Køge

Summer is the best time to visit. July and August are the warmest months, the days are long, and the sea is warm enough for a swim. Spring and autumn are cool and often windy. Winters are dark, wet and cold, with some snow.

The biggest annual event is Køge Festuge, a music festival in late August that brings concerts to the town centre. Check dates and venue before you go.

Start at Torvet, the large market square with a statue of King Frederik VII. The town hall on the square dates from about 1552 and is the oldest town hall in Denmark still in use. The streets around it hold rows of old merchant houses, including the 1527 house at Kirkestræde 20.

Sankt Nicolai Kirke is the town's medieval church, dedicated to the patron saint of sailors. Its 43 m tower once carried a light for ships, the first lighthouse in Denmark.

Køge Museum fills an old half-timbered merchant house near the square. It covers local history from the Stone Age onward, including the Køge witch trials of 1608–1615.

MAPS - Museum of Art in Public Spaces is the only museum in Denmark devoted to art in public spaces. Until its rename it was called KØS. It shows sketches and models for public artworks, and its collection includes the original plaster model of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.

Garvergården is a half-timbered courtyard from around 1600 on Vestergade. Shoemakers and tanners worked here for almost 200 years.

Kjøge Miniby is a 1:10 model of Køge as it looked in 1865, near the beach south of the centre. Check its opening days before you go.

About 7 km south of town, Vallø Slot is a manor house in a large landscape park. Its oldest parts date from the 1580s. The castle is closed to visitors, but the park is open daily and you can see the courtyard.

Farther south, The Cliffs of Stevns is a 17 km chalk cliff on the Stevns peninsula, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. At Højerup, the old church stands right on the edge, and part of it fell to the shore in a landslide in 1928. The drive from Køge takes about 40 minutes.

• By train: Regional trains towards Næstved reach Køge from Copenhagen Central Station in about half an hour. The slower S-train also runs to Køge, with many stops in the southern suburbs. Book and plan on DSB.
• By air: Copenhagen Airport is the nearest airport with scheduled flights. Take the train to Copenhagen Central Station and change there; the whole trip takes about 45 minutes.
• By ferry: A night ferry links Køge with Rønne on Bornholm. The crossing takes about 5.5 hours.
• By car: Køge is about 40 km south-west of Copenhagen on the Køge Bugt motorway. The car is the easiest way to reach the Stevns cliffs.
• Onward: Lokaltog local trains leave Køge station for Vallø and the Stevns peninsula.

Quick practical facts for Denmark at a glance: