Copenhagen has an extensive, yet notoriously complicated and hard to crack, public transportation system. Once you get your bearings, however, you will find it a very comfortable way to explore the city and get around.
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.

The zone system

One of the most perplexing features of the public transportation system in Copenhagen is the zone system. The whole city, as well as the surrounding region, is divided into fare zones. 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.

Tickets and fares

The number of available ticket types may be bewildering - below is a quick overview:

• Single-ride tickets — price depending on the number of zones you travel through, the cheapest is the two-zone ticket. 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 starting from the time you stamp it. 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).
• 10-journey discount travelcard — gives you a discount of around forty percent and can be bought in kiosks and ticket offices. This replaces the previous klippekort.
• 24-hour ticket — enables you unlimited rides throughout the entire system and all zones. You don't need this, though, if you do not intend to leave Copenhagen itself over those 24 hours — then you can do with the cheaper City Pass.
• City Pass — gives you unlimited ride in zones 1-4 (including Copenhagen Airport) for 24 hours or 72 hours. Perhaps the most reasonable choice if you intend to stay in the city itself (and not the remote parts of the Copenhagen region) and use the public transit to get around.
• CPH Card — gives free transport throughout the region and free admission to 60 museums and sights. Note that on Sundays and Mondays many museums are either free or closed, thus possibly making the card of less value on those days.
• 7-day FlexCard

Tickets for children aged 15 or younger generally cost half the price of adult tickets. Night buses incur the same fares as day buses, there is no supplement.
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).
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.

By S-Tog

The S-train service 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 6:00–18:00) and at twenty-minute intervals in the early morning and late at night. In the weekends, the trains run twice an hour at night and some of the lines are extended. Since most lines join on a single railway line through the city center, 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 mostly given in Danish only, so remember to ask your fellow travelers for help. For the most part, though they are just cursory announcements. Bikes can be taken for free on the S-train and special bicycle compartments exist on the train.

By metro

The Copenhagen Metro runs from Vanløse through the city center 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.
One interesting feature resulting from the lack of drivers on trains is the fact that both ends of the trains have large windows with unobscured views, and the trains are accordingly fitted with rows of seats facing them. This can be an extra treat to the visitors traveling on the Metro — enter the train with the exit next to the front end and try to get a seat in one of the three front rows. Some sections of the tracks are less interesting than the others, e.g. the one in the center runs underground (that said, tunnels are lit up and can be quite amazing to witness the first time you see them), or the section towards the airport. On the other hand, the overground section of the M1 line on Amager is rather picturesque.

By bus

Copenhagen has a fairly extensive and efficient bus network. 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. That said, many stops do have a small electronic display showing how many minutes are left until the next bus arrives.
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 seven different lines with frequent departures and stops. During the day time, there are no schedules as buses usually depart at least every ten minutes. They are also operating at night.
• 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 center as they are faster than other lines.
• E buses are express rush-hour services of little use to travelers as they mainly service commuters.
• N buses are a network of ten bus lines operating at night between 1:00–5:00 daily, when normal traffic is halted, and they are much more frequent at weekends.

You are expected to board the bus using the front exit and immediately show your ticket to the bus driver (be it a paper ticket or a one you received as an SMS to your phone), or validate it if you have not done so before (e.g. when you intend to ride on a single-ride ticket or you're traveling with a rejsekort). You can also purchase the ticket from the driver. The front exits are for boarding only — alight using other doors only.
CitySightseeing 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. A two-day ticket which also includes the DFDS canal tour boats.

By boat

Going on a canal tour of the inner harbor 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 an 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 harbor 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

Gammel Strand

• DFDS Canal Tours, Nyhavn 3, ☎ +45 32 96 30 00, e-mail: canaltours@canaltours.dk. 9.30–20:00.
• Netto-bådene, Heibergsgade (Nyhavn), ☎ +45 32 54 41 02. 10:00–17:00 (19:00 in July & August).
• Movia, Customer center at Rådhuspladen, ☎ +45 36 13 14 15. 7:00–19:00. Uses public ticketing system.

An option you may want to consider is a Freedom ticket which 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.

By bicycle

The fastest and most flexible way of seeing Copenhagen is on a bike. Forty percent of Copenhageners use their bike every day 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.

Bycyklen

Bycyklen is Copenhagen's new bike-sharing scheme, launched in 2014. The idea is pretty simple — you can rent a bike from a stand, ride around and return at the same or any other stand at the city, paying for the time you used the bicycle. The bicycles are all-new and equipped with an electric motor to help you go uphill, as well as a tablet with GPS so that you can browse the map and find your route while not getting lost. A mobile phone is required.

Bike rental

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 on a side-street to Nansensgade on Turesensgade, 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. Another bicycle shop is at the Central Railroad Station. At Højbro Plads (next to McDonald's 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 10:00 daily departing from Copenhagen Bikes at the main train station.

• Rentyourbikehere.dk, ☎ +45 33936200, e-mail: info@rentyourbikehere.dk.

By taxi

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.