Stayed for the third time at Ribe Byferie. If there is a group of you staying in Ribe for even a few days, and you want the option of self catering/eating out, then this is a perfect base.
Minutes' walk from town centre, uber clean, very simple Danish design inside the houses, pretty environment around houses with river, able to order fresh rolls and Danish Pastries for breakfast, great play park for little kids and games' room for older kids (needs a Wii though!)..
Would agree that one of the internal house designs does have VERY steep stairs - make a point to NOT book this style if you have young children with you

I was touring Denmark with my children (basically going to Legoland), and the guidebook said not to miss Ribe. Since I made all my plans at the last minute, I couldn't get any of the hotels in town, and ended up booking the Ribe Byferie. I wasn't thrilled about this, since I knew these kind of holiday homes really only suit long stays in the summer. We were only gong to be there for a few days, and we had flown into the country so were not about to fill our suitcases with towels or sheets, meaning we ended up having to pay an arm and a leg to rent the things there. Plus we didn't bring a hair dryer.

As holiday homes go, there is little to fault with Ribe Byferie. The rooms are very clean, and you can walk to town in a couple of minutes. Still, I found it extremely difficult to like the place, because it lacks any kind of charm or character. It is basically a gigantic group of identical holiday homes, and looks (and feels) very much like an English council estate. It's all pretty depressing. There are also no real facilities to speak of; there is a crappy sauna but no pool, and there is no restaurant. You can order breakfast the day before (keep in mind that the reception closes at 18.00 though) but it is a fortune for really, really bad food, so it simply isn't worth it.

If you really want to stay in Ribe for a couple of weeks in the summer and cycle around or whatever with your children, this place may not be all that bad. But I would definitely not go there again. If you do stay here, make sure you ask for one of the houses facing the courtyard, not the back road -- we had one in back and the passing traffic made it difficult for my daughter to sleep.

Just returned after 4 nights at the Ribe Byferie complex.

The positives? Lovely and clean. Lovely quiet area. Great walk into town - just 10 minutes or so through very pretty streets. Good activities - you could hire bikes or canoes, there was a play area for children etc.

The negatives? We stayed in one of the apartments which was on the second floor. There was a double bed and a sofa bed downstairs. However, the other beds were in a loft space. To access the room you had to go up and down a very, very steep set of wooden steps, basically like a permanent loft-ladder. I would be concerned to leave children up there and it was even more tricky for 2 grown adults to come up and down! I think this would put me off going again - otherwise everything else was lovely.