Copenhagen is flat, small and expensive. Two of those work in your favour.
Which canal boat has a live guide and which just plays a recording. What a bike day really costs once the rental is in. Whether Kronborg and Frederiksborg fit into one afternoon.
The canal boat, the bike morning, the castle train.
The price of each, and the verdict from the people who went.
01The first hourCanal Cruise with GuideAn hour on the water from Nyhavn, past the opera house and the little bronze mermaid. The cheapest way to work out how the city fits together.
02The morning walkCopenhagen Highlights Walking TourAmalienborg, the guards, Christiansborg and the lanes between them, on foot and at a Danish pace.
03The bike dayHighlights 3 Hour Bike Tour with a Local GuideThree hours on a city bike with a local in front. Flat the whole way, which is the point.
04The day up the coastHamlet and Sweden Tour – Two Countries in one day !Kronborg and the crossing to Sweden in one run. Two countries before dinner.
Copenhagen first, Aarhus if you have a spare two days.
A harbour you can swim in, a castle hour up the coast, the second city with the art museum on the roof, and the neighbourhoods that the guidebooks still call up-and-coming. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
Guided highlights, a street-art afternoon, or your own headphones. Pick your walk.
The old centre is about two kilometres end to end, so almost every first day in Copenhagen is a walking day. Three kinds, what it costs to join each, and who each one suits.
Copenhagen was built facing the water, and still faces it.
Open wooden boats out of Nyhavn, electric ones you steer yourself, kayaks threading the same canals the barges used. The low bridges mean everyone ducks at the same moment, which is half the entertainment.
The days out most travellers in Denmark book.
Every Danish tour we have reviewed →The tours more people take than anything else in the country, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Canal Cruise with Guide
Cruise Copenhagen’s harbor and canals for one hour with an English or Danish guide. From Ved Stranden, you’ll pass Christiansborg, Amalienborg, the Opera House, the Little Mermaid, and the old Stock Exchange. Guides such as Peter, Ali, and Kristian are known for lively commentary, while the covered boat, ponchos, and audio options help on changeable days.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Boat Tour Option
from $35
3
Private Walking Grand Tour of Copenhagen
4
Lund and Malmö 2-Country Tour
from $141
5
Copenhagen Highlights Walking Tour
from $40
6
Highlights 3 Hour Bike Tour with a Local Guide
from $62
7
Hamlet and Sweden Tour – Two Countries in one day !
from $142
8
Grand Day Trip around Copenhagen
from $211
Denmark hands you a bike and expects you to keep up.
Copenhagen has more bikes than people and not one hill worth the name. Ride it with a guide, take an e-bike if the wind is up, or let the open-top bus do the pedalling.
What a day out in Denmark actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Denmark is not a cheap country, but a good number of its best mornings come in under the price of lunch.
Canal boats, guided walks, museum entry, an audio tour you start when you like.
- 1Canal Cruise with Guidefrom $26
- 2Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Boat Tour Optionfrom $35
- 3Copenhagen Highlights Walking Tourfrom $40
Bike mornings, segway runs, brewery and food walks, the castle day north of the city.
Private guides, the two-country run across the Øresund, and the long food evenings.
Three reasons to get on a train out of Copenhagen.
A Renaissance castle on its own island, a ship burial older than the kingdom, and six wooden giants hidden in the woods on the city edge.
Kronborg and Frederiksborg
Kronborg sits at the narrowest point of the Øresund, where Denmark once charged every ship that wanted through, and where Shakespeare put Hamlet without ever seeing the place. Frederiksborg is the other kind of castle: a Renaissance palace built across three islets in a lake, now the national history museum. Both are on the same northern rail line, and both are comfortably an hour from the centre.
- 1Kronborg, Frederiksborg Castle and Roskilde Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,763 reviews
- 2Rosenborg Castle Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 381 reviews
- 3Full-Day; Castle, Palace, Cathedral & Viking ships Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 326 reviews
Roskilde and the ships
Five Viking ships were sunk deliberately in the Roskilde fjord to block an invasion channel, dug out again in the 1960s, and are now the core of the museum on the waterfront. The cathedral up the hill holds forty Danish kings and queens. Half an hour from Copenhagen by train, and a far older country than the one the palaces show you.
- 1Kronborg, Frederiksborg Castle and Roskilde Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,763 reviews
- 2Full-Day; Castle, Palace, Cathedral & Viking ships Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 326 reviews
- 3Aarhus Walking Tour: From Viking Village to Metropolis★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 122 reviews
The Forgotten Giants
A Danish artist has been building enormous wooden figures out of scrap timber and hiding them in the woods around the western suburbs. There are no signposts worth the name, which is the point. The Camp Adventure forest tower nearby spirals up through the canopy to a view of flat green Zealand in every direction.
- 1Round-Trip to Møns Klint and Forest Tower★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 439 reviews
- 2Møns klint and The Forest tower – A day tour from Copenhagen★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 181 reviews
- 3The Forest Tower and Forgotten Giants-A day tour from Copenhagen★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 162 reviews
Four Danish bookings that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most of this country can be sorted out over breakfast on the day. These four run on opening seasons, timed entry and winter timetables that take no interest in when you land.
- 01Walking tour – Copenhagen Old Town & Tivoli Park includedTivoli opens in seasons and closes between them, so the first question is whether the gardens are running at all that week.
- 02Copenhagen Card – DISCOVER 80+ attractions and public transportThe pass starts running the moment you first use it, so the day you activate it decides what it is worth.
- 03Kronborg, Frederiksborg Castle and Roskilde TourThe castle keeps shorter hours through the winter, and the tours that include it run to the northern train timetable.
- 04Home of Carlsberg Experience Entry TicketEntry is timed, and the afternoon slots are the ones that go first on a wet day.
Copenhagen in November closes in at four in the afternoon.
From October the daylight shortens fast and the wind comes off the Øresund with nothing in its way. Danes answer it by going inside and turning the lights down. Museums, a brewery, an escape room, a long table with candles on it, and the open boats swapped for one with a roof.
- 1Home of Carlsberg Experience Entry Ticketfrom $35
- 2National Museum of Denmark Entry Ticketfrom $21
- 3Copenhagen Zoo Entry Ticketfrom $39
By place — the city, the coast, the second city
Nyhavn, the harbour, the palaces, then the train north: the first two days most people do.
The table
Day twoThe newest Danish tour reviews.
Keep reading down the list →
Understanding Klaksvík: A Self-guided city tour in KlaksvÍk
Read our review →
SUP – Stand Up Paddle – Kitesurfing – Wingfoil & Kitefoil courses
Read our review →
Copenhagen Walking Tour with Food Testing (smorrebrod dish & snap)
Read our review →
walking tour – Copenhagen and Christiansborg 3 hours
Read our review →
The Six Forgotten Giants Trolls Hunt with Minibus
Read our review →
The Philosopher’s Last Walk: An audio tour on the life of Søren Kierkegaard
Read our review →
Small Group Guided Food Tour and Street Art Visit to Norrebro
Read our review →