Copenhagen

By ship

Going on a canal tour of the inner harbour and canals is an excellent and easy way to see many of the city's attractions, and fortunately there are many options depending on your taste and preferences. DFDS Canal Tours operates both a unguided hop-on hop-off service, branded as the water bus, arranged into three circular trips at the northern, central and southern part of the inner harbour and canals. They also have three guided tours, either by a pre-recorded tape available in many languages, or live English & Danish commentary by a guide. Be forewarned though, after 75 minutes this can get a bit loud if you are not normally attracted to this sort of tourism. Netto-bådene offers a single fixed tour, but at a much lower price. Please note that services are scaled back considerably between October and mid-March. If you are visiting during winter, you might want to opt for DFDS' red guided tour, as it offers a heated, glass-roofed boat at this time of the year. Both companies offer starting points in either Nyhavn or Gammel Strand opposite the parliament. A different option is the public harbour bus, which, while it doesn't enter the canals, is much faster and is an integrated part of the public transportation system using the same tickets as buses and trains.

DFDS Canal Tours

Movia

By ship

An option you may want to consider is a Freedom ticket which for 220 Kr gives unlimited transportation for two days on both all the DFDS Canal Tour boats, as well as the double-decker sightseeing buses of Copenhagen City Sightseeing.

The two big hubs are Central Station da: Hovedbanegården/København H with S-trains, intercity trains and buses, and Nørreport Station with S-trains, metro, regional trains and buses. Travel by train, bus and metro can be scheduled electronically through rejseplanen.dk (http://rejseplanen.dk/bin...)?.

By S-Tog

The S-train service (http://dsb.dk/s-tog, Danish only, schedule (http://dsb.dk/Global/PDF/...) is the backbone of the city's public transit system, and is very similar to the German S-Bahn networks and the Parisian RER system. The distinct red trains are clean, modern, and equipped with free WiFi. The system runs from early morning to late night, each line in ten minute intervals during the day M-F 6AM-6PM and at twenty minute intervals in the early morning and late at night. In the weekends, the trains run once an hour at night except the F-line which runs twice an hour at night and some of the lines are extended. Since most lines join on a single railway line through the city centre, there are only a couple of minutes of waiting between each train in the inner districts. The F and C-lines are exceptions, the F line does a half loop outside the central area, with trains every five minutes throughout most of the day. The C-line is extended to Frederikssund during day time, but scaled back to Ballerup at other times. Loudspeaker announcements regarding S-trains are given in Danish only, so remember to ask your fellow travellers for help. For the most part though they are just cursory announcements.

By taxi

Taxis are abundant throughout the city and of a very high standard — usually a Mercedes or BMW. They are pricey though, and the wait to get one can be long on a Friday or Saturday night. You can hail a taxi on the street or call for one to come pick you up at a specific address at a specific time for a small extra fee 12-15 Kr. At crucial traffic junctures throughout the city, there are special areas where taxis hold in line to pick up customers. Except for a very long trip, it is not common or recommended to haggle about the price. If you wish to pay with a credit card, you must present it for the driver at the beginning of the trip. All taxis accept major international credit cards and most will accept Euro cash payment and some even list prices in Euros on the meter. Sometimes taxi drivers request you to withdraw money in an ATM when paying with card, this is mostly a scam to do the trip off-license.

Copenhagen Taxi companiesAmager-Øbro Taxi Central Copenhagen +45 32 51 51 51Codan Taxi Central Copenhagen +45 70 25 25 25Taxa 4x35 Central Copenhagen +45 35 35 35 35TaxaMotor A/S Central Copenhagen +45 70 338 338Ballerup-Værløse-Herlev Taxa Northwestern suburbs+45 44 85 35 35Taxa Selandia Southern suburbs +45 70 10 66 66Taxinord Northern Suburbs +45 45 83 83 83Vest-Taxa Western Suburbs+45 43 45 45 45

Prices range 11-16 Kr per kilometer depending on the time of day and the meter flag-fall charge is 25 Kr. Generally you can trust taxis with both prices and the route taken. Because of the high flag-fall charge, it can be better financially for taxi drivers to have many trips rather than long trips, so it is therefore often in their own interest to take the shortest route.

By Metro

The Copenhagen Metro (http://intl.m.dk/) runs from Vanløse through the city centre and branches to either the new-town of Ørestad or to the airport. The Metro has no timetable and between Vanløse and Christianshavn trains run with a four minute interval two minutes during peak hours. It runs nonstop at night with fifteen minute intervals. The trains run automatically and are without drivers, so the doors will close at a given time, even if all waiting passengers have not entered the train. Wait for the next train instead of trying to squeeze through in the last second.

By bike

The fastest and most flexible way of seeing Copenhagen is on a bike. Forty percent of Copenhageners use their bike everyday and the city has been designed to cater for cyclists with separate bicycle lanes on most larger roads. Cyclists are often allowed to ride both ways in one-way streets. Be careful if you are not used to biking in a busy city as this is a common means of daily transportation and the locals drive fast and without room for much leeway. Don't expect to get a warning when someone wants to overtake you. Always keep to the right and look behind you before you overtake someone — otherwise you could cause some nasty accidents.

In the center of the city, you can also get around by the free public city-bikes. These are specially painted by various sponsors and are very simple bikes that you can find on special stands near major places like the main train station, Tivoli Park, the port and numerous other racks throughout the central city. After you insert a 20 Kr coin, akin to the system used for shopping or airport trolleys, you can take the bike anywhere you want as long as you stay in the inner part of the city marked on the map on the bike. If you are caught outside these borders, you could be faced with a fine around 1,000 Kr. When you return the bike to some stand again not necessarily the same one, you will get your money back. Please don't take away city-bikes that you see somewhere not on a stand, there are high chances that somebody will soon return for it and by taking it away, you not only deprive him of his transport, but also his money. During winter periods, however, you will not find many bikes, as they are being repaired in the local prisons as part of community service. The city bikes have become something of a Copenhagen landmark and the city's example has spread to many others all over world. President Bill Clinton was presented with City Bike One as the city's gift during his official visit in 1997. It was specially designed with the presidential seal on its wheels.

As an alternative to the city bikes you can rent a bike and these are far more comfortable. You can find a little bike rental shop called CPH bike rental (http://cph-bike-rental.dk) on a side-street to Nansensgade on Turesensgade 10, five minutes from Norreport station. They rent bikes on a daily basis and use the proceeds to finance the shipment of used bikes to Africa. They also arrange city tours and sell picnic baskets. Their prices start at 60 Kr for six hours bike rent. Another bicycle shop is at the Central Railroad Station, where prices start at 75 Kr a day/340 a week. At Højbro Plads next to McDonalds at Strøget you can find rickshaws for hire with a driver, who will often be trained in providing tourist information as you stroll along. A variety of bike tours are offered by Bike Copenhagen with Mike including a city tour at 10AM daily departing from Copenhagen Bikes at the main train station.

Tickets And The Zone System

All public transport in Copenhagen, as well as the rest of the country, operates on a zone system. The smallest ticket is the two-zone ticket which costs 24 Kr for adults 12 Kr for children under the age of sixteen, and can be purchased from ticket offices, vending machines and bus drivers. Two children under the age of eleven can travel for free with one paying adult. It allows you to travel around Copenhagen in two zones the zone where you stamped or purchased the ticket plus one adjacent zone for one hour. You can switch freely between all trains, Metro, and buses within this hour, as long as your last trip starts before the time is up your ticket will be timestamped in fifteen minute intervals.

The range of a single zone can be roughly translated to around seven minutes in the Metro or fifteen minutes in a bus, but always check the zone maps in the stations, some stations are closer to zone borders than others. Ask locals if help is needed, as the zone system can be complex for visitors. Night buses work all night 1AM-5AM daily and the price of ticket is the same as during the day.

A ten-trip klippekort gives you a discount of around forty percent and can be bought in kiosks and ticket offices. You can also purchase a day pass starting at 130 Kr Alternatively, buy a Copenhagen Card (http://visitcopenhagen.dk/), which gives free transport throughout the region and free admission to 60 museums and sights. The card costs 229 Kr for 24 hours, 459 Kr for 72 hours. Note that on Sundays and Mondays many museums are either free or closed, thus possibly making the card of less value on those days.

For regional trains, S-tog and Metro a ticket must be bought and timestamped before boarding the trains. For buses, tickets can be bought from the driver but not klippekort which must be purchased beforehand. The fine for traveling without a valid ticket is 750 Kr 600 Kr for buses and ticket conductors are common both in S-trains and Metro. More information about price and tickets at movia (http://movia.dk/).

There is yet another unified and electronic relatively new alternative, if one does not want to strive with the zone system. It is called Rejsekort Travel-card (http://www.rejsekort.dk/d...).

By bus

While most locals opt for bikes, Copenhagen does have a fairly extensive and efficient bus network (http://movia.dk). It can be troublesome, though, for visitors to figure out what line to take to their destination as there is little in the way of network maps available at bus stops and schedules rarely include the entire route. There are several types of bus available: regular buses are simply denoted by their number, A buses are the backbone of the city's bus network which consists of six different lines with frequent departures and stops. During the day time there are no schedules as buses depart every two to six minutes. Many stops do have a small electronic display showing how many minutes are left until the next bus arrives. S buses are long express services with few stops and extend far into the suburbs, usually across the radial suburban train network or along corridors with no rail service. They can also be useful between points in the centre as they are faster than other lines. E buses are express rush-hour services of little use to travelers as they mainly service commuters. One exception is line 20E which runs between the central square Kongens Nytorv and the DFDS Oslo/Szczecin ferries and cruise terminals. N buses are a network of ten bus lines operating at night between 1AM-5AM daily, when normal traffic is halted, and they are much more frequent at weekends.

For sightseeing the city has recently introduced a new CityCirkel bus (http://citycirkel.dk/en/), specially geared towards tourists. It runs a circle around the inner city stopping at many of the main attractions. The small eco-friendly electric buses runs every seven minutes M-F 9AM-8PM, Sa 10AM-4PM, Su 11AM-3PM and can be hailed whenever one passes by if there are green dots on the the curb. On streets with heavy traffic they also use regular bus stops. You use the same tickets as all other public buses and trains. CitySightseeing (http://sightseeing.dk/reg...) runs three hop-on hop-off tours around the city map in open-top double-decker buses. The main line leaves every 30 minutes, while the two other lines depart every hour in high season Jun-Aug. Outside the peak season, services are halved. The price is 150 Kr for a one day ticket or 220 Kr for a two day ticket which also includes the DFDS canal tour boats.