1. Kommandørgården farm

Do not miss out on Rømø's old Kommandørgården farm, built in 1746 during the island's whaling heyday. A commander (kommandør) was the captain of a whaler and many made such a good living that they could build impressive farms decorated with Frisian and Dutch tiles, and beautifully painted wainscots. Inside there was beautiful furniture and copperware. "Kommandørgården" is located at Juvrevej 60. Look at the fence at Juvrevej 82, made in 1772 out of whale bones.

2. The military area at Juvre Sand

Juvre Sand covers an area encompassing 20 km2 on northern Rømø and no entry is permitted at any time. The Danish military has used the area for military training since 1954. Now the area is used particularly to train army pilots, who attack simulated tanks, planes and military vehicles from their aircraft. Military exercises are signalled using signal balls, and a white flashing light is lit on the top of the control tower. You can watch the exercises from the viewing platform at the car park, but please be careful of the laser lights used in the target range as these may cause eye damage. For the same reason it is not a good idea to use binoculars.

Walking or cycling along the 10km-long Juvre dyke protecting the vast marshland area of Juvre Enge is always permitted. The Juvre dyke was established in the 1920s, but after building Rømø dyke in 1948, it was damaged several times by the changed current patterns. In 1965, a more secluded dyke was built on the eastern side, which today is still holding its ground.

3. Rømø dyke

The almost 9km-long causeway to Rømø provides your first impression of the Wadden Sea. You are right in the middle of the Wadden Sea here, and the birds won’t even give you a second look. Stop at a passing place and experience flocks of sandpipers, ducks and geese, and at times, the white-tailed eagle on the hunt. Along the dyke, you can also see tidal trenches and slit trenches which look like a ploughed field. These increase the sediment of material washed in with the tide, and help to stabilise the dam. Land reclamation was stopped in 1992 but marshlands have been formed in many places, with violet beach starwort blooming in August.

The dyke was not completed until 1948. Before then, people sailed to Kongsmark, from where a horse-drawn tram could take them to Lakolk. The dyke was severely damaged by storm surges in 1976, 1981 and 1999.

4. Naturcenter Tønnisgård

Naturcenter Tønnisgård (nature centre) is a good place to start your tour of Rømø. Maps and brochures are available here. You can book the following guided tours: The Wadden Sea tour, bunker tours, bird watching tours, horse-carriage tours, schnapps tours or shrimping and oyster tours. There are also activities for children such as polishing amber, building kites, nature workshops and using mussel shells to build models.

In 2013, a new exhibition opened on the mysteries of the Wadden Sea and thrilling nature experiences along the west coast of Jutland.

Next to Tønnisgård is the Rømø Mini Museum, which is a wooden shed with a poster exhibition about nature on Rømø and how the island originated (free and always open).

5. Bunkers in Tvismark Plantage

Midway between Rømø dyke and the beach is Tvismark Plantage, which is about 1.5 km2 of pine wood, heaths and sand dunes. Tvismark Plantage has about 15 of the 50 bunkers remaining on Rømø from the German occupation in 1940-45. The Germans had one of their largest radar positions around the "Mammut bunker". Blasting the bunkers after the war was an enormous task, and instead they were more or less buried in the sand. Most bunkers are locked, but it is possible to take a guided bunker tour where you go into the bunkers and even go out through an emergency exit. The tours can be booked at Naturcenter Tønnisgård.

Vesterhavsvej may be known as "Pommes Frites Strasse" among locals on Rømø because of the many fast-food restaurants, but in the woods you can also take your own picnic basket and enjoy your meal at covered tables and benches. If you remember to bring coal, you can even fry your own sausages, meat and vegetables on the brick barbecue under the roof, ensuring food is dry, even during rainfall.

6. Høstbjerg

Together with the Stagebjerg record, Høstbjerg has the highest "mountains" on Rømø. However, there is no risk of altitude sickness. Høstbjerg is 19 metres high and is located on the border between the forest and dune heaths, with a handsome view of twisted trees, the heath, Rømø dyke, Juvre Sand and Mandø. Even the Esbjerg skyline is visible on the horizon.

Follow the yellow, marked hiking trails and take a 3km round trip through varied landscape of pine forest and open heaths with heather and crowberry, as well as light purple bell heather in moist areas.

7. Lakolk beach

If you experienced Rømø in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, you probably remember the beach as Denmark's widest “motorway”, with parking so close to the sea that the waves often lapped against car tyres. This is not so any more. Rømø is growing about 2m towards the west every year, and a new row of sand dunes is forming on the beach. Therefore most of the coast has become a car-free area.

At Lakolk beach there is still 2km of coastline where everything is as it was in the old days, and it is still possible to park close to the sea. Here you can fly a kite, build sand castles, play ball and let the wind decide your hairstyle! If you're looking for wind surfers, go to the northern part of Lakolk beach. If you want to let your dog run off its leash, go to the sand dune area between the beach and the camp site.

8. The new row of sand dunes - car-free beach

The new row of sand dunes on the beach is an interesting example of Rømø’s ceaseless growth towards the west. In future, the beach will spread wider and wider, and the area behind the sand dunes will change into a coastal meadow. To see what this will look like, look behind "Slagtebænken" (see below). The entire 9km beach edge between Lakolk and Sønderstrand is a car-free area where children and adults can walk along the beach without worrying about being run over by cars, wind surfers, sand yachts etc. You can to drive on the beach behind the new outer row of sand dunes, about 500m from the sea. Please note, however, that it is only possible to approach the area from Sønderstrand. It is no longer possible to drive on the beach between Lakolk Strand and Sønderstrand because of the new sand dunes.

9. Slagtebænken

Slagtebænken has nothing to do with Dybbøl and the war against the Germans in 1864. However, for a flock of grazing sheep this naturally formed hole in the row of sand dunes became disastrous. The ocean broke through the row of sand dunes, and the coastal meadows were flooded, killing many sheep. This explains the name ("slagtebænken" = the slaughterhouse bench). Slagtebænken still lies as an open wound in the row of sand dunes, and in stormy weather the ocean might still wash over the coastal meadows and bogs behind the row of sand dunes.

10. Nature's swimming pool - Havsand Lå

At high tide, the tidal waters create a completely natural swimming pool at Havsand Lå, and in the summer the water gets much warmer than the open sea. Families with young children will find this a particularly safe place, with no waves and shallow water. It is also one of the best places in the Wadden Sea to experience tidal waters in motion. Havsand Lå is the tideway, draining off a large part of the wide beach (Sønderstrand) during low tide. When the water draws back, Havsand Lå is transformed into a muddy paddling pool. In nature's swimming pool, the water depth changes constantly, and of course, children must be supervised regardless of whether it is high or low tide.

You can drive almost all the way to Havsand Lå and park.

11. Sønderstrand - also for sand yachts

The up to 4km-wide Sønderstrand is a playground for children and adults. You can "sail" on the beach on three-wheeled vehicles powered by the wind. On Rømø kite-buggies and sand yachts have their own turf. The northern part of Sønderstrand is for kite-buggies steered using your feet, while you hold on to a kite which pulls the vehicle forward. The southern part of Sønderstrand is for ordinary sand yachts, blocarts, which have a sail and are relatively easy to operate.

Rømø is one of few places in Denmark where you can drive your equipment right down to the beach. There is ample room for anyone who would rather just watch, bathe, sun bathe or take a walk in Banan Klitten - a sand dune shaped like a banana. Banan Klitten is situated furthest to the south on Sønderstrand.

Like at Lakolk, it is permitted to drive cars all the way out to the sea, but please note that the area is often flooded during high tide.

12. Stagebjerg and Vråby Plantage

You can drive into Vråby Plantage plantation on forest roads. Furthest towards west, the plantation borders fields, while to the north there are sand dune heaths. Towards the east, you can see the original landscape of the island from the top of the 18m-high Stagebjerg. From here you can also see Vesterhede, with open pastures and typical Rømø farms. The German radar station, Ruxendorf, was on Stagebjerg during the Second World War, and there is still a bunker buried in the sand on Stagebjerg.

13. Spidsbjerg - the most beautiful spot on Rømø

The most beautiful view on Rømø is from Spidsbjerg in Kirkeby Plantage plantation. Walk through the heather and climb the 50 wooden steps to the highest point on Rømø. If you get a little dizzy walking up the 10m-high hill, it will be because of the amazing view over parabolic dunes fading away into the distance towards the west at Slagtebænken and on to the sea. Towards the south are views to Havneby, the ferry and the German island of Sild. Towards the north, you can look across Kirkeby Plantage to Rømø dyke, and in clear weather you can catch a glimpse of Esbjerg on the horizon.

An absolutely wonderful walking tour, which is not marked by signposts, follows the top of the sand dunes through the open landscape with dune heaths. This is a large parabolic sand dune (almost the shape of a horse shoe), where two prongs jutting out towards the North Sea form a curve in Kirkeby Plantage, just a few hundred metres south-east of Spidsbjerg. Most children love running on the small paths winding round and up and down the parabolic sand dune.

14. Kirkeby Plantage plantation

The largest plantation on Rømø is Kirkeby Plantage. It is also the most interesting because it conceals open areas with bogs, salt meadows and even a little idyllic forest lake; Hviddal Sø. The lake is actually a fire pond, dug out in 1980. The plantation is characterised by the harsh conditions for growth on the dune heath nearly a hundred years ago. The northern part of the forest features a firebreak with shabby, low oak trees, but otherwise the forest is dominated by pine trees.

A yellow hiking trail from one of the two car parks at Havnebyvej follows a 4km-long round trip in Kirkeby Plantage, which also leads to the most beautiful point on Rømø: Spidsbjerg.