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UPDATE: Everything you need to know about travel between Denmark and the US

Travel between the US and Denmark remains logistically complex, and misunderstanding the rules can have you turned away at the airport or border control. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 23 June 2021 13:14 CEST
Updated: 26 July 2021 14:45 CEST
UPDATE: Everything you need to know about travel between Denmark and the US
Tourism between the US and Denmark is not possible even for those who aren't vaccinated. Photo: Chandan Khanna/AFP

Our guide applies to travel directly between Denmark and the United States, so if your travel plans will take you through a third country, look into their requirements for people “transiting.” If you’ve recently spent time in a third country prior to departure, it may affect your eligibility for entry and requirements for testing and quarantine at your destination. 

United States → Denmark

According to Denmark’s infection risk category scheme, the United States is currently classed as “yellow.”

Starting June 19th, even unvaccinated travellers from the United States can come to Denmark for vacation. Travellers who have spent time outside the United States in the weeks preceding their flight to Denmark should check this list updated weekly by the Danish government and this click-through guide to determine whether they need to test or quarantine. 

US and Danish residents who are vaccinated or have recently recovered from the coronavirus don’t need to test before their flight, and won’t need to test or quarantine on arrival in Denmark.

READ MORE: What you need to know about Denmark’s colour-coded travel rules 

US residents and Danes who aren’t vaccinated or recently recovered will need to present a negative PCR test result less than 72 hours old or a negative rapid/antigen test less than 48 hours old to enter the country.

In order to access restricted facilities and activities in Denmark – from indoor seating at restaurants to cultural institutions like museums – you’ll need to carry your CDC vaccination card and some government issued ID (such as a driver’s license) with you. Employees checking for valid Coronapas, the Danish vaccination passport, at checkpoints will readily accept them, based on government policy and our personal experience. 

READ MORE: Can tourists from US use CDC vaccination cards in Denmark? 

Denmark → United States

Travellers from the EU/Schengen area, including Denmark, currently cannot enter the United States unless they fall under one of several exceptions.  

Exceptions include: 

  • Citizens, lawful permanent residents, or noncitizen nationals of the US,
  • Spouses of a US citizen or permanent resident,
  • Parents or guardians of a US citizen or permanent resident, (provided the resident is unmarried and under the age of 21) 
  • Children, foster children, or wards of a US citizen or permanent resident,
  • People travelling at the express request of the US government or for certain diplomatic reasons. 

President Joseph Biden announced on July 15th that the ban on travellers from the EU is under review and could be phased out soon, but no timeline has been established. 

Travellers entering the United States do need to present a negative PCR or rapid/antigen test less than 72 hours old, even if vaccinated. Visit coronasmitte.dk to find a test center near you. Anyone in Denmark, even tourists, can receive rapid tests for free and without an appointment – just be sure to bring a copy of your ID, and the results will be emailed to you within 15-30 minutes. 

Danish residents should download a copy of their vaccination records from sunhed.dk and carry a printed copy. 

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Do you really need to own a car living in Denmark?

Denmark is one of the most expensive countries in the world for owning a car, its public transport is one of the best, and if you want to cycle, it's mostly flat. There are few places where it makes more sense to ditch your car.

Published: 10 May 2024 16:35 CEST
Do you really need to own a car living in Denmark?

The case against owning a car in Denmark

Denmark’s Vehicle Registration Tax, together with VAT, more than doubles the cost of buying a petrol or diesel car, making owning a car considerably more expensive in Denmark than in its neighbours Germany and Sweden, although electric cars that cost less than 436,000 kroner are currently tax-exempt.

If you use a car to commute into Copenhagen, Aarhus, or Odense, you will also often find yourself stuck in traffic jams, with the Danish Roads Directorate estimating that Danes lose 365,000 hours to traffic jams every weekday, with the Motorring 3 motorway circling Copenhagen, other major access roads to Copenhagen, the E20 south of Odense, and the E45 on either side of Aarhus the most congested roads in the country.

Parking can also be expensive in Danish cities, costing as much as 500 Danish kroner for 24 hours for non-residents. 

How easy is it to get around inside Danish cities without a car? 

Denmark is a cycling nation.

According to Visit Denmark, in 2022, 25 percent of all trips under five kilometers across Denmark were done by bike, and 16 percent of all journeys of any kind. 

Copenhagen’s aim is for fully half of all trips to work and education to be done on bike by 2025. In 2019, the city was already on 44 percent. It’s a similar situation for smaller cities like Aarhus, Odense, Vejle, Aalborg and Esbjørg.

But even if you can’t or don’t want to cycle, you can still get by in most places without a car, thanks to Denmark’s excellent public transport networks.

Public transport in Denmark has significantly improved only over the last five years, with several new metro lines and light rail systems opening. 

With the Cityringen (M3) and Harbour lines (M4) opening in 2019 and 2020, respectively the Copenhagen Metro can now get you to most places in the city. 

Denmark scrapped its city tram systems in the 1960s and 1970s, with cities like Aarhus and Odense instead shifting to buses for public transport.

There has recently been a recent revival, however, with Aarhus, Odense and Copenhagen all opening or building new tram/light rail systems.

Odense Letbane opened in 2022, making it easy to get to the out of town shopping area where IKEA and other superstores are based and also to the new hospital. Aarhus Letbane opened in 2017, and takes passengers all the way up the coast around the city, from Odder in the south to Grenaa in the north.

Copenhagen next year plans to open a light-rail system which will travel in a ring around the city’s outer suburbs linking Lundtofte in the north to Ishøj in the southwest. 

This will end one of the big drawbacks of the city’s “five finger” transport corridor plan: that while it is quick to travel from the outer suburbs to the centre and vice versa, it is complicated to travel between suburbs which are on a different transport corridors, for example from Albertslund to Herlev, or from Birkerød to Buddinge. 

Even before that opens, however, so long as you are only travelling in and out from the centre, it is extremely convenient to get from central Copenhagen to its suburbs and surrounding towns using the S-trains, which run from 5am until half-past midnight on weekdays, and all night on Fridays and Saturdays. 

This means you can eat out and party with your friends until the small hours, and still normally get back to Køge, Høje Taastrup, Frederikssund, Farum and Hillerød, the furthest out stops. 

Where might you struggle without a car? 

Plans for a light railway or tram between Vejle and Billund, or between the so-called Triangle Region between the cities of Vejle, Kolding and Fredericia have so far come to nothing, and even though the local and regional bus and train services can be good, it’s certainly tougher to survive without a car if you don’t live on Zealand, near Aarhus, or perhaps on Funen. 

Many people do in fact live without owning a car even in the more far-flung villages on Jutland, and on islands like Bornholm, Lolland and Falster.

They still manage to get everywhere they want to go, but it does require waiting. It’s certainly possible to live without a car, but you might feel limited in where to and when you can travel. 

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