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QUARANTINE

IN DETAIL: Who from outside Europe and the US can travel to Denmark for tourism?

Denmark last Saturday opened the way for fully vaccinated people from OECD countries to entry the country for tourism. We look at how Denmark's framework for travel for countries outside Europe now looks.

IN DETAIL: Who from outside Europe and the US can travel to Denmark for tourism?
Tourists photograph the Little Mermaid sculpture in Copenhagen in 2019. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

Denmark has in the last month been slowly opening up for tourism, first removing the need to have a “worthy purpose” for travel from citizens of the European Union and Schengen countries. 

Right now, there are several categories of people in countries outside the EU or Schengen countries who can come to Denmark for tourism. They include: 

People travelling from countries outside the EU or Schengen countries classed as “yellow” 

In its latest amendments to its travel guidelines, which came into force on June 5th, Denmark classed eight countries outside the EU or Schengen region as “yellow”,  Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, and Rwanda. 

All of these are on the European Union’s list of epidemiologically safe countries. China is also on the list, but the EU has decided that opening to China is “subject to confirmation of reciprocity”, meaning China must first lift restrictions on travel from EU countries. 

If your plane to Denmark departs from a “yellow” country, you do not need to show a negative Covid-19 test before boarding the plane.

If you are a resident of a “yellow” country, you do not need to have a “worthy purpose” to enter Denmark. (Note however that this depends on country of residency rather than country of departure, so if, for instance, you are resident in Malaysia (orange), you still cannot come to Denmark as a tourist, even if you fly from Singapore (yellow). 

People who are fully vaccinated and are resident in OECD countries which are not classed as “red”.

In its June 5th amendment, Denmark opened the way for residents in countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who are fully vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency to travel to Denmark without a “worthy purpose”.

At least 14 days needs to have passed since their final dose of vaccine. 

Denmark seems unique in building the OECD grouping into its travel guidelines. Although the group is often described as the “rich countries club”,  the 11 members who are not part of the EU or Schengen zone include some middle income countries such as Columbia and Costa Rica, as well as more obvious “rich world” nations such as the US, UK, and Canada. 

In the amendment, the foreign ministry said that vaccinated OECD residents, as well as vaccinated residents of “yellow countries” are “equated with those vaccinated from EU and Schengen countries”. 

As well as not needing a “worthy purpose”, this means that, so long as your country of residence is not classed as “red”, there is no need to show a test before boarding the aircraft, to go into self-isolation on arrival, or to take a test on arrival in Denmark before entering the country. (At Copenhagen Airport, there is a test centre between the arrival gate and border control). 

None of the OECD countries is currently in Denmark’s list of “red” countries with the highest levels of infection. 

Children, pregnant women and breastfeeding women travelling with a fully vaccinated national from an OECD country, or from a “yellow” country, can also travel without a worthy purpose. They still need, however, to get tested before flying and on arrival in Denmark. 

Below is a useful table from the Danish police’s guide for travellers to Denmark. 

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TRAVEL NEWS

Here’s what you need to know about travel in Denmark in the summer of 2024

July 1st marks the official start of school holidays in Denmark, so on the preceding weekend the roads will be chock-a-block with summer traffic. Here's what you need to know about travel this summer.

Here's what you need to know about travel in Denmark in the summer of 2024

Roads 

The Danish Road Directorate is predicting a surge in traffic starting the moment “the bell rings in the country’s schools on Friday afternoon”. 

“Many have probably already packed the car with beach blankets and swimwear and ticked off the calendar for the exact day when they have planned to drive to a holiday home, to the beach or south down through Europe,” the directorate says in its summer traffic guide. 

Summer traffic will start from 2pm on Friday June 28th, with the directorate warning of “heavy traffic and a risk of minor traffic jams”, growing to a peak on Saturday June 29th when the directorate is warning of a “significant risk of traffic jams and longer journey times”. 

On Sunday, June 30th, the peak will subside to the same levels as on Friday 28th. The pattern will then be repeated on Saturday July 6th (very heavy traffic) and Sunday July 7th (quite heavy), and Saturday July 13th (very heavy) and Sunday July 14th (quite heavy), as people return from weeks off or set off late. 

The peak of return traffic will come on Saturday August 10th and Sunday August 11th, when the directorate is again warning of a “significant risk of traffic jams and longer journey times”. 

You can see worst dates here on the roads directorate’s traffic light chart. 

Source: Danish Roads Directorate

Where will the summer traffic hotspots be? 

Traffic will be particularly bad on the E20 motorway between Køge, south of Copenhagen, and then across the Great Belt Bridge, and also on the E20 through the western half of Funen.

It will also be bad on the E45 motorway around Kolding and at the border with Germany. 

The directorate also expects heavy traffic to and from the ferry ports towards Germany at Rødby and Gedser as well as the E45 between Aarhus Nord and Skærup.

READ ALSO: How to decode Denmark’s old-fashioned motorway names

There will also be traffic on the weekend changeover days on roads to and from Denmark’s most popular coastal holiday areas. 

The roads directorate is warning particular of Route 21 to and from Sjællands Odde, Route 16 north of Hillerød, Route 11 along the west coast of Jutland, Route 55 at Løkken and Blokhus and Route 40 to and from Skagen.

Trains 

Up until Sunday 25 August, Denmark’s rail track operator Banedanmark is upgrading the tracks between Copenhagen, Slagelse and Odense, leading to changed departure times and longer journey times. The track work will also affect EuroCity trains to Hamburg from Copenhagen. 

Denmark’s train operator DSB recommends that travellers check the planned departure and travel times on the Rejseplanen app on the day before their departure. 

Flights 

Denmark’s airports are likely to be busier than usual as tourists stream in and Danes set off to even sunnier and warmer climes for their holidays, but there are no strikes or other disruptions expected. 

Those travelling elsewhere in Europe should be aware of a potential traffic controller’s strike at Paris Orly airport, from the second week of July, a baggage handler’s strike on July 5th at Milan Linate, Milan Malpensa, Venice’s Marco Polo, and Bologna’s Guglielmo Marconi airports in Italy, and an aircraft technicians’ strike affecting flights from Norway operated by Norwegian and Widerøe.

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