The travel lesson we should learn from Denmark
The concept of hygge isn’t just something to experience while in Denmark. It might make your travels elsewhere more mindful and even less expensive, too.
Hygge (pronounced “hooga”) is derived from an old Norse word for comfort or consolation, and related to the English word “hug”.
Credit: Jamie Brown
It became a major international trend in the mid-2010s, when a dozen books urged us to get more hygge in our lives, and has since become associated on social media with candlelight, crackling fires and knitted socks.
Hygge is now associated with healthy hedonism, in which we’re invited to enjoy gentle, relaxing and inexpensive things, such as cat-stroking, tea-drinking, warm slippers, woven baskets and comfy clothes.
But hygge is much more than that. For the Danes, hygge is almost a philosophy of life: an appreciation of family and friends, rustic simplicity, and the natural and traditional over the artificial and modern.
All this is reputed to be the reason for Denmark’s high ranking in happiness surveys. Question is, can the mere visitor tap into the hygge and happiness that the Danes enjoy?
Well perhaps. Walk the streets of Copenhagen all a-glitter with fairy lights and that’s hygge. Tuck into roast duck in a cellar restaurant in Odense as candles flicker on table tops, and that’s hygge too.
Flickering candles and steaming hot drinks can also by hygge.Credit: iStock
Check into a country hotel, snuggle into your old sweater by the fire and have afternoon tea with gingerbread, and your hygge will hit a happy high.
Know what to avoid as well. No checking of work emails while you’re on holiday. No slumping alone in front of the hotel TV, or brooding on a park bench. Look for sociable activities.
Visit in winter and you’ll find much more hygge around when it’s dark, cold and preferably stormy outside, and all aglow with light and warmth inside. Bad luck, though, when hygge can’t be found, since the Danish winter can be miserable.
Don’t envy the Danes too much: their hygge lifestyle is partly a product of a cold, damp climate. Who needs hygge under a bright blue Australian sky?
The good news is that hygge doesn’t have to cost a lot. The Danes don’t like show-offs, and hygge isn’t about fanciness. A cup of tea and freshly baked cake is enough. Or reading a book as rain patters against your hotel window.
Hygge is about mindful living and soothing moments, which is something we should be reminded of in these straightened times. Less is more, and quiet pleasures and social connection best.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.