Holiday Homes on Bornholm – Regions, Prices and Providers

Why a holiday home on Bornholm is worth it

Bornholm is compact – you can drive around the island in about two hours. From a holiday home, sandy beaches, harbour towns and forests are all within easy reach, and you're not tied to hotel timetables. Especially for families and longer stays, your own kitchen, a garden and direct beach access at many properties beat a hotel room hands down.

The big booking portals offer plenty of choice – HomeToGo currently lists more than 8,000 places to stay on Bornholm. Casamundo, Holidu and English-language agencies each carry several thousand properties too. The exact selection shifts day to day, but there's no shortage of houses. The real decision, then, is less "whether" than "where on the island" and "at what total price".

Where to base yourself – the regions compared

Bornholm is varied, and which coast you choose shapes the kind of holiday you'll have. A rough guide:

• South coast (Dueodde, Sømarken, Balka): the island's finest sandy beaches and the largest holiday-home areas. Family-friendly and firmly geared towards beach holidays. Dueodde beach, with its exceptionally fine sand, is the star turn here, alongside the sheltered bay at Balka.
• East coast (Svaneke, Gudhjem, Nexø): lively harbour towns with restaurants, smokehouses (traditional Danish fish-smoking houses) and plenty of arts and crafts – the culture-heavy corner of the island. Attractive, but Gudhjem sits steep and terraced on its hillside, so expect a fair amount of stair-climbing.
• North coast (Allinge-Sandvig): rocky landscapes, the castle ruin of Hammershus and a quiet, almost Mediterranean feel. Good for walkers – the coastal path from Sandvig to Gudhjem covers around 18.5 kilometres and takes about five hours.
• West coast (Hasle, Rønne): close to the ferry port, convenient for arrival and departure, and known for its sunsets over the sea.

If price is your priority, the island's interior, the west coast and low season are generally cheaper than a beachfront property in the south during peak season.

What it realistically costs

One important distinction up front – the rent isn't the final price. Billing is usually exclusive of consumption: water, electricity, heating or heating oil, gas and firewood are charged according to actual use. Bed linen and towels often cost extra, typically around €18 to €25 per set, and a security deposit may apply depending on the size and fittings of the property.

For the rent alone, these weekly ranges are a useful guide:

• High season (July/August): roughly €1,200 to €2,100
• Shoulder season (May, June, September): roughly €800 to €1,200
• Low season (November to April): from around €500

Converted to a nightly rate, the large portals put the August average at roughly €185 to €210. Higher figures around €230 crop up occasionally, but they're better read as an upper marker than a typical average. Houses right on the beach or with a sauna and pool sit at the upper end, as you'd expect.

A tip for comparing providers – don't just look at the weekly rent; ask specifically about final cleaning, linen packages, electricity charges or metering, and the deposit. Final cleaning isn't included everywhere – according to the provider, Feriepartner Bornholm includes it in the rental price, while NOVASOL usually bills it separately. This is often exactly where a seemingly cheaper deal turns out to be genuinely cheaper, or not.

Providers and booking routes

There's no single right way to book – what matters is matching the service and price to your own expectations:

• Large agencies (NOVASOL and others): a wide range from small flats to luxury villas, a local service office, and often add-on packages. NOVASOL, for instance, offers a damage-waiver package; consumption and the deposit are typically settled within four weeks of departure.
• Local providers (Feriepartner Bornholm and others): local knowledge and personal service. At Feriepartner, final cleaning is included in the price according to the provider – a real, calculable difference.
• English-language agencies: bundle houses from various owners with English-speaking customer service – handy if you value advice in your own language.
• Comparison portals (HomeToGo, Casamundo, Holidu): good for an initial overview of the market and for comparing prices. Booking often runs through the original provider itself, so it's worth checking their terms too.
• Directly from the owner (private letting platforms): a direct line to the owner and sometimes cheaper, though with less all-round service than the larger agencies.

Cancellation and insurance terms vary noticeably between providers – a quick check of the small print before booking saves trouble later. If you're still weighing up which type of accommodation suits you, the where-to-stay overview covers the alternatives, including hotels and camping.

Getting there

For a holiday-home stay, having your own car is the obvious choice – for luggage, shopping trips and excursions around the island. Two main routes bring you to Bornholm:

• Sassnitz (Mukran) – Rønne: the direct connection from mainland Germany, run by Bornholmslinjen's MS Hammershus, with a crossing of around 3 hours 20 minutes. It operates year-round – usually daily in each direction during high season, several times a week in the shoulder seasons, and around once a week in winter.
• Ystad – Rønne: Bornholmslinjen's fast catamaran ferry via Sweden, with a crossing of just 80 minutes, also running year-round. In low season, expect roughly three to six departures a day; in high season, considerably more. Ystad itself is reached from Copenhagen via the Öresund Bridge.

The most sought-after July and August sailings sell out early, so it's worth securing your ferry tickets for peak season well ahead of time. Denmark is part of the Schengen area – EU/EEA citizens can enter with a valid national ID card, while other travellers will need a valid passport. You'll find every route, crossing time and booking link in detail under ferries to Bornholm.

Getting around once you're there

Having a car at the holiday home gives you the most flexibility, especially for bigger shopping trips and more distant destinations. But it's not essential:

• Bike: Bornholm has a signposted cycle network of more than 230 kilometres, including around 43 kilometres on former railway lines with only gentle gradients. The centrepiece is the national Route 10 (Bornholm Rundt), running just over 100 kilometres, supplemented by regional routes 21 to 26. Bikes can be hired in many places; more on this under cycling on Bornholm.
• Bus: the BAT network links the larger towns year-round – around nine to ten regional routes, all starting from Rønne, running from Sandvig in the north to Dueodde in the south, plus city buses within Rønne. Main routes run roughly hourly, timed to ferry arrivals, with zone-based fares. The definitive, up-to-date timetables are on bat.dk.

Travelling with a dog, note that leads are required on the beach from 1 April to 30 September; from October to March dogs may run free under control. In woodland, leads are required year-round. Details and travel advice for dog owners are under Bornholm with dogs.

The best time for a holiday-home stay

July and August are the warmest months and correspondingly busy – expect peak prices and book well ahead. Around them lie quieter, often lovelier windows:

• May: mild at around 12 to 13°C, quiet and ideal for walking and cycling.
• June: the sunniest month, with around nine hours of sunshine a day, plus the well-known "Sol over Gudhjem" cooking competition.
• September: still mild enough for summer, but noticeably fewer visitors and cheaper houses.

Bornholm is known as Denmark's "Sunshine Island", with more sun and less rain than western Denmark – a real plus, especially in low season. For a fuller month-by-month picture, see weather on Bornholm, and for the island's best swimming spots, see beaches on Bornholm.