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

Denmark’s new colour system for classing travel restrictions went into effect at 4pm on Saturday, June 25th. Here’s what you need to know—including the new "shaded orange" category. 

At a glance: travel to and from the UK, US, and Australia

The UK is still technically classed as orange at the time of updating this article, meaning travellers need a worthy purpose to travel to Denmark unless they’re fully vaccinated. However, only Wales is actually classed as orange as of July 17th, with everywhere else now a red region within the UK. This means all travellers from England, Northern Ireland and Scotland will need to present a PCR test taken within the past 72 hours before boarding a plane to Denmark and will need to isolate upon arrival, even if previously vaccinated or infected. Danes are strongly discouraged against travel to the UK.

Travellers from the US and Australia will not have to isolate upon arrival and only people who are neither vaccinated nor previously infected need to be tested before entry.  Danes may find travel to the US and Australia difficult or impossible.

Green countries 

This update introduces a green risk category that applies to EU/Schengen countries with fewer than 50 cases per week per 100,000 inhabitants.

Travellers from green countries will no longer need to take a coronavirus test on arrival in Denmark, as they did when these countries were classed as yellow. 

Green countries currently cover most of the EU: Belgium, Bulgaria Cyprus, France (excluding the overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Guyana, Martinique and Mayotte), Greece, Italy, Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria.

Some regions in otherwise yellow countries are also considered green: Portugal’s Madeira and Spain’s Aragon, Asturias, Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, Ceuta, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Melilla, Murcia and Valencia.

Yellow countries 

EU/Schengen countries with 60 or more new COVID cases per week per 100,000 inhabitants are now yellow: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain and Vatican City. 

EU residents travelling to Denmark from yellow countries and regions no longer need to isolate after arrival, or take a test before boarding their planes, but Danes considering travel to yellow countries are urged to be cautious. 

Outside the EU/Schengen area, Albania, Lebanon, Northern Macedonia, Rwanda and Serbia are yellow. 

Orange countries 

All countries outside the EU/Schengen area with a high risk of infection—but without significant levels of dangerous variants circulating—are orange. Travellers from orange countries need a worthy purpose to enter Denmark unless they are fully vaccinated and from an OECD country. Vaccinated people from non-OECD countries need a worthy purpose and a negative COVID test prior to entry, according to the Ministry of Justice. The Danish government advises Danes against unnecessary travel to orange countries.

Red countries

Red denotes areas where worrisome levels of coronavirus variants are circulating. Travellers from red countries and regions will need a PCR test from within the previous 72 hours before boarding an aircraft to Denmark and will have to isolate upon arrival. Within the EU/Schengen area, Reunion in France and three regions in the UK (Bedford, Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton and Rossendale) are red. 

Farther afield, Bangladesh, Brazil, Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Nepal, India, Lesotho, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe are all red. 

Danes are strongly encouraged to avoid travel to red countries and should consult with a doctor if it’s unavoidable. 

‘Shaded orange’ countries 

Shaded orange now designates an area or country with low virus circulation, but entry restrictions that would make it difficult or impossible for Danes to visit. In the opposite direction of travel—from shaded orange countries to Denmark—they’re functionally yellow. 

The Danish Ministry of Foreign affairs currently discourages travel to the following: Australia, the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. 

Member comments

  1. Good morning,
    I live in British Columbia Canada, our COVID numbers are low!
    You mention travel from the US but never mention Canadian travellers. I am Danish born and visit my homeland quite often. We cancelled our trip home for this year but plan to come next year! I’m sure all will be well by then. Do you include Canada in your reference to US citizens traveling to Denmark! I feel Canada is even safer than the US!! Thank you, Inger

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TRAVEL NEWS

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.

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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