sites, works of art and trails.

Culture

ARoS is home to Olafur Eliasson’s “Your rainbow panorama”, a permanent, circular glass artwork. The walkway is 150 metres long and 3 metres wide and leads through the colours of the spectrum. Visitors can reach the artwork via stairs or a lift and walk along the panoramic walkway with views over Aarhus and the bay. ARoS also houses Denmark’s oldest museum collection outside Copenhagen. It was founded in 1859 by citizens of Aarhus.

Den Gamle By in Aarhus conveys the history of Danish market towns through the four periods 2014, 1974, 1927 and 1864. From Aarhus Central Station, the open-air museum can be reached by bus: route 3A runs approximately every 15 minutes, while routes 14, 114 and 118 run approximately every 30 minutes. The main entrance is a 15-minute walk from Aarhus Central Station.

South of Aarhus, in Højbjerg, lies Moesgaard Museum, an archaeological and anthropological museum. It presents staged stories about the human past and present. The permanent exhibitions cover the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Viking Age and the Middle Ages. The Iron Age exhibition features the Grauballe Man, considered the best-preserved bog body ever found. In a Stone Age experience, visitors can use a bow and arrow.

Den Uendelige Bro is a work of art by Aarhus architects Johan Gjøde and Niels Povlsgaard. Originally, it was part of the temporary ARoS exhibition “Sculpture by the Sea” in 2015. Below Varna Palace, visitors can walk around the bridge in a 360-degree circuit measuring 188 metres in length. The seasonal wooden bridge leads from the beach at Varna into Aarhus Bay and is accessible from April/May to October.

Nature

The Marselisborg Forests are coastal forests south of Aarhus and part of the Natura 2000 area “Giber Å, Enemærket and Skåde Havbakker”. In the area nominated for Aarhus’ Nature Canon, they cover approximately 600 hectares. Marselisborg Deer Park is located in the northern part. There, visitors can observe and experience red deer, fallow deer and wild boar up close all year round.

In Åby Forest, visitors can learn about the cycle of drinking water. The landscape consists of open expanses and far-reaching views across hilly terrain with small lakes. Egå Engsø near Aarhus is a scenic area with a diverse range of bird and animal life.

In and around Aarhus, there are idyllic, east-facing beaches surrounded by forests and green areas, offering calm, child-friendly waters. Close to the city centre is Åkrogen, with a bathing jetty, a playground and a barbecue area.

Hiking and Cycling

The AUminoen is a marked hiking route through Aarhus University Park and the city’s green areas; it connects nature, architecture and history. Along Aarhus’s southern coast, the 17-kilometre Kystruten route runs through forests and along the water to Skovmøllen near Moesgård and back. It can be used on foot, in running shoes or by bicycle. In True Forest near Aarhus city centre, there are challenging hiking and cycling routes across an area of 650 hectares.

The Land Route begins at a car park on the road to Vestereng near Bodøvej in the north of Aarhus. It leads through the forest of a former military site, past Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby, to the edge of the village of Gl. Skejby. The Forest Route at Mollerup Forest has two starting points: the car park in Mollerup Forest on Skejbyvej and the DCH dog-training area on Viengevej.

In summer, visitors may encounter Aarhus tourism staff at signposted tourist bicycles in Aarhus.

Other places

Other locality pages in the municipality: Skæring, Ajstrup, Egå, Malling, Risskov, Norsminde, Lystrup, Solbjerg, Højbjerg, Tilst, Løgten, Beder, Brabrand, Sabro, Gammel Løgten, Tranbjerg, Harlev, Hjortshøj, Beder Malling, Holme-Højbjerg-Skåde, Viby J, Aarhus, Skødstrup, Trige, Ajstrup Strand, Hasselager.

To the overarching travel overview: Central Jutland.