The Brick Shed Goes To Billund – Part 1

Back in January I left Club 30’s and joined the 40+ club which entitled me to a free NHS check-up. One of the other perks was what I would like for my 40^th Birthday. I was fortunate enough to receive some money, so I decided to put it towards a trip to Billund and go see the LEGO House. I also decided to drag my long-suffering Wife along for the fun of it!

The first thing I looked into was flights to Billund, I quickly found out that only British Airways and Ryanair fly direct to Billund. BA operate a single daily flight to Billund, from either City Airport or Heathrow, whereas Ryanair have up to three daily flights from Stansted. BA are a lot more expensive than Ryanair, so saving a few pounds (which will inevitably be spent on LEGO) we went with Ryanair. The flight time is only 90 minutes, however Billund is an hour ahead of us.

Since having children we hadn’t actually been abroad, so we decided to treat ourselves and stay a couple of nights in Billund and leave our boys with my parents. In fact, we hadn’t been aboard for so long our passports had expired so we had to get new ones. 

Stansted Airport

On the day of our anniversary, we headed to Stansted Airport for our flight to Billund. After checking in and going through security. We found our first LEGO Store at the airport.

The store is a concession store, so you can’t get your LEGO Passport stamped or collect Insider points. There were a couple of deals on various sets, however, I would suggest looking online at places like Amazon and Very as generally they have better deals.

Arriving in Billund

The flight to Billund must have been one of the quickest we’ve experienced, and we were there in no time at all. After going through passport control we headed into the main terminal, a quick Google Maps search told us which bus to get, luckily there is a ticket booth just by the exit and the bus stops are located immediately outside the terminal.

One thing to point out is that the buses do not take card payments, so you need cash or to prepurchase your tickets. We didn’t carry any cash with us so ran into issues on the way back to the airport. Luckily, we were able to download the app and buy our tickets that way.

Our hotel was a 10-minute walk from the entrance to LEGOLAND, so we got off there and then the bus continues into Billund, there are bus stops a short walk from the LEGO House. The hotel was a 20-minute walk to LEGO House. Luckily during our time in Billund we saw no rain, so it was a pleasant walk into town.

Food

Before heading to Billund I had spoken to Jas (The Bricketeer) who is a seasoned traveller to Billund and he recommended two excellent food places which are both two minute walks from the LEGO House.

The first was Mama’s restaurant which was an Italian/American restaurant serving excellent Pizzas and was reasonably priced. We each had a main meal and soft drink and it cost us around £30.

The second was a bakery called Billund Bageri which served some excellent pastries. They were so good we went there twice during our trip. One tip is that they operate a ticket system which we didn’t realise the first time we visited and missed this.

If you’re planning to visit, I’d recommend you check out both of these places.

LEGO House

I am going to write a sperate review of our LEGO House trip so stay tuned for that. However, you can visit parts of the House without a ticket, the first are various parts to the outside of the house that can be accessed on two sides from the ground. Each section is divided into colours and there are multiple ways to get to the different levels. If you’re taking children, you should definitely check this out as there are loads of different play features such as slides, swings and climbing areas. If you visit at sunset like we did then the very top of the LEGO House is the perfect place to catch a Billund Sunset.

The LEGO House Shop with the exclusive sets can be visited without a ticket and is normally open an hour after the house itself closes.  Currently the LEGO House Architecture set is available online to buy in the UK so wasn’t worried about getting that but did pick myself up a buildable Pirate figure!

There was also a Mosaic Maker, Minifigure Factory and a decent Pick-a-Brick. The shop had some excellent MOCs of current ideas and my eldest is asking me to help with this one that’s used the recent Prison Island (pictured below) set.

The Minichef Kitchen and Café can be visited as well without a ticket. I’ll cover the Minichef in my review of the LEGO House.

The LEGO House runs similar events to other LEGO Stores. Our last day was May the 4^th and they were running the make and take event to build the brick-built Darth Vader and Princess Leia characters.

Billund

There are a few shops dotted around Billund. Apart from the LEGO House we found only one other shop selling LEGO. On the morning of our last day before our flight we went for a walk around Billund. Next to Billund Bageri you’ll find Ole Kirk’s original house which is unfortunately closed to the public. We then went for a walk around the LEGO Campus which again is closed to the public but has various LEGO statues dotted around, including a Minifigure one directly outside the entrances.

There is of course LEGOLAND, but we didn’t have time to visit here during our trip.

Billund Airport

In no time at all it was time to head back to the airport and home. There is a LEGO store at the airport which again is a concession store so you cannot collect Insider points, however they were doing a promo that if you spent 500DKK (approx £57) you got a 20% discount off all sets including the recently released UCS Tie Interceptor and Dungeons and Dragons. I did notice that some of the sets were slightly marked up. D&D sells for 2799DKK (approx £322) compared to £314.99 here. I was assured by the staff that any sets you buy no matter how large will be allowed onto the plane but didn’t put that to the test. The store did have the Droid Troop carrier as a GWP.

I should point out that none of the LEGO House exclusives are available to buy at the airport store. The store was well stocked with most of the current releases. Another point to note, is that at Billund airport after security, you go through to the duty-free shops. After this and before heading to the terminals is passport control which caught us out, so allow a little extra time when heading to the departure gates.

Final Thoughts

I hope this is useful in planning your trip to Billund. We had a fab time and it’s a charming place to visit. We’re definitely looking forward to visiting again soon, this time we’ll be taking our boys. We’ll probably look to stay a little closer to the LEGO House as they moan when they have to walk any kind of distance!

Thank you for reading, if you do visit Billund we hope you have a nice trip.