The best ghost tour in Copenhagen

Why there is only one

Copenhagen does not market itself as haunted. It markets hygge, design and cycle lanes, and it came first in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Safe Cities Index in 2021. Cities that sell themselves on their dead — Edinburgh, York, New Orleans — support a dozen competing ghost walks. Copenhagen supports one in English, run by a small operator, on set evenings. Anyone promising you a rich choice here is selling something. The wider question of which cities do this best is on the best cities page.

What Copenhagen has instead is material. A third of the population died in the plague of 1711. The city burned in 1728 and again in 1795. The Royal Navy shelled it in 1807 and burned down the cathedral. Cholera killed 4,737 people in 1853. A permanent scaffold stood on Nytorv from 1627 to 1761. Seventeen people were burned at the end of the Copenhagen witch trials of 1589 to 1590. Very few cities that sell more ghost walks have more to tell.

The one guided walk, assessed

The strengths are the route, the length and the guide. Nytorv, the court house and its prisoner arch, the old streets and Laksegade, ending at the top of Nyhavn in ninety minutes without covering more than about a kilometre. Reviewers consistently name the guide rather than the effects, which tells you what sort of walk it is: Helen from Australia called her guide “a gifted story-teller”; Anna from Sweden wrote of “exciting stories and super friendly and engaging guide”.

The weaknesses are equally consistent. There are no effects at all, which disappoints anyone who came for a fright. Children under seven are not admitted. And the dates are thin — David from the United Kingdom, who liked the walk, wrote that there was “only one available for the whole month”. In June the whole thing happens in daylight. The full product page has the detail.

The two hunts, assessed

Both are self-guided, in English or Danish, fully analogue — a case, a route and a pen, no phone needed — and both want a party of at least two, with two to four the sweet spot. The Round Tower hunt is set in 1899, with detective constables, a missing person and a bloody briefcase, and runs from Rundetårn through Gråbrødretorv, Købmagergade and Strøget to Vor Frue Kirke, Gammeltorv and Vor Frue Plads. The Amalienborg hunt takes a woman’s murder in nineteenth-century Copenhagen from the pier past the Aleksander Nevskij Church, Skt Annæ Plads and the Odd Fellow’s Mansion to Nyhavn and Lille Sandstræde.

Katarina from Denmark called the Amalienborg hunt “a fun way to see some of Copenhagen’s attractions, as well as to see a few more ‘unknown things’”. Mats from Sweden noted the other side of it: “that it was actually a bit difficult to solve.” Neither is a ghost walk. Both are a good evening if what you want is the old city with a reason to look at it.

The two Danish walks, which are the best of the lot

If anybody in your party reads Danish, this is where the depth is. The nightman’s walk spends 75 minutes on the natmænd, who for three centuries sat at the absolute bottom of Danish society: they emptied latrines, removed carcasses, dismembered executed criminals and assisted the executioner, were counted uærlige — dishonourable — and lived as a parallel society with its own rules and its own language. The folk legends walk spends 90 minutes on the Devil loose in Laksegade, a widow buried alive, a bride whose anger darkened the sun, and where several Danish phrases come from. Both are the same operator as the ghost walk. See the nightman’s tour and the folk legends walk.

So which one

One free evening, English, October: the guided ghost walk, booked as far ahead as the calendar allows. A party of two to four who like puzzles: a murder mystery hunt, on your own schedule. A family with a child under seven: not the ghost walk, because they are not admitted, so the giants or a hunt instead. A Danish speaker: the nightman’s walk, without hesitation. The whole decision tree is on which walk to choose, and everything bookable is listed on the walks hub.

Lantern and black cloak

Copenhagen: Guided Ghost Walk through Haunted City

★ 5.0 · 14 reviews

Duration 1 hr 30, guided in English

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A killing in 1899

Copenhagen: Murder Mystery Hunt by The Round Tower

★ 4.5 · 2 reviews

Duration Self-guided, start when you like

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The city’s outcasts

Copenhagen: Nightman’s Tour in Danish

★ New listing

Duration 1 hr 15, in Danish

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Those dates don’t work?

The guided ghost walk runs on set evenings and sells out early in October. Browse what else is bookable in Copenhagen — the self-guided murder mysteries you can start whenever you like, and the daytime walks — and pick a date that suits you, with instant confirmation.

The widget will tell you one thing faster than any page can: the guided walk runs on set evenings and the calendar is thin. A reviewer from the United Kingdom who enjoyed the walk in August 2026 still put the same complaint in writing — “the lack of choice for dates.. only one available for the whole month”. Look at the dates before you build an evening around it. The English-language picture is narrower than most capitals.

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