Denmark Expands Big Nature Tourism Across Mols Bjerge and Møn

Written By: Abhirup Gan

Abhirup Gan

I'm Abhirup Gan, a Mass Communication graduate and digital marketing professional. Driven by a passion for storytelling, I create insightful, research-led content that explores tourism trends, destination stories, and hospitality developments with depth and clarity. Through my writing, I hope to inspire readers to discover not only where to travel, but the stories, cultures, and experiences that make every journey meaningful.

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September 9, 2026 18:23 GMT+5:30

Denmark is developing a slower form of nature tourism based on long-distance walks, nature protection, rewilding and island experiences. Mols Bjerge in Eastern Jutland and Møn in southern-eastern Denmark illustrate how hiking, nature conservation and rural areas could become key elements of destination development strategy based on encouraging people to stay outside and travel at a gentler pace. This is evident in Mols Bjerge National Park, which combines the unique ice age landscape with an internationally awarded long-distance trail and nature conservation, leading to creation of new habitats within the landscape of the national park. Møn, with its Camønoen long-distance hike, Møns Klint, UNESCO Biosphere designation and nature night sky protection, offers an equally comprehensive nature tourism product.

Mols Bjerge Turns Ice Age Landscapes Into Hiking Experiences

Mols Bjerge National Park occupies the Djursland peninsula in Syddjurs Municipality and is characterised by a landscape shaped by glacial movements around 16,000 to 18,000 years ago. Marginal moraines, kettle holes, valleys and coastal terrain give the area a distinctly undulating character.

The Mols Bjerge Trail provides the park’s signature long-distance experience. The 80-kilometre route is divided into four stages and is certified by the European Ramblers Association as a Leading Quality Trail – Best of Europe. The route combines natural landscapes with cultural heritage and can be completed over several days using shelters, campsites, hotels, hostels and other accommodation along the way.

The trail passes through open pasture, forests, coastal landscapes and glacial formations, allowing visitors to experience the physical geography of Djursland through a continuous walking journey rather than a sequence of isolated attractions.

Rewilding Adds a New Dimension to Mols Bjerge

Nature restoration is becoming another important part of the visitor experience. Denmark’s Naturnationalpark programme is designed to give natural processes greater space while using large herbivores to create varied habitats for plants, insects, fungi and other wildlife.

The Naturnationalpark Mols Bjerge covers 775 hectares of state-owned land. The Danish Nature Agency describes much of the area as open nature and notes that horses and cattle can help maintain open grassland and create habitat diversity through grazing and other natural behaviour.

Recent planning has also included Exmoor ponies in Mols Bjerge. The animals are part of broader grazing management intended to maintain open habitats rather than allow them to become increasingly dominated by dense vegetation. This allows hikers to encounter large grazing animals within landscapes undergoing ecological restoration.

The tourism significance lies in allowing visitors to experience conservation processes as part of the landscape itself. Hiking routes can pass through areas where grazing, natural regeneration and habitat restoration are actively reshaping the environment.

Møn Builds a Slow Travel Island Experience

Further south, Møn provides a complementary model centred on walking, village landscapes and geological heritage. The Camønoen is a 175-kilometre hiking route crossing Møn, Bogø and Nyord. VisitDenmark identifies 2026 as the route’s 10th anniversary and describes it as a ten-stage journey through fields, woods, beaches, villages and rural landscapes.

The route gives visitors a reason to move gradually through the islands rather than treating Møn as a short excursion to Møns Klint. Its walking stages connect landscapes and settlements, encouraging overnight stays and allowing rural businesses to participate in the visitor economy.

That slow-travel structure fits naturally with Møn’s wider identity as a destination where nature conservation, agriculture, villages and tourism overlap.

Møns Klint Connects Geology With Dark Skies

Møns Klint provides the dramatic focal point. The chalk cliffs rise to approximately 128 metres above the Baltic coastline and are accessible through a network of paths and staircases leading between the elevated landscape and the beach. The Danish Nature Agency currently lists seven marked hiking routes around the cliffs, ranging from 2.2 to nine kilometres.

The coastline also provides opportunities to search for fossils from the ancient Cretaceous sea, including fossilised remains commonly known as belemnites. Visitors are required to respect barriers and changing conditions because the cliff remains an active geological environment where landslides can occur.

In 2025, Møns Klint was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, adding another international recognition to an area that was already Denmark’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. UNESCO’s Møn biosphere encompasses islands and islets with forests, grasslands, wetlands, coastal areas and agricultural landscapes, with tourism among the area’s economic activities.

Night Tourism Gives Møn Another Season

Møn’s tourism offer continues after daylight. Møn and Nyord were designated Scandinavia’s first International Dark Sky Park and Community in 2017, recognising exceptionally dark skies and local efforts to limit light pollution.

The designation adds an evening dimension to hiking and nature travel, allowing visitors to combine daytime exploration of the cliffs, forests and coastline with astronomy and stargazing after dark.

The combination of geological heritage, biodiversity, walking routes and night skies gives Møn an unusually broad nature tourism proposition. Visitors can move from fossil-rich beaches to forest trails and then into a protected nocturnal landscape without leaving the island.

Denmark’s Tourism Future Moves at Walking Pace

The examples of Denmark’s tourism in its landscape can be represented by the cases of Mols Bjerge and Møn. The first destination provides tourists with the opportunity of experiencing glacial geography, walking paths and rewilding, while the second destination gives tourists an opportunity of walking path connecting various islands, UNESCO status, stunning chalk cliffs and dark sky. All of that leads to the creation of a tourism experience which is more about staying longer, traveling slower and experiencing more of nature. In that way, tourists have an opportunity to visit Denmark through footpaths, rural areas, ecology and geology the same way as cities or other attractions.