Sustainable Camping

Find Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Campsites in Denmark

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Zealand

Funen

Jutland

Bornholm

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Travelgreen.dk contains campsites with environmental certifications. CO2 neutral is labelled with

Zealand and islands

Nysted Strand Camping
Skansevej 38, 4880 Nysted
nystedcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay
EU Ecolabel

Tripadvisor
4,0
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Vemmetofte Strand Camping
Ny Strandskov 1, 4640 Faxe
vemmetoftestrandcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
4,5
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De Hvide Svaner Camping
Karrebækvej 741, 4736 Karrebæksminde
dehvidesvaner.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
3,0
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Guldborg Camping
Guldborgvej 147, 4862 Guldborg
guldborgcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
4,5
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Funen and islands

Søby Strand Camping
Vitsø 10, 5985 Søby Ærø
soeby-camping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
5,0
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Jutland

Randbøldal Camping
Dalen 9, 7183 Randbøldal
randboldalcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
3,0
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Bryrup Camping
Hovedgaden 58, 8654 Bryrup
bryrupcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
4,0
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Book Stay

Camp Djursland
Reimersvej 13, 8963 Auning
auningcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
4,5
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Jelling Familie Camping
Mølvangvej 55, 7300 Jelling
jellingcamping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
4,5
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Hvalpsund Camp
Overgaden 24, 9640 Farsø
hvalpsundcamp.dk

Certification
EU Ecolabel

Tripadvisor
4,0
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Bornholm

Lyngholt Familiecamping
Nordre Borrelyngvej 43, 3770 Allinge
lyngholt-camping.dk

Certification
Green Stay

Tripadvisor
4,5
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Campsites Without Certification

We work with the following campsites that have no certification.

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Guide to Green Camping

Guide to sustainable camping in Denmark and abroad. We’ve compiled a wide range of green tips and advice, whether you’re going on a camping holiday in Denmark or abroad.

Guide to: Sustainable Driving • On the Campsite • Eat Sustainably • In Nature

Guide to Green Camping

Guide to sustainable camping in Denmark and abroad. We’ve compiled a wide range of green tips and advice, whether you’re going on a camping holiday in Denmark or abroad.

Guide to:
Sustainable Driving
On the Campsite • Eat Sustainably • In Nature

Sustainable Driving

The vast majority of people who go on camping holidays drive themselves. It’s a good starting point if you want an environmentally conscious holiday. It emits less CO2 than if you fly.

Choosing Transport

According to the European Environment Agency’s 2020 Transport and Environment Report, the train is the greenest mode of transport you can choose. But if you drive four people in a car, the CO2 emissions per person are almost on par with the train. So the more people in the car, the better it is for the environment.

If you choose to fly, direct flights to your destination are the most sustainable option. Planes emit up to 25 per cent more CO2 per stopover. So try to fly direct or with as few stopovers as possible.

The Drive

We’ve put together some tips on how you can make your journey more sustainable.

The most economical way to drive is to keep a steady speed with the fewest possible braking and acceleration. If your car has cruise control, use it as much as possible. Remember that high speed equals high fuel consumption. For example, you can save up to 20 per cent fuel by keeping your speed at 110 km/h. instead of 130 km/h.

When accelerating, keep it fresh and change gear before the car reaches high revs. For diesel engines, this means 2,000 revs. New petrol cars should hit 1,500 revs, while you should change gear in older models at between 2,000 and 2,500 revs. It’s also a good idea to skip a gear when accelerating, for example by shifting directly from second to fourth gear.

It’s generally a good idea to choose the highest possible gear when driving. An excellent example is city driving. You can easily put the car in fourth or fifth gear when travelling at around 50 km/h.

Anticipation in traffic is also a great skill to have. If you can see up ahead that you’re going to have to brake, do it quietly and in good time. You may even be able to let off the accelerator instead of having to brake if you act in good time. Unnecessary braking and acceleration results in higher fuel consumption. Quite simply.

Remember Tyre Pressure

You save fuel when your vehicles have the correct tyre pressure. This applies to your car, caravan or motorhome. For example, if you drive with 0.5 bar too low, you will increase your fuel consumption by 2-3 per cent.

Therefore, always make sure you have the highest recommended tyre pressure in all your tyres.

Extra Luggage Costs More

We all know it well. Last time we went on holiday, we didn’t use half of the things we brought. This time we’ve promised ourselves to pack only the bare essentials. However, the car ends up being completely packed to the brim. Just remember that 100 kilos of extra luggage equates to about four per cent extra fuel consumption.

Aircondition

Driving with the air conditioning on costs up to one litre of extra fuel per 100 kilometres. But it’s not that there’s much to be saved by opening the windows instead of using the car’s air conditioning. When you drive with the windows open, you increase the car’s air resistance, which also costs extra fuel.

On the Campsite

Many campsites are implementing sustainable initiatives for their guests. You can also do your bit to help. In this section you’ll find tips on how to make campsite life more sustainable.

Save Electricity

You can help reduce CO2 emissions by minimising your energy consumption. Here are some tips on how to save electricity:

Switch off the lights in your caravan or motorhome when not in use.
Unplug electrical appliances instead of leaving them on standby.
Hang clothes to dry instead of using the tumble dryer.
Switch off the air conditioning when you leave your car, caravan or motorhome.

You can also reduce your energy consumption by replacing old electronics and appliances with new climate-friendly models. Use the energy label to choose the most sustainable appliances. They may cost a little more, but if you calculate all your costs over the lifetime of the product, you can save a lot of money by choosing energy class A.

Conserve Water

Many small streams make a big river. You can save many litres of water over the course of a day just by thinking about how much you use during your daily activities. This also applies to camping holidays.

Below are a few examples of good water saving tips you can follow:

Wash up in a tub instead of under running water.
Use a bowl of water instead of running water when peeling potatoes and rinsing vegetables.
Take shorter showers. You save 8-12 litres of water per minute you shorten your shower.
Switch off the water while soaping up.
Switch off the water while brushing your teeth.
Fill the washing machine to capacity, use the lowest possible temperature and skip the pre-wash.

Sort Your Waste

Always remember to sort your waste at the campsite. Plastic goes to plastic, paper to paper, glass to glass, metal to metal, cardboard to cardboard and food waste to food waste. These are the main rules for sorting.

If your campsite doesn’t have waste sorting, talk to them about whether it would be a good idea to introduce it. Together we can do more to spread the message of a greener and more sustainable world.

Drink Tap Water

Another sustainable solution is to drink tap water instead of bottled spring water. Bottled water requires a lot of resources to produce and transport. In addition, the plastic bottle is one of nature’s greatest enemies. The majority of them are not recycled properly. Instead, they end up in landfills or even worse, in nature.

Eat Sustainably

Whether you choose to have a barbecue at the campsite or go to the local restaurant, you can do a lot to protect the environment. In this section you’ll find lots of tips on how to eat more sustainably on your camping holiday.

Choice of Produce

We’ve become accustomed to our supermarkets stocking all kinds of produce all year round. The problem is that this luxury is not very sustainable. Local, seasonal produce is both tastier and more sustainable. This advice applies to both self-catering and eating out.

Luckily, camping holidays usually mean summer and sun. The perfect season if you want to eat more sustainably. Summer offers a cornucopia of delicious vegetables and fruits, especially if you travel south on your camping holiday.

In Italy, France and Spain, for example, you’ll find countless local markets where you can buy fresh local produce. They often take great pride in having produced the produce themselves and not using pesticides. It doesn’t get much more sustainable than that.

If you have the opportunity, visit local markets and buy locally produced products instead of choosing the nearest supermarket. Supermarkets often sell products that have been transported from far away. This is not very good for the environment.

Choice of Restaurants

More and more restaurants are focussing on sustainability. This applies both in Denmark and abroad. One of the things a restaurant can do to be more sustainable is to use locally produced ingredients.

It could also be a fish restaurant that only uses fish caught via coastal fishing. A more gentle fishing method that does not affect the seabed and has minimal unwanted by-catch. Or perhaps the restaurant is part of a scheme that tries to minimise food waste.

There are many ways to run a restaurant more sustainably these days, and there are many restaurants that focus on this aspect.

You can help by choosing the restaurants that are doing something for the environment. This way, you’re showing that you support sustainable initiatives. And over time, more and more restaurants will hopefully realise that sustainability equals more customers.

Choice of Food

Looking at the carbon footprint of individual foods, there is no doubt that vegetables are the most climate-friendly. According to The Big Climate Database, the total emissions for one kilo of beef tenderloin is 152 kilos of CO2. This is equivalent to a flight from Copenhagen to Paris (source: UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy).

In comparison, a kilo of potatoes emits just 360 grams of CO2, while a kilo of tomatoes emits 700 grams of CO2. If meat is on the menu, chicken meat is the most climate-friendly option. A kilo of chicken breast emits 3.4 kilos of CO2, while a kilo of chicken thighs emits 1.3 kilos of CO2.

See figures for over 500 foods at: denstoreklimadatabase.dk

Choice of Barbecue

For many, camping holidays are synonymous with sun, summer and, not least, barbecue food. But which barbecue is the most environmentally friendly?

You should choose either a gas barbecue or an electric barbecue if you want to grill in the most sustainable way. There are several good reasons for this. They heat up quickly. This means you’re not wasting energy waiting for the barbecue to be ready for use. When you’re done using them, you can switch them off immediately. This means you stop using energy immediately, unlike a disposable barbecue or charcoal barbecue that burns long after use. Last but not least, gas and electric barbecues emit virtually no harmful particles.

A charcoal barbecue emits up to 65 per cent more CO2 than both gas and electric barbecues. If you use a charcoal barbecue, the Danish EPA recommends that you smother the fire after use instead of letting the coals burn out. You can do this by putting a lid on the grill. This way you burn less CO2.

Use labelling schemes such as the Nordic Swan Ecolabel when buying barbecue briquettes. This will help you minimise your overall impact on the environment and climate. For example, Nordic Swan Ecolabelled barbecue briquettes must be 100% FSC or PEFC certified.

The disposable barbecue is a poor solution in every way. There is rarely any control over where the briquettes in disposable barbecues come from. They can come from destroyed forests in Africa, Asia and South America. On top of that, it’s usually made of aluminium, which is a huge problem in terms of pollution in nature.

The worst thing you can do with a disposable barbecue is to bury it in the sand if you’ve been grilling on the beach. Other people might step on top of it. And when you cover the grill with sand, it can retain the heat even longer, which only increases the risk of other people getting hurt. There are countless examples of people getting hurt this way every year.

Aluminium does not belong in nature. It must be disposed of properly. That means not directly into the rubbish bin after use. As already mentioned, disposable barbecues can remain hot for several hours after use, so you risk setting fire to the bin and worse.

In Nature

The best thing about camping holidays is that you’re often close to nature. But that also means you need to be extra aware of how you behave. ‘The 7 principles of Leave No Trace’ describe how you can enjoy nature in a respectful and ethical way. In this section we have gathered the most relevant advice from these principles.

Leave Minimal Trace

In Denmark, you have the right to walk anywhere in the public forest and nature, but it can still be a good idea to stick to marked areas such as forest paths. One of the tips in the seven principles is to stick to solid surfaces when travelling in nature. This way you avoid stepping on vegetation or other important microorganisms that help maintain the natural ecosystem.

Clean Up After Others

If you notice other people’s rubbish, take it with you if you can. It’s always a good idea to carry a few extra plastic bags, for situations like this. It’s better to have one too many rubbish bags than too few.

If you’re particularly keen on keeping nature clean, there are even plenty of initiatives online that organise volunteer clean-up projects. Maybe you can find a project near your campsite. See for example earthday.org/cleanup

Are You Allowed to Collect Things in Nature?

According to the Danish Nature Agency, the rule of thumb is that you are allowed to collect about a bagful for your own consumption of berries, twigs, pine cones, mushrooms, moss and more. Read more about the specific rules at: naturstyrelsen.dk/hvad-maa-jeg-samle-i-skoven/

Visit Nature in Small Groups

There are many people who love to use nature as their breathing space. Of course, there should be room for that. But many people also mean more pressure on nature’s delicate ecosystems. One of the seven principles is that you should visit nature in as small groups as possible.

If you’re part of a large group, you could, for example, suggest that you split into two. If you’re booking a guided tour, ask how many people are allowed on the tour. Not all tour companies think about the impact their tours have on nature.

Never Litter

Animals can be seriously harmed by the rubbish we leave behind. They can cut themselves on glass and metal waste discarded in nature. They can also get stuck in plastic containers, nets, bags and more. Abandoned waste can also be a breeding ground for bacteria and diseases that can spread to animals.

In addition, nature is harmed by the chemicals and microparticles that exist when unnatural objects decompose in nature. For example, cigarette butts can contain arsenic, lead and formaldehyde.

Respect the Wildlife

Keep your distance from wild animals and don’t disturb them. It can be stressful for an animal if you try to sneak up on it, for example to take a picture with your mobile phone camera. If you want to take good photos of wild animals, you should invest in a telephoto lens that can take pictures of animals from a distance.

You should also not feed wild animals. Firstly, it can be harmful to their health. It can also change their behaviour, making them more tame and easier prey for other predators.

About Certifications

On TravelGreen.dk we indicate whether our partners have one or more of the following environmental certifications from authorities or environmental organisations.

The EU Ecolabel

The EU Ecolabel is an official EU label and a voluntary eco-labelling scheme.

Green Stay

Green Stay is an eco-labelling scheme under Camping Outdoor Denmark for sustainable campsites and camping retailers.

Green Key

Green Key (including Green Camping) is an eco-label supported by the environmental organisation FEE and HORESTA.