What Is the Difference Between the Copenhagen Card and the City Pass?
The Copenhagen Card bundles museums plus transport; the City Pass is transport only. A plain-language 2026 comparison of what each covers and who should buy which.
By Anders Nielsen, Copenhagen Museums Specialist & Cultural Guide
Two products with nearly the same name confuse a lot of first-time visitors, and the ticket machines do not help. One is called the Copenhagen Card, the other the Copenhagen City Pass, and travellers often buy the wrong one, then wonder why their pass will not open a museum turnstile. The difference is simple once you see it, and it changes how much you should spend.
What is the difference between the Copenhagen Card and the City Pass?
The Copenhagen Card is a sightseeing pass: it bundles free entry to more than 80 attractions with unlimited public transport. The City Pass is a transport ticket only: it covers buses, trains and the Metro for a set number of zones and hours, and opens no museums at all. One gets you into places; the other only moves you between them.
That single distinction settles most of the decision. If your trip is about museums, palaces and castles, you want the card. If you already have your attraction tickets sorted, or plan to see mostly free and outdoor sights, the City Pass may be all you need. Here is the fuller picture.
What does the Copenhagen City Pass cover?
The City Pass is the region's public-transport ticket, sold by the transport authority rather than any tourism board. It gives unlimited travel on buses, the S-train, the Metro, harbour buses and regional trains for the zones and duration you choose, from a small central zone set up to the full region. It includes no museum, palace or attraction entry.
Think of the City Pass as a time-based travel card. You pick how many zones you need and how long, commonly a small option covering the central zones or a large one stretching across the whole Capital Region, and you tap on and off as much as you like inside that window. The large-zone version reaches the airport, which makes it a tidy way to handle arrival and departure transfers.
What it will not do is let you through the door at Rosenborg or the National Museum. Every attraction is a separate paid ticket. That is the whole design: it is a transport product, priced far lower than a sightseeing card because it does far less. For the current fare structure and zone maps, the official VisitCopenhagen transport pages are the reliable reference, since prices flex by zone and duration.
What does the Copenhagen Card cover that the City Pass does not?
Everything the City Pass covers, plus free entry to more than 80 attractions. The Copenhagen Card carries the same unlimited transport across zones 1 to 99, then adds Rosenborg, Christiansborg, the National Museum, the Glyptotek, Tivoli's garden entry, Louisiana, both castle museums outside town and dozens more. The attractions are the reason it costs more.
The overlap is real, and worth understanding. Both passes give you unlimited public transport, both reach the airport, both work on the S-train and Metro alike. If all you compared was the transport, they would look similar and the City Pass would win on price. The card's premium buys the second layer entirely: the museum entries.
That second layer is where the money is, because Copenhagen's paid attractions run 125 to 225 DKK each. A card holder who visits Christiansborg, the National Museum and Rosenborg in one day has consumed more than 500 DKK of entries that a City Pass holder would still owe at the door. This is why heavy sightseers gravitate to the card and casual movers to the pass.
Booking a marquee sight ahead still smooths the day, card or no card. If Rosenborg's treasury and the crown jewels top your list, reserve Rosenborg Castle in advance and check availability for a time slot before the afternoon crowds build.
Which one is cheaper?
The City Pass is cheaper up front, because it is only a transport ticket. The Copenhagen Card costs more but can work out cheaper overall once you add the museum entries you were going to pay for anyway. The right way to compare is total trip cost, not the sticker price of the pass.
Sticker price alone is misleading. Yes, a City Pass costs a fraction of a Copenhagen Card, and if you buy the pass and then pay separately at every museum, that gap narrows fast or reverses. The card's 2026 prices start at 589 DKK for 24 hours and reach 1,039 for 72 hours, and those numbers already include all your transport.
Run the comparison as a whole. Add up the attractions you genuinely plan to enter, add the transport you will use, and set that total against the card price. For a museum-focused trip the card usually lands lower. For a trip built around free sights, harbour swims and long walks, the City Pass plus a couple of single tickets often lands lower instead.
| Copenhagen Card (Discover) | Copenhagen City Pass | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Sightseeing pass | Public-transport ticket |
| Attraction entry | 80+ included free | None |
| Public transport | Unlimited, zones 1 to 99 | Unlimited, chosen zones |
| Reaches the airport | Yes, Metro included | Yes, with the large-zone version |
| Castle day trips out of town | Train and entry both covered | Train only, entry paid separately |
| 2026 starting price | 589 DKK for 24 hours | Much lower, transport only |
| Best for | Museum-heavy trips | Getting around only |
Does either pass cover the airport and day trips?
Both can reach the airport, and both cover the trains out to the castle towns, because the transport network is the same underneath. The Copenhagen Card's zones 1 to 99 and the City Pass large-zone option each stretch to the airport Metro and the regional lines to Humlebaek, Hillerod and Helsingor. The gap is entry, not distance.
The transport is identical on those routes, which surprises people who assume the pricier card must travel further. It does not. A City Pass large-zone ticket rides the same S-train to Hillerod and the same coastal line to Helsingor that a Copenhagen Card rides. If all you needed was to reach the castle towns, the cheaper pass would carry you there.
The difference lands at the castle door. With the card, the entry at Frederiksborg, Kronborg or Louisiana is already paid; with a City Pass, you have travelled free but still owe the admission, 125 to 150 DKK each. Since those day-trip entries are among the priciest single tickets in the region, they are exactly where the card's extra cost tends to come back. For the current airport and zone details, VisitCopenhagen's transport pages are the reliable source.
Can you use both passes together?
You can, but you rarely need to. The Copenhagen Card already bundles unlimited transport, so a City Pass on top would duplicate what you have. The one time it makes sense is a mixed trip: a short Copenhagen Card for your busy museum days, then a cheap City Pass for the slower days when you are only riding around.
Some careful travellers do split their trip this way. They run a 24 or 48-hour card while they hit the big attractions, let it expire, then cover the remaining days with a low-cost transport ticket instead of extending the card. On a five-day trip with only two heavy museum days, that combination can undercut a single long card.
On a card-free day you go back to paying single entries, and the National Museum is one people often choose to visit on its own, with its Viking hall and the Sun Chariot. If that is your plan, you can reserve the National Museum of Denmark and check availability for the day your card is not running.
Which should you buy for your trip?
Buy the Copenhagen Card if you plan three or more paid attractions, or any castle day trip, since it wraps transport and entries into one price. Buy the City Pass if you have few or no museums on your list, already hold your attraction tickets, or want the cheapest possible way to ride around and reach the airport.
The decision comes down to how you travel. Sightseers who want to see a lot in a short time, families juggling transport for several people, and anyone planning a run out to Kronborg or Frederiksborg will get more from the card, since it removes the friction of buying a ticket at every door. The castle day trips especially tip the balance, because the card covers both the long train ride and the entry at the far end.
A different traveller is better served by the pass. If you are in town for the food, the harbour and the neighbourhoods, with maybe one museum in mind, the City Pass keeps you mobile for very little and you pay that one entry directly. There is no shame in the cheaper choice when it fits.
For a deeper look at when the sightseeing pass pays off, see whether the Copenhagen Card is worth it for your itinerary, and my full Copenhagen Card guide works through sample routes. You can also confirm exactly what the sightseeing pass includes on the official prices page before you choose.