Four wheels and many meals: This road trip in Europe is out of this world

The signs signal beware of moose. We have crossed the 7.8-kilometre Oresund Bridge that links Copenhagen to Malmo and are making our way to the southern forests of Sweden, through farmland dotted with storybook barns. On this self-drive gastronomic tour, our plan is to sample New Nordic cuisine, the food movement made famous by Copenhagen's Noma.

Our first stop is restaurant Vyn, in the Skane region about a 90-minute drive from Malmo. Meaning "view" in Swedish, Vyn is four-time Swedish chef of the year Daniel Berlin's new restaurant, opened last November. It's housed in an old barn and seats 30, with accommodation comprising 15 contemporary guest rooms and a wine bar and cafe also onsite. "The ingredients we use are hyper-local," Berlin tells me. "We work with some 70 local producers."

Dinner is at 6pm sharp and we are greeted by Australian restaurant manager Ben van Stellingwerff, hailing from Mudgee in the NSW Central West. He runs the floor with gentility. Staff glide between tables and are chatty as they deliver 15 theatrical courses, plus wines and non-alcoholic pairings including a cherry juice that could be mistaken for a glass of pinot noir.

We start with a dish of lightly cured pike perch, followed by cockles accompanied by smoked deer heart, nettles and roasted barley; each course is plated on ceramics and glassware made by local artists. The evening ends with a selection of treats by the fire including a duck-fat caramel and we retire to our room full and happy to have experienced Berlin's culinary impression of the Skane plains.

In the morning we depart for Wanas Estate, a guest house 90 minutes' drive west through pretty birch forest in the town of Wanas. For eight generations the Wachtmeister family have lived here. Now run by Kristina and Baltzar Wachtmeister, the property includes an organic farm, gallery space, shop, cafe and restaurant as well as an onsite sculpture park that holds 80 permanent pieces including work by Yoko Ono and Marina Abramovic.

Kristina, an architect, opened the 11-room hotel housed in what was the stables built in 1771 in 2017. "We wanted people to come and to stay, not just visit for the day," she says. Curator Milena Hoegsberg takes me on a walking tour through the forest which acts as a backdrop to the collection. "Every year we commission new pieces, it's a dynamic place to work as a curator," she says.

Dinner is five courses tonight, including a tartare of Wanas beef from the farm served with rye and egg yolk and a dessert of rhubarb and elderflower with soft meringue cooked by chef Linus Lind, who tells me he is ex-Vue Du Monde, Melbourne. Breakfast the next morning includes yogurt from the dairy and local charcuterie, and we are soon back in the car and headed to one-Michelin-starred restaurant Knystaforsen. An hour-and-45-minute drive further west through pine forest, the road is lined with moss and lichen as we wind through tiny towns to the pretty lakeside village of Torup.

Run by husband-wife team Eva and chef Nicolai Tram, Knystaforsen offers accommodation beside the restaurant. We walk to dinner, a three-minute stroll beside the river. It's housed in a sawmill built in 1871; the couple came upon it on a weekend outing. "When we saw it for the first time it was a flea market, instead of buying a plate or bowl we bought the whole thing," says Nicolai.

The four-hour tasting menu runs to 17 courses. We start with a "campfire" gin and tonic made with juniper picked this morning and torched in front of us. "Be careful the juniper may tickle your nose," warns the sommelier. We are then greeted with our first course, lichen with moose tartare, and horseradish. Nicolai explains that he cooks with only game and freshwater fish, "only whatever the inland gives us". We anticipate every course looking over our shoulder eager for the next. "What was missing in New Nordic cuisine was sauces," says Nicolai. "So I use the sauces of the French technique I am trained in." Sauces accompany courses of fallow deer and another of ducks' hearts, each delicate and flavourful.

We've adopted a no-lunch policy on this trip, a decision we are happy about as we round course 16, an ice-cream sandwich made with birch-sap ice-cream and birch-bark crackers. We head home warm, happy and inspired by Nicolai's food.

In the morning it's a 15-minute drive through the forest to Stedsans in the Woods, a property owned and run by Eva's twin sister chef Mette Helbaek and her husband chef Flemming Hansen. We walk through forest over moss-covered rocks to the majestic greenhouse restaurant that also acts as reception and are greeted with tea and coffee by the fire. We are given a hot-water bottle for our beds and directions to our A-frame cabin which is simple yet beautiful, a wall of glass overlooking the forest.

We head to the boathouse by the lake and the highly anticipated floating sauna. The water is six degrees and Danish guests are diving in like it's Bondi in high summer. Coming out of the sauna, Mina McGovern from New York says, "This is a disconnect from everything, it was well worth the journey." Dinner is served in the greenhouse, Mette and Flemming are cooking over coals in the nearby open-air kitchen. We eat "family style" sharing platters with our neighbours, Flemming announces each of the five courses. Carrots with poached eggs and wild garlic to start, followed by chargrilled parsnips with a burnt-butter hollandaise, lingonberries and wild herbs. A moose carpaccio is served with a chanterelle mushroom cream.

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Our final morning sees us bound for Stockholm with no restaurant plans, we cannot eat another thing. It's a five-hour drive on the E4 freeway to end our journey at Ett Hem. The Ilse Crawford-designed hotel is spread across three historic houses with living rooms with roaring fireplaces and plush sofas - a stark contrast to our "camping" the night before. Hotel Manager Kent Vouti invites us to dine. "We are serving a seven-course menu this evening," he says.

Getting there: Several airlines including Singapore and Emirates have one-stop flights to Copenhagen from Sydney and Melbourne. All of the major car hire companies have hire cars available at Copenhagen Airport. carflexi.com

Eating and staying there: Room, dinner tasting menu and breakfast is available at Vyn (vynrestaurant.se) from SEK10,500 ($1520) and at Wanas Hotel Restaurant (wanasrh.se) from SEK2295 per person. At Knystaforsen (knystaforsen.se), room and dinner tasting menu are from SEK3350. At Stedsans in the Woods (stedsans.org) room and dinner tasting menu are from SEK6900. Ett Hem (etthem.se) has rooms from SEK4900.

Explore more: visitskane.com; visitsweden.com

The writer stayed courtesy of Knystaforsen, Wanas and Stedsans.

Pictures: Jimmy Linus; supplied