Copenhagen questions

I have twice done the harbor tour in Copenhagen. It's very enjoyable. Both times I just went down to the dock and got on a boat. I guess you could read some reviews (here and elsewhere online) to see if one company is better than another or if there are some smaller boats to consider.

We were in Copenhagen in May 2024 with two adult sons (21 & 24). One of them was advised by a friend who did study abroad in Copenhagen: "the canal boat tours might seem cheesy but you should do it anyway." So we did. It was fun - iirc we made our choice primarily on which boats looked better suited for the weather that day (it was a lovely day so we didn't want to be behind windows) and/or line or maybe price? In May 2025 my husband and I took a trip on the harbor taxi (harbor bus?) which has no guide or narration but is an interesting way to see the city. In May we haven't needed advance tickets (except Vor Frelsers Kirke, which has timed entry) but from other posts I get the impression it might be advised for a few of the castles.

To answer your other question, you can easily fill your time in Copenhagen itself, but a day trip to Roskilde is easy to do. If you get Copenhagen Cards, the train to Roskilde is included (as is all public transit in Copenhagen.) Odense is also possible, but you'll be a little more rushed since it's further out (and more $$ since not on the Copenhagen Card). Enjoy your trip!

I support both the harbour tour and the harbour bus (please don't confuse it with a taxi. It will only go to scheduled stops at scheduled times), but also check out https://goboat.dk/en

Don't know about October, but we just got back from Copenhagen, and I'd say that the only place that needed advanced reservations was Rosenborg Castle. It was busy and they were enforcing timed reservations, so you may want to think about buying ahead for that one.

You definitely have time to visit one or more of the sites just outside of Copenhagen such as Frederiksborg, Kronborg, Roskilde as they are all less than an hour's train ride from the city. We took the train to Frederiksborg in the morning and were back in Copenhagen in time for a late lunch.

Hi all - thank you so much for your input! Life happening here and I was offline for a few days. I appreciate the feedback so much!

Hello,
Have you considered getting a Copenhagen City Card (it's on an app)? We ended up doing a lot with ours for 5 days this summer, and the included Stromma canal tour had an excellent guide and exceeded our expectations. We did the canal tour on our last day, but really should have prioritized it on day one for a great introduction to the city.

The card is expensive, but so is everything in Copenhagen. The card took the guess work out of using public transportation, including a day trip to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and Roskilde. I did the math after our trip and we saved nearly $300 per person.

Even with the Copenhagen Card, there were a couple things requiring pre-booking a timeslot on the app (Carlsberg Experience, and the Church of Our Saviour). Both had time slots available day of in the summer, so no worry about planning way ahead, especially in shoulder season. I mention the Church of our Saviour in particular though, because it did sell out when we walked right in, and multiple people were being turned away without realizing they needed to book a timeslot. Out of all the towers and view points we've climbed all over Europe, the top of Church of our Saviour was my favourite we've done. Great view, and being on the outside stairs of the winding tower was very unique.

Have a great trip,

Agree about the Copenhagen card!
I'm not really a "card" person but this one works very well. We had the 4-day (96hr) card and saved about $75/ea. We probably didn't go as many places as some.

Things others haven't mentioned here:

1) The attractions and transpo passes are done by QR code. What's great about that is that when you activate the card, the app downloads your codes This means that if you are not using, or do not have any kind of data plan, sim, or wifi once you have activated the card, the codes can still be used everywhere.

2) This card is really an attraction card bundled with a multi day transit pass that can be purchased separately. So if you don't care about the attractions look into the multi- day 1-99zone transit pass that covers the same area. (Another transit option if you are going to spend some time in both Skåne in Sweden and the Copenhagen zone area is that Skånetrafiken has a 48 hour tourist pass with some attraction discounts in both Denmark and Sweden. Not a lot of them, but a few. )
3) Note that you buy the card by HOURS not "days". This can be highly beneficial if you plan it right. The card will loop over into an "additional" "day" depending on when it was activated.
ex; we flew out on a Sunday at 9 am, so went to the airport at 6am. (ok, 6:30 we were a bit late, but nevermind)
We activated our 96hr card at 10am WEDNESDAY on our way to the metro.
We were able to use it all of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, plus transit to the airport Sunday morning. Our card expired 10am Sunday, one hour after our flight left. Technically, a "fifth" day, but not really.

For those recommending the Copenhagen card, would you recommend that for a 1-day visit? I'm tacking on a personal day to a 2-day meeting the first week of November and would like to maximize my time and money as best as possible. Thanks!

I would! Copenhagen card was great for our group, particularly since it included public transportation. When you have the card, you can just pop into something and check it out, then move on. Gives you lots of options! The natural history museum, botanical gardens, and butterfly house were amazing last week!

For those recommending the Copenhagen card, would you recommend that for a 1-day visit?

For one day you might not even break even on the cost of the card. There's a calculator on the site that you can use. Select the attractions you think you'll see and select a 24 hour card and it'll calculate if there would be any savings. https://copenhagencard.com/attractions

Note that the CPH card calculator assumes that you are doing a longer daytrip into or out from Copenhagen and the canal tour is the expensive one. For a one-day visit I think it depends a lot on whether Tivoli is open since that is an expensive attraction that can be done in the evening when everything else is closed. Copenhagen discover card is 559 DKK. A 24h small transit pass is 100 DKK. The cheap canal tour with Nettobådende is 60 DKK. So you must do other attractions for 399 DKK to gain from the card. Tivoli is 190 DKK so then it much easier.