How to ride a rental bike from Berlin to Copenhagen - and leave it there

[H O L D F I R E 流]

The 600 km route takes you through gorgeous landscapes in Mecklenburg, Brandenburg and Denmark. And with a handy arrangement between two outfitters, you can rent a bike in one city and leave it in the other. The other day, I was looking at bike rentals for a friend visiting Berlin when a little tab on the website of bike rental outfit Fahrradstation jumped out at me. It said “Berlin -- Kopenhagen.” I’ve been meaning to get to Copenhagen to check out the city’s famous bike culture, but was it possible to actually go there by bike? I bike everywhere in Berlin, and I’ve taken my cruiser on the S-Bahn to parks on the city’s edge. But I’ve never embarked a multi-day bike tour, and I certainly wouldn’t want to do it with the heavy vintage bicycle I ride here.

Yet somehow biking to Copenhagen sounded like just my kind of trip, and I wanted to learn more. So two days later, I was sitting in the Kreuzberg office of Fahrradstation’s founder, Stefan Neitzel. He’d just completed the trip himself, along with his daughters, age 9 and 12, over the course of 13 days in June and July. He says the Berlin-Copenhagen route is a great choice for someone new to bike touring. You can avoid cars most of the time and ride along paved or gravel bikeways through fields, forests and towns. It’s also super flat. Part of the incredible landscape you'll encounter along the way. Photo: Stefan Neitzel. Riding the route The route takes you through ridiculously pretty landscapes of Mecklenburg and Brandenburg in Germany, then a ferry from Rostock. That’s followed by 300 km in Denmark, largely along seaside paths that take you past long stretches of white sand beaches -- though don’t be surprised if it’s obscenely windy. (“And somehow never from the back, always from the side,” Neitzel says.) And at the end, you’ve reached Copenhagen, cyclists’ Holy Land. My lack of a proper bike is no deal breaker, either.

Fahrradstation has worked out an agreement with MTB-Tours in Copenhagen so you can rent a bike in Berlin, cruise to the Danish capital, and return it to the shop there -- or vice versa. That’s a big deal: it removes the hassle and expense of getting a bike home by plane, train, or pedaling it all the way back. And since I only own a heavy city bike, a rental means getting a bike that’s suited to long haul pedaling -- likely a trekking bike, though gravel bikes and e-bikes are options, too. A trip like this is within reach of all kinds of people, Neitzel says. Just as his family arrived in Copenhagen

, they met a young American woman who had just completed the journey by herself. And along the route, they met two women from Oranienburg, each towing a trailer with a child under two, with a 10-year-old biking alongside them. Neitzel points out that when you’re touring by bike instead of car, you’re incredibly free. You can stop at any time to take a photo, without looking for a highway exit. You can plan in advance where you want to stop each evening, or just stop and camp wherever you feel done for the day. “You’re so close to nature, and at the same time you really do something positive for yourself, for your body,” he says. “You breathe good air, you eat a lot of good food. You just move and come back strengthened and happy. It’s a really recommendable way to travel.” Here are some tips for making the trip -- and making it fun.