Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

TRAVEL NEWS

How to take advantage of cheaper travel in Denmark this summer

Denmark’s government is once again doing what it can to give domestic tourism a boost this summer. Here's how you save money on transport.

Published: 1 July 2021 16:43 CEST
How to take advantage of cheaper travel in Denmark this summer
Last summer, 1 million passengers too advantage of free ferries throughout Denmark. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

On June 4th, Denmark’s government announced a 1.65bn kroner “summer package” to heavily subsidise trains, buses and ferries throughout Denmark. The package brings back the popular Travel Pass or Rejsepas and free ferry trips to Denmark’s islands and between Bornholm and the Swedish city of Ystad.

Although 1 million passengers took advantage of last summer’s free ferries, the 50,000 available travel passes sold out in only three days last year. 

With 100,000 travel passes available this year, there’s still time to snag one and set off on an affordable summer adventure. Read on to learn how you can profit from cheaper travel in Denmark this summer.

When can you go?

Travel passes are valid for a consecutive eight-day period of the traveller’s choice between June 27th and August 9th. 

Free ferry passage is available from July through September, but exact availability is up to each ferry operator.

Where can you go?

Travel passes allow for unlimited travel on DSB and Arriva trains, and on buses, metro services, local rail and light rail throughout the country. 

The full list includes travel with You can travel with Arriva, BAT (Bornholm), DOT, DSB, FynBus, Metro, Midttrafik including Letbanen, Movia, Nordjyllands Trafikselskab (NT) and Sydtrafik.

To plan your trip and see route options, visit rejseplanen.dk.

How can I get my Travel Pass?

Travel Passes are sold on a first-come, first-served basis and are available for purchase online and in person at Copenhagen Central Station, Aarhus Central Station and at Odense Railway Station. 

Although passes are still available, it’s best to buy yours soon. Last year, the 50,000 available passes sold out in three days. This year, more than 10,000 passes were sold within the first few hours they became available, according to Avisen Danmark.

This year, the passes cost 399 kroner for adults and 199 kroner for children between 12-15 years. Children under the age of 12 travel free of charge with an adult. The prices are up from last year’s offer, which was 299 and 149 kroner, respectively. 

The last date you can buy one of this year’s 100,000 Travel Passes is August 1st, according to DSB.

Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

What else do I need to know about my Travel Pass?

Travellers still need to book seat tickets on regional trains, including the Øresund train, as well as in InterCity and InterCityLyn. 

Even though the Travel Pass  offers unlimited travel, DSB encourages you to cancel any seat reservations you’ve made that you no longer need so that seat is available for someone else. 

If you’ve bought several tickets in one purchase, one ticket will be issued and all travellers will need to travel with the original ticket holder whose ID matches the ticket. So, if you want to travel separately, each person must buy their own Travel Pass matching their own ID.

The passes aren’t changeable or refundable.

How do the free ferries work?

Free ferry passage is available to pedestrians, cyclists and handicapped drivers.

Unlike in last year’s summer package, ferry operators will be able to decide which departures are free, which is aimed at ensuring that the ferries do not become too crowded. 

Last year, locals complained that too many tourists had swarmed the islands and made ferry travel difficult for locals. Last year, more than 1 million passengers took advantage of last summer’s free ferries, according to the Danish Transportation Ministry.

Although the free ferry offer lasts from July through September, it’s up to ferry operators to determine the free period if the company wishes to participate in the scheme. Check the websites of ferry operators along your desired route to see free available trips.

What other discounts can I take advantage of?

Restaurants will also be able to apply for grants of up to 35,000 kroner between June 24th and July 21st to provide discounts or hold activities to attract tourists. 

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

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.

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. 

SHOW COMMENTS