Denmark is currently on the UK’s green list for travel, meaning travellers from Denmark who are not vaccinated do no not need to go into quarantine on arrival in the UK.

Travellers from Denmark do still have to take a Covid-19 test in the 3 days before you travel to England; book and pay for a day 2 Covid-19 test which must be taken after arrival in England; and complete a passenger locator form.

Meanwhile, if you currently travel to England from an amber list country such as France, you must also take a pre-departure Covid test, complete the locator form and book and pay for a Day 2 test. 

Fully vaccinated arrivals can leave it there, but those unvaccinated must quarantine for 10 days and pay for further tests. You also need to be ‘fully vaccinated’ by UK standards (more on that below).

From Monday, October 4th, however, this changes. 

The announced rule change is for England, if you are travelling to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, click on the relevant country link.

The UK government is doing away with its amber list and having only green or red – all European countries are on the green list.

For countries like Denmark who were on the green list under the old system, the rules remain the same for fully vaccinated arrivals but have become more strict for those who are not vaccinated.

Here’s what the new rules say:

Vaccinated

Fully vaccinated arrivals will no longer need to take a test in Denmark and show it before boarding their flight (or train or ferry).

Crucially, however, you will still need to book and pay for the Day 2 test, and this must be done before leaving Denmark.

At the border you will need to show the Passenger Locator Form, and this cannot be completed without a booking reference number for a Day 2 test.

These tests have a byzantine booking system and are frequently infuriatingly expensive – find the full breakdown on booking HERE.

The Day 2 test is required even if you are spending less than two days in England (yeah we know, it makes no sense to us either).

The UK government has said that in the future Day 2 tests could be the cheaper antigen (lateral flow) tests rather than PCR tests, but there is no firm start date for this policy.

Unvaccinated arrivals 

People who are not vaccinated (or who do not meet the UK government definition of vaccinated) will have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival, this can be done at a private home and you do not need to go to a hotel.

In addition, they will have to book and pay for both a Day 2 test and a Day 8 test before leaving.

There is an option to pay extra for a Day 5 test and end quarantine early, but be warned that quarantine does not end on Day 5, it only ends when the test results arrive. Many readers have reported long delays in getting test results leaving them spending 9 or 10 days in quarantine anyway, but having paid more for an extra test.

Who is vaccinated?

The UK government accepts people as ‘fully vaccinated’ if they have received either Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines and received their final dose at least 14 days ago.

The Danish or EU vaccine certificate is accepted as proof at the border.

After a confusing period, the UK government now accepts as fully vaccinated people who had a ‘mixed dose’, i.e. one dose of AstraZeneca and one of Pfizer or Moderna.

It should be noted that people who only received a single dose after previously recovering from Covid do not count as vaccinated. This is practice in France, Norway and some other European countries, but not in Denmark.

READ ALSO: Why visitors vaccinated in Denmark are struggling to get an EU Covid-19 certificate

From the UK to Denmark

The travel rules coming into Denmark remain unchanged from when the Nordic country dropped its red status for all countries last month.

That change meant the entire UK moved to orange status. As such, vaccinated people from the UK do not need to go into self-isolation on arrival in Denmark, have a “worthy purpose” to travel to Denmark, show a negative PCR test at the border, or get a PCR test on arrival. 

Unvaccinated people from orange countries who have conferred immunity due to previous infection with Covid-19 are not required to test or isolate but, unlike vaccinated people, must provide a worthy purpose for travelling to Denmark (this does not include tourism).

Worthy purpose requirements do not apply to Danish nationals or people resident in Denmark. Detailed information about worthy purposes can be found here.

People who are travelling from orange countries based on a negative test (and are therefore neither vaccinated nor have been previously infected with Covid-19) are required to isolate after entering Denmark. They must also provide a worthy purpose for travel (see above). As when arriving from yellow countries, non-vaccinated people in this category must take a Covid-19 test before and after travel to Denmark.

Detailed information on the restrictions can be found here.