Eco homes and a Michelin green star: sustainable living on Denmarks Djursland peninsula

A sustainable community whose residents have built their own homes sits in a beautiful, quiet Baltic landscape. And an innovative restaurant offering fine dining is at hand …

The Swedes, with their lush forests, and the Norwegians, with their dramatic mountains, like to joke about Denmark – that it is Scandinavia’s leftovers all squeezed together and flattened by the ice age … some punchline. But part of the big attraction of Denmark and its people comes through their philosophy of respect for nature and their abundance of hygge, in the main being happy for others and letting them just be.

On a broad bay in the country’s Djursland peninsula sits the pretty coastal town of Ebeltoft, surrounded by the green hills and bronze age burial mounds of the Mols Bjerge national park. All cobbled streets and creaking half-timbered houses painted in lovely pastel shades, it buzzes with families on a long weekend break. There are opportunities for days splashing in the cool waters of the Baltic sea, windy walks on the harbour, visiting tall Viking ships and taking cycle rides along the many signposted paths. It is picture perfect holiday fodder.