Our Guide to Copenhagen on a Budget

Research and Budgeting

A key part of planning is doing your research. I know it sounds boring, but once you get into it research can save you a lot of money, and be a really good way to get you hyped for your trip! Ensure you compare different flights and accommodation options to get the best prices as well as researching how much the local food and activities will cost.

Once we’ve done our research, Will and I always create a budget of how much we think the trip is going to cost. This includes: flights, airport transfers in the UK and when we get there, accommodation, food and an activity allowance. This allows us to ensure we can afford the whole trip. We don’t want to book one component of the trip, such as flights, before we know if we can afford the rest! Our budget per person for 3 days in Copenhagen was as follows:

Flights £25

Accommodation £35

Activities £70

Food £40

Airport transfers £20

  £200

Just so you can put this cost into perspective (because I know it sounds like a lot for 3 days!), we did a quick search online for similar dates. The cheapest package deal that we could find that included flights and half board accommodation for two people, came to £510 total (£255 each). This is already more than what we spent total! And it doesn’t even include activities, airport transfers or the cost of the remaining meals.

This just goes to prove that booking each part separately is cheaper; if you want to save money you have to put in the time and effort to find the cheapest deal for each component. We saved money on food by enjoying the street food rather than eating at a restaurant and we saved on airport transfers by using the public transport to get to our accommodation when we arrived in Copenhagen rather than a taxi.

Getting to Copenhagen

1. Flights

We booked flights with Ryanair for this trip. After doing our research, we found they were the cheapest airline available for the dates we wanted to go, costing us only £25.98 each for return tickets! A good trick with Ryanair is to choose the random seat allocation, this can save you up to £10 each way. I know the flight is an important part of the travel experience and you may want to share this with your friends or family but for £10 for each flight, is it worth it? Will and I don’t think so; we get to spend the whole time there together; we don’t need the extra couple hours on the plane!

We decided to fly from Will’s local airport (Southend) for this trip as it is one of the cheapest airports to fly to Copenhagen from. This also saved us money on airport transfers because it’s just around the corner from his house; just a short train ride required, no need for a taxi!

The cheapest option was to get evening flights both directions. We prefer to fly out in the morning and fly back in the evening to maximise our time there whilst minimising our accommodation costs. But we decided that one out of our two preferred flight times was good enough for the price we were paying!

2. Eurostar

The train option from London to Copenhagen takes a mammoth 16 hours and 30 minutes. With changes in Brussels, Cologne and Hamburg, there is the potential to make this journey into more of an interrail trip. Using thetrainline.com, we found the lowest price to be £106 and an approximate average price of £156. These costs are way higher than the price of the flights discussed above. Due to the cost and travel time involved, going to Copenhagen via train (without the possibility of interrailing) is a not a good idea!

3. Bus

The bus routes present similar issues. As found on flixbus.co.uk, the journey will take 22 hours with a rough ticket cost of £74. Flying is clearly the way to go.

Getting Around Copenhagen

1. Metro, S-Train and Train

We found that the public transport in Copenhagen was incredibly efficient and modern compared to what we have back in the UK; the metro is driverless! To get from the airport to our accommodation, the cheapest option for us was to go into town on the Metro and then take the S-Train back out to the area we were staying. All the public transport options in Copenhagen use the same ticket, you just enter the destination on the ticket machine and it will calculate the zone ticket required.

The Copenhagen central station can be confusing, especially if you’re not sure exactly what you’re looking for. Hopefully we can help you understand this before you get there to avoid a public transport panic attack! The metro lines all start with M, for example M1 and M2 both have an end of the line at the airport but have different starting points. The S-Train (or S-Tog in Danish) has Alphabet character labelled lines: A, B, C, etc, and the train has numerically labelled lines. Different stations around Copenhagen have one, two or all of the different rail options, so it’s useful to know what line you need. We recommend using good old google maps or asking a local if you don’t know which of these options you need and then you can simply follow the relevant signs! 

2. Bus

There are bus routes running within and out of the city and there are frequent bus stops. In order to use the bus, you need to have pre-bought either a zone ticket or travel pass, as there aren’t ticket machines at the bus stops. Most buses don’t have a long wait time and the stops have an electronic sign letting you know how long till the next one.

If public transport is something you can find a bit daunting or confusing then we suggest sticking to the rail options as the train and metro routes are easier to understand for people only visiting the city for a couple of days. The trains and metro are also faster as they don’t have to wait for road traffic.

3.  Walking

Once in the city, walking is by far the best option. Walking from one side of the city to the other only takes 45 minutes on google maps (so you can easily take 15 minutes off of that when walking at a reasonable pace). It’s a great way to explore the city, enjoy the architecture and take everything in. The other benefit of walking is that it’s completely free, all you require is two legs and time! However, the Metro would be a better option if you struggle walking more than 20mins or if you have specific places around Copenhagen that you want to go and are on a time constraint.

4. Rent a Scooter

Renting a scooter is by far the most fun mode of transport within Copenhagen city centre! There are two companies within Copenhagen that offer scooter rental but we found that the Lime was the most common one. To be able to rent one of the many scooters parked around the centre, you will need to download the company app (use our link for your first ride free!). We recommend downloading the app before you leave your accommodation as it does require a few minutes to set up.

5. Other Options

There are also plenty of taxis and two bus tour companies which come at a higher cost. This is not a budget option but if you really do have a fear of public transport and don’t fancy walking or scooting then these are probably the best way around the city for you!

Accommodation

Our favourite way to save money on accommodation is to book a room through Airbnb. The place we found for our trip cost us £69 for 3 nights (£34.50 each). Sometimes, to get something cheap you have to be willing to look outside the city centre area. This works well for us as we are both happy to take public transport and walk. We chose a place in Hvidovre that was close to a train station to make travelling into town more convenient each day.

The average price in Copenhagen city centre on Airbnb when we looked was £233 per night! By looking further out, in the suburbs, you can get accommodation for £40-£50 a night or less. The transport into the city will cost you about £10 return on public transport (or if you are getting a travel card it will be included). Even with the addition of the return ticket into the city, staying outside the centre is clearly cheaper.

Another main consideration for us when booking accommodation is whether breakfast or a kitchen is provided. This time we were able to find somewhere with a private kitchen, allowing us to store food in the fridge and cook our own breakfast and packed lunches. By prioritising this when booking accommodation, you can save some serious money on food as well. We were even lucky enough to have an Aldi 150m down the road!

The other popular way to save money on accommodation is to stay in a hostel, but for a couple or friends it’s often cheaper and more comfortable to simply rent one room on Airbnb and split the cost.

Things to Do in Copenhagen

For our top recommendations of things to do in Copenhagen, check out our Copenhagen Things to Do page!

Food in Copenhagen

One of our money saving tricks whilst travelling is to pack food in our travel bags or do a food shop on arrival. For this trip we packed porridge oats for breakfast and pasta and rice for packed lunches. We also did a small food shop at a local supermarket for items that we couldn’t bring on the plane (such as tuna and pasta sauce). This meant we could avoid paying the expensive ‘eating out’ prices for every meal.

We believe that although saving money is important, so is enjoying the local cuisine and culture, because that’s part of the joy of travelling! As Denmark is renowned for its pastries, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to sample these! 

We decided, however, to take the opportunity to try several of the different street food options available. Our favourite venue for this was the Boltons Food Court, only a short walk from Kings square. The indoor gallery structure houses several stalls on each level, offering all cuisine options. There are tables and benches outside as well as seating indoors for rainy weather. The bars and pubs surrounding the outside courtyard create a lively atmosphere for couples, groups of friends and families alike! The meals offered here average about 100DKK (about £12). 

If you are looking to splash out on eating somewhere special, Nyhavn would be the ideal place. Restaurants line the harbourside and people sit out eating at covered tables the whole way along. The atmosphere here is very relaxed and the views of the harbour from the outside tables make it a great place to enjoy a leisurely dinner. From glancing at menus as we passed by, the minimum price for a main was about £25, so be prepared to pay more than you would elsewhere.