The Copenhagen metro does not close: it runs twenty-four hours, every day of the year, with no driver. In a city where dinner is late and going out is later still, that is more useful than any tourist pass.
There are four lines — M1, M2, M3 Cityringen and M4 — with 44 stations over 43 kilometres, and all of them are automatic: no driver and no cab, so the best seat in the city is the front one, looking down the tunnel.
The M3 is a ring around the centre and passes almost everything you need; M1 and M2 head out to Amager and the airport; the M4 runs south along the harbour. There is no timetable to memorise: at rush hour a train comes every two minutes and at four in the morning you never wait more than twenty.
Fares go by zone, not by distance, and there is one rule that saves a fair amount: because of how the zones are drawn, a journey that stays on the metro never exceeds three zones — not even the airport run.
And the other half of Copenhagen transport is the bicycle. The city is built for it, there are segregated lanes almost everywhere, and hiring one for the whole trip is a reasonable decision even in December.
Nyhavn included, obligatory photo and all, plus two or three things almost nobody fits into a weekend.
Everything above you can do on your own with this page open. This other thing we build for you: the same idea as always — you do not know what you got until the day before — applied to Copenhagen.
You choose where you fly from and where you are going, and we tell you what the adventure costs and roughly what getting there would cost. Flights and accommodation you book yourself: we are not a travel agency and we do not want to be.
One ticket for metro, bus, S-trains, regional trains and the harbour bus boats. The price depends on how many zones you cross.
For two or three days the 24- or 72-hour City Pass usually beats single tickets, because it includes the airport. And if you are taking a bike, remember it pays its own fare on the metro.
If you want it line by line — which stations each one has, what is around every stop and how to work out a specific journey — we have all of it at our guide to the Copenhagen metro. It is one of the sites we publish ourselves, and it is free.
Kastrup is eight kilometres out and has both metro and train in the terminal itself. It is one of the best airport links in Europe.
Two full days cover the centre, Nyhavn, Christianshavn and a museum. With three you can add Louisiana or a trip to Malmö, half an hour away by train across the bridge.
Yes, twenty-four hours every day of the year. It is automatic, with no driver, and through the night it comes every fifteen or twenty minutes.
30 Danish kroner by metro or train, about thirteen minutes. The airport is in zone 4 and the centre in zone 1, but the ring-zone rule makes it a three-zone ticket.
Only if you are going to chain paid museums together. If your plan is more streets, canals, bikes and harbour baths — which is what we recommend — a plain transport City Pass works out better.
Yes, above all for eating and drinking out. Transport is around the European average and many of the best things are free: the harbour baths, CopenHill, the parks and walking around Christianshavn.
This is what we do when we travel. The other thing we do is build adventures where you do not know which activity you got until the day before.
