Renting a Car After a Copenhagen Cruise: Disembark-Day Desks, Key Boxes and the Flight

Norwegian’s airport-ending tour asks you to be at the airport 3 to 4 hours before your flight. On a tour that runs about four hours, the day is gone before the drive to the airport even starts.

Flying straight home, the cab from Oceankaj to the airport runs about DKK 425 on a weekday daytime — the full list of rides is in the rides table, not here.

Book the extra night first, then the car, then the flight. The hotel sets the timetable, not the rental.

The cab covers about 5.6 road miles from Oceankaj to the station, our routing — a quarter of an hour if the traffic lets it.

From the smaller quays it’s cheaper: about DKK 135 or 167 from Langelinie, and DKK 116 or 143 from Nordre Toldbod, depending on the hour.

Disembark on a Saturday or Sunday and the city desks shut at 2 or 3 PM, so collect before lunch. On a weekday they stay open until 5 or 6.

Off the ship late on a weekend? Ride on to Kastrup, where the desks keep evening hours — the checker tests your exact time.

Europcar’s page says “Returnering 24/7” for both its airport counter and its station office, and the airport key box sits behind the office.

Avis lists a 24-hour return at Kastrup and on Kampmannsgade — the same promise at both ends of the trip.

Sixt takes 24-hour returns at both its offices, with one catch in town: after 7 PM the gate to the station garage is closed, and you leave on foot through a door behind the damage scanner.

At the airport, Sixt adds that “out-of-hours conditions apply” and doesn’t say what they are. Ask before you rely on it, not after.

Alamo is the exception. Its Discover Cars listing says service outside business hours “is not available”, so an Alamo car goes back while the desk is staffed — by 10 PM on a Saturday and 11 PM other days.

Photograph the fuel gauge, the mileage and all four sides before you walk away from any key box. Nobody signs you out at midnight, and the photo is your receipt, not theirs.

Bounce lists 55 bag-storage spots in Copenhagen from €2.50 a day, most at €4.50, around København H, Nørreport and Christianshavn; none at Nordhavn.

The lowest-priced spot works out at about US$3 a bag a day, our conversion — cheap next to upgrading the car to fit the cases.

With the bags stored near the station, a small car does for the day, and you collect them on the way to the train or the airport.

Ask the hotel first — if it’ll hold the bags, you skip the storage fee, not the day out.

The defaults: two people and a city car for one day at our assumed DKK 300, driven to Frederiksborg and back — 54.8 miles by our routing.

We picked Frederiksborg because it opens every day, Mondays too, and Louisiana doesn’t.

Against it, two places on Norwegian’s airport-ending Grand Tour, from $109 an adult and $89 a child, come to about DKK 1,452 (roughly US$220) — our arithmetic.

Add the DKK 212 cab from the quay and the car day is DKK 512 (about US$75) before fuel, still well under the tour for two.

The tour ends at the airport, though, and the car ends back in town — so price the ride to Kastrup too.

Book the day after disembarkation, from a city desk near your hotel, and return it to a key box if you’re out late.

Heading to Sweden afterwards? The bridge prices come first.

We converted dollars at the ECB reference rates of Oct 2, 2026, about 15 US cents a krone, and euros at the same day’s rate. Card rates differ.