Copenhagen Will Pay You to Travel Sustainably: CopenPay 2026

Copenhagen stopped asking tourists to be sustainable and started paying them for it. On 22 June 2026, the city's tourism board made CopenPay a permanent, year-round program after two years of pilot summers — meaning as of right now, more than 100 attractions, tours, cafes and bike-rental shops around the Danish capital will trade a good deed for a free reward, no coupon or membership card involved.

How CopenPay actually works

The mechanic is simple and runs entirely through copenpay.com — there's no separate app to install. You browse the list of actions and rewards on the site, pick a participating partner, and "swipe right" in the mobile web experience to check in. After you complete the activity — a short bike ride, a bag of harbour litter, a train journey into the city — you show the confirmation screen at the partner and collect the reward on the spot.

The qualifying actions are all things a visitor would plausibly do anyway: arriving in Copenhagen by train, riding the metro, cycling instead of taking a taxi, choosing a vegetarian dish, booking a stay of four nights or longer, volunteering at an urban farm, or picking up trash along the harbour. A handful of higher-effort actions — flying in on a ticket that includes Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or arriving by electric car — also qualify.

What you can actually earn

The rewards are concrete and, per the current partner list on copenpay.com, include: 60% off a Donkey Republic bike rental, 50% off your next three Bolt e-bike trips, a free barista coffee or welcome drink from 25hours Hotel's Tiger Lily bar for arriving by bike, a free lemonade at Broens Street Food, 40% off seasonal vegetarian dishes at a rotating list of restaurants, free access to several StoryHunt self-guided audio tours, a 50% discount on a Christianshavn walking tour, 20% off a Parken Stadium tour, and EV-charging discounts at the Q-Park Nørreport and Vesterport garages. Scandic Nørreport pairs a harbour cleanup with a free hotel breakfast. None of this requires status or a subscription — it's first-come, first-served at each partner while their allotment lasts.

Check copenpay.com before you land, not after — some rewards (like the hotel breakfast tie-in) are tied to a specific stay or booking, and it's easier to plan a first afternoon around a free bike ride than to discover the offer on your last day.

Where to spend the rest of your day

CopenPay rewards are compact enough to build a walking-and-biking day around Copenhagen's central sights rather than a separate excursion. Tivoli Gardens, one of the world's oldest amusement parks, sits a five-minute walk from the main train station — convenient if you're earning a CopenPay credit for the train ride in. Nyhavn, the canal-front row of coloured 17th-century townhouses that anchors most Copenhagen postcards, is a 20-minute walk or a short harbour-bus ride from Tivoli, and several of the harbour-cleanup CopenPay activities launch from docks along this stretch. Copenhagen's flat layout and extensive bike-lane network — the reason "cycle instead of drive" is a CopenPay action in the first place — make both easily reachable without a car.

Why Copenhagen made it permanent

CopenPay started as a summer-only pilot in 2024, aimed at nudging visitors toward the same behaviors the city already asks of residents — cycle rather than drive, sort your trash, eat what's in season. The pilot worked well enough that Wonderful Copenhagen, the city's official tourism board, folded it into a year-round model rather than relaunching it each summer, expanding the partner roster past 100 for 2026 and adding actions like booking a stay of four nights or longer, which spreads a visitor's spending and carbon cost over more days instead of concentrating both into a short city break.

The idea has since traveled well beyond Denmark. In February 2026, the model behind CopenPay was released free of charge to other cities under the name DestinationPay, and organizers say more than 350 cities and tourism boards worldwide have since been introduced to it. Berlin has already launched its own version, and tourism boards in Germany, Italy, France, the US, Canada, Japan and Australia are reportedly preparing similar schemes — meaning the free-coffee-for-cycling model piloted on Copenhagen's harbourfront may show up in your next city break regardless of which city you land in.

When to go

If the trip you're planning is for Christmas, the booking window is open now: Tivoli's official Christmas season, per tivoli.dk, runs from 13 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, with the gardens closed on Christmas Eve itself. That's also Copenhagen's highest-demand stretch for hotels and popular restaurant reservations, so a CopenPay-eligible four-night-plus stay is worth locking in several weeks ahead rather than on arrival.

Getting in and getting connected

Denmark is a full Schengen member, so most nationalities can enter visa-free and stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period; travelers who need a Schengen visa should apply well before departure. The EU's long-delayed ETIAS pre-travel authorisation, which will eventually apply to visa-exempt visitors from countries like the US, UK, Canada and Australia, still has no confirmed launch date — EU officials pushed the original late-2026 target back again, with 2027 now considered the most likely window and no firm date set as of this writing, according to The Points Guy's coverage of the EU-LISA announcement. For now, entry into Denmark works exactly as it has: passport, and for eligible nationalities, no advance authorisation at all.

One place CopenPay doesn't help: getting connected the moment you land to actually use copenpay.com. Danish law requires anyone buying a local prepaid SIM to register it with passport ID before activation — you can't walk out of a kiosk with an anonymous Danish number. A travel eSIM installed before departure skips that step entirely, since it isn't a Danish-registered line and doesn't fall under the local registration rule; you land with data already working, which matters on a trip built around checking a website and showing a confirmation screen at partner after partner. Roameo's Denmark eSIM plans start from data-only packages sized for a city weekend up through longer Nordic itineraries, and the same eSIM keeps working if you hop to Sweden or Germany afterward — check device compatibility before you fly, since eSIM support varies by phone model and carrier lock status.

FAQ

Do I need to download an app for CopenPay?

No. CopenPay runs through the mobile web experience at copenpay.com — you don't need to install anything, just load the site on your phone when you're in Copenhagen.

Is CopenPay only available in summer?

No — as of 22 June 2026, CopenPay is a permanent, year-round program, unlike the earlier pilot editions that ran only during summer months.

Do I need a Schengen visa to visit Denmark?

It depends on your nationality. Denmark is a full Schengen member, so many nationalities can enter visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180-day period; others need a Schengen visa arranged in advance. The EU's ETIAS pre-travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors is still delayed with no confirmed 2026 launch date.

Can I buy a Danish SIM card as a tourist without registering it?

No — Danish law requires passport-based registration before a local prepaid SIM is activated. A foreign-issued travel eSIM isn't subject to that rule and works immediately on arrival.