Copenhagen Card Canal Tour

Yes, the Copenhagen Card Discover includes a canal tour: Stromma’s 1-hour Classic Canal Tour. It is free with the card only from Ved Stranden 26, and you cannot book it online, so you reserve a slot at the Ved Stranden box office on the day. We recommend the card when the canal tour is one of several paid sights you will fit into the same 24 hours. If the boat is the main thing you want, Stromma’s Canal Cruise with Guide at about $24 is far cheaper and can be booked for a fixed time.

Does the Copenhagen Card include a canal tour?

The Discover card includes the Classic Tour of Canal Tours Copenhagen, the Stromma tour that first sailed in 1904. It lasts about an hour, with a live guide in Danish and English or an audio guide in other languages, and the winter boats are covered and heated. The card also includes public transport across the region, harbour buses among them, and entry to 80+ attractions.

Two limits matter. The tour is free only from Ved Stranden 26, and boarding elsewhere costs a surcharge. And the Netto boats from Nyhavn are not on the card’s attraction list at all. GoBoat’s guided Harbor Tour from Islands Brygge 10 is listed as a card attraction, booked in person on the day; the card’s pages do not make clear whether it is free or discounted, so ask when you book. On GetYourGuide it sells as the Electric Canal Tour with live guide & hygge.

How do you reserve the canal tour with the card?

You cannot pre-book the canal tour online with a Copenhagen Card. Go to the box office at Ved Stranden 26, have your card scanned and reserve a time slot, one per guest. From 1 October to 23 December the tour runs daily from about 10:00 to 16:50, so a morning visit to the box office gives you the most choice.

If you buy the card on GetYourGuide, redeem the 8-character code in the Copenhagen Card app before you head out. The voucher alone does not get you into any venue. The card allows one visit per attraction, so it covers one canal tour, not two.

Card vs ticket: the break-even maths

The 24-hour card costs DKK 589 on the card’s own site and $89 on GetYourGuide. Here is what the boat and a day of transport would cost without it, at DKK 6.658 to the dollar.

So the canal tour and your transport cover roughly half the card’s price. The card pays off only if the museums, palaces or gardens you visit that day add up to more than the rest. Check the entry prices of the sights you have in mind before you buy. Longer cards cost DKK 859 for 48 hours and DKK 1,039 for 72 hours ($129 and $156 on GetYourGuide), and they still include just one canal tour.

Families should look at the kids’ cards. Each adult card can add up to two kids’ cards for ages 3 to 11, at DKK 100 for 24 hours, and under-3s are free.

What do you give up with the card?

Flexibility on the boat. With a ticket you choose a departure online and keep free cancellation up to 24 hours before. With the card you queue at the box office for a slot, you must board at Ved Stranden, and Nyhavn’s departures cost extra. If you want to start in Nyhavn, our Nyhavn departures guide shows which tickets work there.

If you mainly want buses and the boat, Stromma’s Bus & Boat Ticket 2 in 1 at about $63 gives you 48 hours of hop-on buses plus the same 1-hour canal tour, boardable at Nyhavn 3 or Ved Stranden 26.

What about the harbour buses?

They are on the card, and they are a pleasant extra rather than a replacement for the tour. Routes 991 and 992 run along the harbour on ordinary public-transport tickets, DKK 24 for two zones without a card. They have no commentary and do not enter the narrow canals such as Christianshavns Kanal. Our harbour bus vs canal tour page compares them, the price guide lists every tour by cost, and the route guide shows what the classic tour passes.

Compare the card with single tickets on the homepage comparison, or browse all tours.