Copenhagen Card: how to choose the best pass for Copenhagen (2024)

If you are planning a trip to Copenhagen, I recommend that you consider purchasing a Copenhagen Card, a prepaid package of attractions and transportation that saves you quite a bit over buying individual tickets.

Copenhagen provides tourists with two passes: the Copenhagen Card Discover and the Copenhagen Card Hop. Both are excellent solutions, though different in logic, that can become a valuable ally for travelers. The choice between the two depends on the type of vacation you want to take and your needs.

In this article I will present in detail everything you need to know about the two types of passes for Copenhagen: how they work, what they include, their prices, and their convenience.

What is the Copenhagen Card?

The Copenhagen Card-in both its types-is a tourist package that includes admission to museums, attractions and tours, as well as the ability to use public transportation and hop-on hop-off buses.
For those who want to visit the Danish capital, buying one of these passes can be a great ally for seeing as much as possible and even saving a little money.
Indeed, having a pass often entices us to use it as much as possible, allowing us to experience the city to the fullest.

There are currently two tourist passes to choose from for visiting Copenhagen: the Copenhagen Card Discover and the Copenhagen Card Hop.
Below we will look at both in detail so as to help you choose which of the two might be right for you.

Please note: searching online for information about the Copenhagen Card you may come across a tourist pass called the City Pass, which was active a few years ago but no longer exists.
The only tourist passes in use in the Danish capital are the official Copenhagen Cards mentioned just above, which I discuss in this article.

Copenhagen Card Discover

La Copenhagen Card Discover is the classic all-inclusive tourist pass, which includes admission to over 80 attractions of the Danish capital, plus the opportunity to participate in exclusive tours.

It exists in five hourly formats--from 24 to 120 hours--that you can select according to your needs, so you can use it for vacations of different lengths, and/or for parts of it.

It also allowsunlimited use of all public transportation in the city, such as buses, subways and trains, as long as you travel within the capital (I will explain the topic of transportation in detail in a moment).

Buy Copenhagen Card Discover

How does it work?

The Copenhagen Card Discover has a very simple operation.
The pass includes a list of attractions that can be visited within a set time frame, i.e., 24, 48, 72, 96 or 120 hours.

Once purchased, the Copenhagen Card Discover must be downloaded to your cell phone via theapp, so you can carry the pass with you conveniently at all times.
The pass appears as a QR code, which must be scanned at the entrance to each attraction.

When you are ready to use it, the pass must be activated by pressing the appropriate button on the screen.
After being activated, the pass remains active until it expires, based on the duration you choose.

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What the Copenhagen Card Discover includes

The Copenhagen Discover Card includes access to more than 80 of Copenhagen's most important museums and attractions, as well as exclusive sightseeing tours.
Among the most notable attractions are:

• Tivoli Gardens, the oldest amusem*nt park in the world.
• Rosenborg Castle, a Renaissance-era palace that houses the Danish crown jewels.
• TheArken, the modern art museum whose building is constructed in the shape of a ship.
• The Danish National Museum, dedicated to the history and culture of Denmark.
• Amalienborg Palace, the official residence of the Danish royal family.
• The Round Tower, one of the oldest buildings in Copenhagen, formerly used as an astronomical observatory.
• Christiansborg Palace, a former royal castle that is now the seat of the Danish Parliament.
• Copenhagen Zoo.

Exclusive tours in and around the capital include many options, from the classic sightseeing tour to guided boat tours.
Popular, for example, are the Copenhagen canal tour and the cruise on Lake Furesø.

On the official Copenhagen Card website you will find a complete list of all the attractions and tours included in the pass.
Click on the individual attractions to find a brief description of what they are about along with other information, such as times, tour details and benefits.

Please note: Remember that all attractions and tours included in the pass can only be visited once. If you try to use the pass to access multiple times the QR code will not be valid.

Buy Copenhagen Card Discover

Booking attractions

Most attractions included in the Discover Card cannot be booked in advance.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as Rosenborg Castle, Amalienborg Palace, and the Church of Our Redeemer, for which you can book access through their official website instead. Normally, however, the Copenhagen Card does not guarantee a place in the attraction you are interested in, nor does it allow you to skip the line.

To be sure that the attraction you are interested in does not require a reservation you must consult the official website of each before going there.

Transportation

In addition to admission for attractions and tours, the Copenhagen Card Discover also allows you unlimited use of all public transportation in the capital area, including transportation to and from the airport.

To travel by public transportation simply show your pass to the driver or scan it at the turnstiles. In case you are subject to a check, it is sufficient to show the card to the controllers.

Be aware that the pass is valid only for transportation within the Copenhagen region and not outside it. In case you want to use public transportation in areas outside the capital, your travel will not be covered by the Copenhagen Card Discover and you will have to buy separate tickets.

A valuable aid for out-of-town travel can be DOT's City Pass, not to be confused with the old Copenhagen Tourist Pass that is no longer in operation. This City Pass is a transportation package available in five different extensions that allows you to use public transportation throughout Denmark, always at a reduced price compared to buying individual tickets.

Obviously for such trips single tickets might be enough, but I'll leave you the official link anyway, where you can find more information

Copenhagen Card Discover Prices

The Copenhagen Card Discover is available in five formats-24, 48, 72, 96 or 120 hours-with the following prices, which I report in euros at the current exchange rate:

• 24-hour pass:
  € 62 approx. for adults (16 years and older)
  € 33 approx. for children (12 - 15 years old)
• 48-hour pass:
  € 91 approx. for adults (16 years and older)
  € 49 approx. for children (12 - 15 years old)
• 72-hour pass
  € 112 approx. for adults (16 years and older).
  € 60 approx. for children (12 -15 years old).
• 96-hour pass:
  € 131 approx. for adults (16 years and older).
  € 71 approx. for children (12 - 15 years old).
• 120-hour pass:
  € 147 approx. for adults (16 years and older).
  € 79 approx. for children (12 - 15 years old).

In all formats of the Copenhagen Card Discover, for children under 12 the purchase is free of charge.

There is a quibble to be specified in the price list: each adult can take a maximum of two children between the ages of 3 and 11 with them and purchase the Copenhagen Card for them, paying the child fare from € 0. From the third child on, one must necessarily buy the "kids" option, even if he or she is under the age of 12.

This discussion does not apply to infants (0 - 2 years old), who never pay.

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Where to buy the Copenhagen Card Discover

The Copenhagen Card can be purchased directly online at the Get Your Guide website, or on the official website.

I honestly prefer buying through Get Your Guide because the information provided is good and also available in English
In addition Get Your Guide has more purchase options, it also allows you to pay with Paypal (with the protection on the purchase up to 500€ classic Paypal), Google Pay and Apple Pay as well as with a wide range of credit cards.

Alternatively, you can go to the official link and follow all the directions to download the pass via app.

Buy Copenhagen Card Discover

Convenience

The Copenhagen Card Discover has a fairly significant cost, but definitely inexpensive when compared to the sum of individual tickets to visit even just the classic tourist attractions in the city.
This saving becomes even more significant when one considers that transportation is already included in the card for its entire time validity, so there is no need to buy the City Pass for transportation separately.

To give you an example, a three-day itinerary with a visit to Amalienborg Palace, Church of Our Redeemer, Frederiksborg Castle, Copenhagen Zoo, Rosenborg Castle, and the Botanical Garden, plus a boat tour of Copenhagen's canals, a tour in Furesø Lake, and three days of public transport tickets costs about € 219. In contrast, the same itinerary with the 72-hour Copenhagen Card comes to cost about € 114, a reduction of almost € 100.
This istherefore a considerable saving.

When is the Copenhagen Card Discover recommended?

Because it is a very comprehensive card, I would recommend it to those who want to explore Copenhagen thoroughly, as this will enable them to enjoy the city and take advantage of many of the benefits included in the pass.
Particularly for trips of 3 days and up, the Copenhagen Card Discover is an excellent ally; while for those who are staying for 1 or 2 days-or are simply not particularly interested in visiting museums or sightseeing-then the convenience will probably be less and in any case the pass will not be a key tool for this type of trip to Copenhagen.

Buy Copenhagen Card Discover

Copenhagen Card Hop

For those who want to take a "touch-and-go" trip to Copenhagen or do not like to take part in guided tours or visit many museums, there is the Copenhagen Card Hop, a kind of "compact" version of the previous Discover Card.

This pass always includes access to Copenhagen's major museums and attractions, but does not include unlimited use of public transportation.
Instead, hop-on hop-off tour buses can be used.

The way it works is the same as the Copenhagen Card Discover: once you buy the card, you download the app, use it to activate the pass, and scan it at the entrance of the attraction, museum, or tour you want to attend.

As with Discover most attractions cannot be booked and each can only be visited once.

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Attractions included in the Copenhagen Card Hop

The Copenhagen Card Hop includes access to over 40 attractions and tours, many of which are shared with Discover. You can find the full list here by clicking the "Copenhagen Card Hop" button. For each attraction, museum or tour you will also find more detailed information about the visit, so you can understand what it is all about.

Transportation

As mentioned earlier, the Copenhagen Hop Card only includes access to hop-on hop-off buses operated by the Strömma company.

In Copenhagen the tour buses (hop-on hop-off) are structured in three routes: the Classic Copenhagen, the Urban Green to the Colorful Copenhagen. Each line follows a different route and all have audio guides. You can hop on and off at any stop you like and use the buses several times, depending on your needs.

Of course, hop-on hop-off buses focus on Copenhagen's main attractions, often ignoring strategic points for travelers, such as stations, hotels, or restaurants. So it is true that you can use tour buses as a substitute for public transportation, but you certainly won't have the same flexibility as the metro or classic buses.

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Where to buy the Copenhagen Card Hop

You can purchase the Copenhagen Card Hop online, via the official website with the following prices, which I quote in euros according to the current exchange rate:

• 24-hour pass:
  € 64 approx. for adults (16 years and older).
  € 36 approx. for children (12 - 15 years old).
• 48-hour pass:
  € 93 approx. for adults (16 years and older).
  € 52 approx. for children (12 - 15 years old).
• 72-hour pass:
  € 115 for adults (16 years and older).
  € 62 for children (12 - 15 years old).

In all formats of the Copenhagen Card Hop, for children under 12 the purchase is free.

As with the Discover Card, it always applies that each adult can bring a maximum of two children using the children's fare. From the third one must necessarily pay the children's fare regardless of age, except for infants (0 - 2 years old).

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Which card to choose?

It basically depends on the type of vacation you want to plan, in terms of duration and type of itinerary.
We can say that given its versatility, the Copenhagen Card Discover is undoubtedly the most convenient and affordable pass to Copenhagen, also due to the fact that it includes public transportation.

For shorter trips, perhaps passing through larger itineraries, where one is "content" with the cartel attractions, the Copenhagen Card Hop might be more suitable.

In any case, the proper way to determine which pass to Copenhagen is best for you is to draw up a draft itinerary that appropriately includes the attractions you want to include.
At that point, by doing some math, it will be easier to assess the convenience of one or the other pass.

Validity and refunds

Both Copenhagen passes work by the hour in all their formats, whether you purchase the 24-, 48-, 72-, 96- or 120-hour package. This means that if you activate the 24-hour card at 10:00 am, it will be valid until 9:59 am the next day.
Note that the validity of the card cannot be extended. Once it expires, the pass is no longer valid.

In case you were unable to use your Copenhagen pass, you have up to six months from the date of purchase to contact customer service and receive a full refund.

Jun 4, 2024Lory