The harbour is the reason Esbjerg exists, and walking the waterfront is a more interesting hour than you might expect. The southern basin handles general cargo and ferries; the northern basin is the staging area for the North Sea offshore-wind industry, with cranes loading turbine blades and tower sections onto specialised vessels almost every day of the year.
You cannot wander into the operational areas, but the public quayside south of the wind terminal gives a good view of the loading work, and on summer evenings the promenade is a popular local walk. From the same waterfront the ferry to Fanø — a Wadden Sea island of dunes, seal colonies, and old skipper-villages — leaves roughly every half-hour for the twelve-minute crossing.