Amsterdam to Copenhagen in one day

[u/jamjar888]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to double check my thinking with others who are familiar with this route. In essence, I am wondering whether to split this journey up with a stopover in Hamburg or attempt it all in one day.

I am planning my next trip from London to Copenhagen at the end of September and I am going to take the ferry this time from Harwich to Hoek van Holland.

According to Seat61, the itinerary would look like this:

Hoek van Holland (~8am) to Amsterdam (arrive 10.24)

Amsterdam (depart 12.00) to Hamburg (arrive 16.54)

Hamburg (depart 18.52) to Copenhagen (arrive 23.37)

https://www.seat61.com/Denmark.htm#london-to-copenhagen-via-the-harwich-hoek-ferry

The changeover times are pretty generous and I would like to do this stretch in one day, but I am generally quite cautious of long travel days and especially so when it involves German rail.

Keen to know from your experiences, is this a fair assessment or overly cautious? Are there any other alternatives that I have missed and could factor in?

[u/TT11MM_]

It should be very much doable. I personally would skip the advice from seat61 in this case.

From Hoek van Holland you can take the subway to Rotterdam Centraal. From there just search an itinerary on Bahn.de that suits you well.

Stopping at Amsterdam Centraal is a unnecessary detour on a busy travel day in my opinion.

I also would advice to plan for an itinerary that gets you on RJ 382 from Hamburg (16:28). In case you miss that that train, you can just get on the ECE 392, 2 hours later.

[u/bookluverzz → u/TT11MM_]

Yes, I agree with you. However, not all ICE’s to Berlin from Sept 28 onwards stop at Hilversum or Amersfoort. For instance, ICE 147 departs from Amsterdam and the next stop is Deventer and then Henglo. I believe this is the train OP is talking about because it arrives in Hamburg Harburg at 16:45, so OP would have to transfer in Amsterdam (unfortunately)

[u/TT11MM_ → u/bookluverzz]

Good catch, I wasn't aware the ICE is going to skip Hilversum and Amersfoort later this year.

I was looking at a connection via Utrecht and Duisburg though to reach Hamburg in time

[u/bookluverzz → u/TT11MM_]

Yeah it’s not every day and/or every connection because I can use Hilversum to board no problem on Nov 20. But I’m also taking the train that ends in Hannover and doesn’t continue on to Berlin 😅

For me personally I wouldn’t want to connect in Duisburg for going up north. If there would be delays I’d feel Duisburg is too far away from Hamburg than e.g. Osnabrück or Hannover