Leaving Your Trip in ARHUS

This page offers help (concrete or informational) on leaving your trip. Topics include...

1. Where you leave your trip (see immediately below)
2. The closest airports
3. Our “Access Packages,” designed to help you get to them.
4. Suggestions on how to time your ongoing travel, whether you are having us arrange it, or doing it yourself.
5. Service information regarding train travel from your trip end location.
6. Suggested post-trip visits, especially when these are not geographically obvious, but are rendered economical and convenient by direct rail connections.
7. Hopefully helpful hints for those setting up their own travel from the trip.

If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.


1. WHERE and WHEN Do You Leave Your Trip?

Your trip disbands in Arhus on Saturday afternoon, at the end of a full riding day. Arhus is Denmark's second city, on Jutland (the part of Denmark that is part of mainland Europe).

If you wish to arrange your own ongoing travel (in other words, you do not want to set up any ongoing travel arrangements through us), a couple of hints regarding ongoing travel are offered at the bottom of this page. Otherwise...


2. The CLOSEST AIRPORTS

Arhus has a small airport. Flights to Copenhagen can sometimes be had for not too much money, but the train is faster, more pleasant, and no more expensive, unless you are connecting to another flight. Even then, the trains run direct to the airport....

For intercontinental service, Copenhagen is the obvious choice. If it doesn’t suit for some reason, a Monday flight from Oslo will work. You can also reach Hamburg fairly easily, but most service there is intra-European. See “Service Information,” below, for details.


3. Our ACCESS PACKAGES
as of January 1, 2006

Our Access Package includes a hotel night in Arhus, and a Sunday train to Copenhagen, city or Airport. Alternate packages are available to London.

Base (Starting) Access Package Price: 109 €.
If you are a North American traveller, the $ price (US or Canadian) on your price chart applies until 35 days prior to trip departure. Otherwise euro prices are transcribed to your invoice in its currency, converted at the exchange rate of the day on which the package is requested (rounded to the nearest whole dollar or pound). Current “mid-market” rates can be consulted from the site we use for conversion. We use the mid-market rate on the day of conversion, and add 2% to cover currency broker exchange commissions (our conversion rates are thus as good as, or better than, any you could obtain, including via your credit card, unless you are a professional currency trader).

Availability is normally guaranteed until 35 days prior to trip start (payment received by us). Within 35 days, availability must be confirmed, and costs may be slightly higher. Some extra-cost options also have higher prices if ordered w/in 35 days.

Included:

• Dinner in Arhus.
• A hotel in Arhus, based on shared occupancy.
• Breakfast if you have time / get up for it.
• A Sunday train to Copenhagen or Copenhagen Airport
• A seat reservation (required on many trains on this route, and recommended even if not required).
• A printed schedule / itinerary, highlighting any connections.

Options Offered at an Extra Cost (subject to availability)
Prices are in addition to the "Base" Access Package Price. For a general discussion of train upgrades, see here. Topics include the relative comfort of first versus second class, and different types of accommodation available on overnight trains.

• Tickets to Oslo instead of Copenhagen (via Sunday afternoon ferry to Kristiansand, sleeper train to Oslo, arriving early Monday morning): + 39 euros including a berth in a single-sex, 3-person sleeper cabin. + 65 euros in a double cabin. + 109 euros including a berth in a private cabin.
• Tickets to Stockholm: + 79 euros 2nd class, +129 euros first class (discount rates, usually, but not always, available).
• First class train tickets to Copenhagen (in lieu of 2nd class): + 19 euros.
• Tickets on the Paris airport train, to Charles de Gaulle or Orly from anywhere in the city. Follow this link for details.
  

Alternate Arrangements, in lieu of our usual packages (subject to availability)
Prices are complete (in other words, they are not in addition to the "Base" Access Package Price)

• Tickets to London via Saturday overnight train, including a couchette on board (sleeping car upgrades available). 159 euros if you are also purchasing tickets from London at the start of your trip, 199 euros if not, or if you prefer a changeable ticket (if you prefer 1st class on the Eurostar channel tunnel TGV from Brussels to London, 199 or 249 euros; 1st class tickets include meal service).
• Overnight trains run to a great variety of destinations in Continental Europe (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, etc.). A flat fare of 129 euros applies, including a couchette, provided you are on a trip of 2 or more weeks, or arrived in Denmark by train (159 - 179 euros otherwise).
• Dinner, hotel, and breakfast in Arhus without ongoing train: 69 euros.
• Saturday evening train to Copenhagen; without hotel or meals: 49 euros.

4. TIMING Your Trip

If at all possible, you should spend Saturday night (and, ideally, part of Sunday) in Arhus. Denmark's second city is full of stuff to see and do, and the riding day coming in is too full to give you any real time for it on Saturday. Furthermore, Saturday night here is particularly fun. On Sunday, we particularly recommend a visit to one of the city parks, which has an entire 17th century Danish town reconstructed in its midst: truly interesting. For all these reasons, think in terms of a post-noon Sunday departure, if you can manage it.


5. Service Information
Schedules are approximate – exact timetables can be consulted at http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm.
Best trains are mentioned. Others are slower or have multiple connections.

• To Copenhagen, downtown or airport. Hourly trains, including a middle-of-the-night train at 2a on Saturday night / Sunday morning that would save you a hotel night, though you would be pretty cranky by the time you pulled into Copenhagen.... Journey time is 3.5 hours. First Sunday morning train is at 7:30a.
• To Oslo. It is possible to reach Oslo via an all-day Sunday trip, with an early morning departure from Arhus and a late evening arrival in Oslo. But we suggest instead a midday departure, using the sleeper train from Kristiansand to Oslo, and arriving early Monday morning. Saves a hotel night, and gives you half a day in Arhus.
• To Stockholm. Via Copenhagen. Add about 6 more hours for the trip on to Stockholm. A good series of trains runs at 9:30a, with a 6p arrival in Stockholm. Or, spend part of the day in Arhus, have dinner in Copenhagen, and use the overnight sleeper train from Copenhagen to Stockholm. Wastes less time than flying, and saves a hotel night.
• To London. Daily departure from Arhus at 7p, arrival in London at 12:30p the next day, with connections in Köln at 7a, and Brussels at 10a.
• To Paris, Brussels, Munich... daily departures from Arhus at 5p (ambitious on Saturday) and 7p, mid-morning to late morning arrivals at destination.

6. Suggested POST-TRIP VISITS

Copenhagen, Oslo, the Norwegian fjords....


7. Hints on TRAVELLING INDEPENDENTLY After the Trip
Guests subscribing to an “Access Package” need not read this section.

See also “Timing Your Trip” and “Service Information,” above, as either of these may additionally help.

We gladly provide travel consulting (schedule or routing information) concerning post-trip individual travel. In particular, we have invested a great deal to become railway experts. Our service fees are reasonable: a 20 € charge for all but the most complex projects – or the most simple (for instance, only a 10 € charge applies if the service is limited to the preparation of a routine rail ticket). You will generally find them well-justified by the time they will save you in research, standing on line, overpaying for your tickets, or all three.

But, for some, this type of research is fun. So, here are some hints, intended to start off hardened “do-it-yourselfers.”

Trains. Schedules for all routes can be consulted on this web site:
http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/fares_schedules/index.htm

Arhus is linked to Copenhagen via hourly train, to Hamburg (Germany) every two hours. Trains to the rest of the continent depart from Hamburg. Travellers to Oslo will go north, to the ports of Hirtsals or Frederikshavn.

Planes. Ryanair serves Arhus from London, and also nearby Esbjerg.


If you wish to arrange some or all of your travel through us, please tell us what by means of this response questionnaire, designed to collect all the information we need to be able to book your travel.