In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish explains how transport costs can dominate a Danish budget, especially when living outside city centers. He outlines practical ways to reduce these expenses through advance planning, smart use of tickets and travel cards, and choosing the right mode of transport. Key recommendations include booking cheap "orange" advance train tickets (as low as 99 DKK for long‑distance trips), using the nationwide Rejsekort and remembering to check out to halve local fares, leveraging car‑sharing platforms (Let’s Go, ShareNow, GreenMobility) and pre‑booked taxis for occasional car use, and understanding the hidden costs of biking such as regular tune‑ups (200‑400 DKK), lock and theft risks, and the need for separate bike tickets on public transport. Mellish also describes how to combine bikes with trains, metros, ferries, or taxis, warns about hefty fines (750 DKK) for incorrect tickets, and emphasizes the importance of double‑checking tickets. The episode closes with a promotion of related books and social media links.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. Along with food and housing, Getting around is a big part of the cost of living in Denmark. In fact, the less you spend on rent by living outside of the most expensive downtown zones, the more you're likely to spend on transport. And no matter what the tourist brochures might suggest, you probably won't go everywhere on a bike in Denmark. Now, bikes are great in downtown Aarhus or Copenhagen, or in a campus-type area like DTU in Lyngby. But the further you get outside of urban areas, the more useful a car is. That's why there are 2.5 million personal cars on the road in Denmark, roughly one for every 2 people. Cars are brutally expensive in Denmark. But there are many ways to lower your cost of living by getting around for less, and it has a lot to do with how well you plan. Danes are, in general, very good advance planners. My personal favorite when it comes to saving money on transport are the orange train tickets you can get for incredibly cheap prices if you book in advance. I was stunned to find that you can get from one side of Denmark to the other— from Copenhagen to Esbjerg, to be precise— for only 99 crowns. That's cheaper than a 10-minute trip in a Copenhagen taxi. And it's a 3.5-hour journey from Copenhagen to Esbjerg. The key is there's so many of these tickets available per train, so you need to book them in advance. Otherwise, you could find yourself paying full fare, which is four times as much, to sit in the same seat on the same train. Advance planning is also key to saving money on transport when it comes to local trains and buses. Denmark's plastic reisekort or travel card has been widely criticized, in part because in addition to checking in. You need to remember to check out when your journey is complete. With your mind on where you are going and what you are doing and not leaving your gloves or your phone or your groceries behind, this is trickier than it sounds. I avoided getting a Reisecort for years, in part because I am exactly the kind of person who forgets to check out. But now I have one, and I've learned that it cuts the price of a local journey drastically. A ticket from Copenhagen to Hillerød using the vending machine or an app is 84 crowns. It's 49 crowns with the rejsekort, so that's a pretty big savings. The rejsekort is also nice because you can use it pretty much all over Denmark. Recently I was in Aarhus and wanted to go out to Ebeltoft, which is a cute little tourist town out on the coast. I just clicked my rejsekort on the rural bus. Payment made. No messing around with paper tickets or apps or anything else. And if you do forget to check out, there's an app you can use. You can check out on the app. I use it a lot. Sometimes you're carrying something big home— furniture, for example— and a car is the best way to do it. Advance planning helps here, too. Sign up for one of the car-sharing services like Let's Go. ShareNow or GreenMobility. You can pay by the hour or book a whole day if you want to get out of town. Once you set up an account, they are constantly sending you special deals, so you can get your driving pleasure at a lower price. You can also take a taxi, which is also cheaper if you book it in advance with the app. The app will also give you a fixed price for your trip, which reduces any incentive for the driver to take you along the scenic route. Of course, the cheapest form of transport is walking, followed by biking. Both walking and biking are also good exercise— unless you have one of the trendy new electric bikes that keep zooming past me in the bicycle lanes. But if you're trying to save money on transport, don't forget the cost of bike maintenance. If you've got mechanical skills, I admire you, because I do not have those skills. That's why when my family buys bikes, we always buy them from a shop that offers free lifetime tune-ups as part of the purchase price. A franchise like Free Bike Shop will allow you to get these tune-ups at any of their shops anywhere in Denmark. Now, using your bike for daily transport, you're going to need a tune-up at least twice a year. Brakes tightened, chain oiled, tires checked. That'll cost you 200 to 400 kroner every time. Plus the replacement of any parts, so factor that into the price of biking. And include the cost of locks and theft. Bike theft is extremely common in Denmark, so that many people actually have 2 bikes or more. They might have a racing bike for long weekend tours and keep it inside during the week, then also have a shopper bike with a big basket for groceries, and then also sometimes have an ugly bike Which can be left at a train station or some other place that bikes are frequently stolen. I have one of these, a beaten-up old bike that nobody's interested in stealing. Some train stations have a special locked room for bike parking, so that's an option too, as long as the bike thieves don't have access to the same room. Before we go, let's talk about the bike-transport combo. It's very common in Denmark to combine your bike journey with some other form of transport. For example, you can usually call a taxi and then put your bike on the back of the taxi. It costs a little extra, but it works well if you've driven a bit too far or had a bit too much to drink. You can also take your bike with you on most trains, metros, and light rail cars, even on some commuter ferry boats. Just bike to the stop, take your trip, and then bike away at the other end. Works well. But make sure to double-check whether or not you need a separate bike ticket. Some places you do, some places you don't. And if you don't have the right ticket, all your efforts to save money on transport will be in vain because you'll be fined 750 crowns by the roving controllers. Everybody gets caught by them at some point, and no, the confused foreigner act does not work, and neither does crying. Double and triple check your ticket, because if you don't have precisely the right one on the bus or train, all your efforts to save money on transport in Denmark will be in vain. And that's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. You can buy our books, How to Live in Denmark, How to Work in Denmark, Working with Americans: Tips for Danes, and Working with Danes: Tips for Americans, on Amazon, Saxo, and Apple Books, Barnes Noble Nook, and Google Books. Follow us on Instagram or Twitter at How to Live in Decay. The 2 is a number. See you next time.
