Denmark on a Norwegian Licence — A Looser Limit & the Bridge Tolls

After Norwegian roads — the tunnels, the ferries, the mountain switchbacks — Denmark feels almost flat and frictionless. Your EEA licence is valid as it is, no IDP, you drive on the right just like home, and the emergency number is the same 112. The terrain does all the relaxing for you; what’s worth flagging are two small differences, one legal and one financial.

The legal one runs the opposite way to what you might expect. Norway holds drivers to a strict 0.02 limit; Denmark is looser at 0.05. That’s not a reason to drink — Danish fines are scaled to your income, so a serious offence is expensive whoever you are — but it’s a genuine difference from the near-zero culture at home. The safe approach is the Norwegian one: don’t drink and drive.

The financial difference is the bridges. Denmark is a string of islands joined by tolled crossings: the Great Belt between Zealand and Funen at roughly DKK 250 (≈ EUR 34) each way, and the Øresund across to Malmö in Sweden at about DKK 510 (≈ EUR 68). Where Norway’s costs come from ferries and city tolls, here they come from these two big spans — main routes, not detours, so budget for them. You can estimate the toll on our vignette and toll calculator.

Speeds are higher and steadier than Norway’s cautious limits: 130 km/h on motorways, 80 on rural roads, 50 in towns, on excellent surfaces. Cameras are widespread and a 10-over ticket is about DKK 1,000 (≈ EUR 135), checkable on the speeding fine calculator. One Danish habit to absorb: dense cycle lanes with priority — check your inside before every right turn. Only a warning triangle is legally required in the car, fuel runs near $2.05/litre, and the full local detail is on our Denmark driving guide.