BorderShop Puttgarden: opening hours, parking, deposit on cans, allowances and how it fits around the ferry

BorderShop Puttgarden at a glance

• Address: Zur Westmole 1a, 23769 Puttgarden, inside the ferry port next to the check-in lanes. Yellow BorderShop arrows lead you there from the E47.
• Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 6:00 to 20:00, Sunday 8:00 to 20:00 (season 15 August to 13 December 2026, bordershop.com on 23 September 2026). Closed on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January; between Christmas and New Year 8:00 to 20:00.
• Parking: own car park in front of the shop, 1 hour maximum with a parking disc; according to bordershop.com reserved for Danish and Swedish customers with a valid ferry ticket. The port’s pay car park next to it: car 4 hours 4 euros.
• Size: 5,000 square metres according to bordershop.com, spread over four floors. Scandlines calls it Europe’s largest border shop.
• Range: beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks, sweets, snacks, some household and beauty products. Prices shown in Danish kroner, euros and Swedish kronor. Cash in Danish kroner and euros only, cards accepted.
• Pre-order: order on bordershop.com at least 3 hours before collection, minimum 400 Danish kroner, pay when you collect in Puttgarden.
• Deposit: no German or Danish deposit on cans with an export declaration. Cans are sold only to customers living in a Scandinavian country.
• Electric cars: a charger on the car park, parking only while charging.
• Bring: a passport or ID card and a 1-euro coin for the trolley. Dogs are not allowed inside, and according to BorderShop you may not drive there on studded tyres.

Whisky and rum festival on 6 and 7 November 2026

Friday 11:00 to 19:00 and Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 at the BorderShop Puttgarden: tastings, masterclasses with suppliers and special offers on bottles. Tickets through Ticketmaster or in the shop, including 5 tokens and this year’s tasting glass. According to bordershop.com, checked on 2 November 2026.

What the BorderShop is, and who it is really for

Scandlines’ own border-trade warehouse is the short description: beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks, sweets, snacks and some household and beauty products, sold by the case at German prices to customers on their way back to Denmark and Sweden. The BorderShop opened in 2001 and has since grown to 5,000 square metres on four floors, and on the afternoon we were there the car park had more Danish than German number plates. There is a second BorderShop at the Rostock ferry port for the Gedser route.

That tells you who it is for. Danish and Swedish taxes on alcohol and sugar are what make it worth stopping; the prices in the shop are ordinary German prices, shown in kroner, euros and Swedish kronor. If you are German or passing through from further south, the draw is the range and the case quantities, not a bargain. You do not need a ferry ticket to shop here, and you can drive in and out again without going anywhere near the check-in.

One rule to know before you plan the shop: cans of beer, water and soft drinks are sold only to customers who live in a Scandinavian country. That is how the shop can sell them without the German deposit. Everyone else may buy wine, spirits and sweets, but not the cans.

Getting there and parking

Coming off the E47 at the end of Fehmarn you cannot miss it: big yellow arrows point to the BorderShop from the moment you leave the motorway, and the building with its huge letters stands to the side of the check-in lanes with the ferry berths behind it. Turn off before the check-in booths. Coming off the ferry from Rødby you drive straight past it on the port road. The signpost at the port also points to the mole, if you want to watch the ferries first.

• The shop’s own car park: the sign at the entrance says 1 hour maximum with a parking disc, and wrongly parked cars are towed at the owner’s expense. Bordershop.com says the car park is reserved for Danish and Swedish customers with a valid ferry ticket. An hour is plenty for a normal shop; if you need longer, use the port’s pay car park.
• The port’s pay car park: the fee board next to it showed a car up to 4 hours 4 euros, 12 hours 8 euros, 24 hours 12 euros; motorhomes and cars with trailers 8, 12 and 17 euros. Pay at the machine before you leave.
• Electric cars: a charger stands on the car park; the sign says parking only while charging.
• Trailers and motorhomes: the car park is large and flat, we saw no length restriction. Long vehicles park most easily on the pay car park.
• On foot: from the ferry terminal the shop is a short walk; foot passengers coming off the ferry can shop before walking on.

Opening hours

The BorderShop is open every day of the week, including Sunday, which German shops elsewhere are not allowed. Border shops have an exemption because they serve travellers.

Day	15 August to 13 December 2026
Monday to Friday	6:00 to 20:00
Saturday	6:00 to 20:00
Sunday	8:00 to 20:00

Christmas and New Year: closed on 24, 25 and 31 December 2026 and 1 January 2027. Between Christmas and New Year the shop is open 8:00 to 20:00. On 2 November 2026 bordershop.com had not yet published the hours after 13 December.

Source: bordershop.com, checked on 23 September and 2 November 2026. Scandlines changes the hours by season and on public holidays; the notice on the door in February 2025 said 8:00 to 20:00 on weekdays and Sunday and 6:00 to 20:00 on Saturday. Check bordershop.com before you plan an early or late crossing around a shopping stop. The first ferries of the day leave before the shop opens, and the last ones long after it closes.

Inside: four floors, pallets and a whisky window

The shop is spread over four floors connected by escalators, with a floor directory at the entrance. The ground floor is a warehouse hall: pallets of wine and spirits sold by the case, beer and soft drinks stacked high, wide aisles for the shopping trolleys. Upstairs the atmosphere changes to a normal shop, with a whisky and spirits display that has the ferry berth right outside its window, and higher up sweets and non-food. There are lockers for bags near the entrance, toilets, and tills that take cards, Danish kroner and euros.

Allow an hour with a list, an hour and a half if you want to browse; our own walk-through took half an hour. Saturday mornings in the school holidays and the days before Christmas and Easter are the busiest; on a weekday morning you have the hall almost to yourself.

Pre-order: order at home, collect at the port

If you know what you want, order it on bordershop.com before you travel. According to bordershop.com you order at least 3 hours before collection and choose the day and time yourself (checked on 2 November 2026). You pay when you collect, not online, because the tax rules require the sale to happen in Germany, and you choose whether to collect in Puttgarden or in Rostock. In Puttgarden you pick it up at the separate pre-order building on the port road, not in the main shop. That saves the trolley round on a busy Saturday, when the shop fills up with people heading for the same ferry.

Pre-order suits the heavy part of the shop, cans by the tray and wine by the case. If you still want to browse the whisky or the sweets, order the heavy goods at home and take only the light ones round in the trolley.

• Minimum order: 400 Danish kroner plus a 20 kroner packing fee.
• The price: you pay the price shown on bordershop.com on the day you ordered.
• Paying in Puttgarden: by card at the self-service machine in the pre-order hall, or at a till or the information desk in the shop. When the pre-order hall is open at night, it takes cards only.
• To the car: BorderShop says the goods are brought out to your car.

Paying: cards, kroner and euros

Card is easiest. Cash is accepted in Danish kroner and euros only, not in Swedish kronor or pounds, and the shop cannot exchange money. Every card payment is charged in Danish kroner; the euro and Swedish kronor prices on the shelves are guide prices at BorderShop’s own fixed rate, so the amount on your statement can differ slightly from the receipt. Source: bordershop.com, checked on 2 November 2026.

• Cards: Visa, Visa Electron, Mastercard, Maestro, American Express, V PAY, JCB, Diners, the Danish Dankort and the German girocard. The PIN is always required.
• Cash: Danish kroner and euros. The shop does not take 1,000-kroner or 500-euro notes, and change is given in kroner or euros.
• Over 5,000 Danish kroner by card you need photo ID, a passport or driving licence, at the till.
• Passport or ID card: BorderShop reminds EU and EEA citizens that they must carry a passport or an ID card accepted by the German authorities when entering and staying in Germany.
• Trolleys: they take a 1-euro coin or a token, which you can buy at the information desk on board the ferry or in the BorderShop.
• No pets: animals are not allowed in the shop; BorderShop cites German food-safety law.
• No studded tyres: according to BorderShop you may not drive to the shop on studded tyres, because German law does not allow them. Worth knowing if you are coming from Scandinavia in winter.

How much you may take into Denmark or Sweden

Within the EU you may take alcohol home without paying your own country’s duty, as long as it is for your own use and you transport it yourself. Denmark and Sweden both use the EU reference quantities as a guide to what counts as own use. Sources: info.skat.dk and tullverket.se, checked on 23 September 2026.

• Denmark (Skat): the quantities are guide levels for own use; gifts can count as own use, goods for resale or for someone else’s party cannot. Well above the levels the import is treated as commercial and Danish duty is due. Cigarettes: 800.
• Sweden (Tullverket): three conditions on top of the quantities: you must be 20 or older, you must have bought the goods yourself, and you must transport them into Sweden yourself. Customs makes an overall judgement; even amounts below the reference levels can be taxed if something suggests they are not for you and your family.
• Per person, not per car. Four adults in the car means four times the quantities, as long as each can account for their own use.
• Customs can ask. Checks on the Danish side are spot checks, and in Rødbyhavn customs can pull cars aside right after the ramp. Swedes driving on through Denmark are in EU transit, which is normally no problem, but Swedish customs can stand at Lernacken after the bridge or in Helsingborg. Keep the receipts in the glovebox, not under the cases.
• The car’s weight. 110 litres of beer weigh over 110 kilos. With two people’s quantities plus wine an ordinary car is quickly at its permitted total weight, and trailers have their own limits.

We reproduce the rules as they stood on 23 September 2026. They can change, and the final judgement is always that of customs. Check info.skat.dk or tullverket.se before you plan a large shop.

Deposit and export declaration: the rules right now

Cans of beer, soft drinks and cider are sold by the BorderShop without the German and without the Danish deposit if you fill in an export declaration. It confirms that you are taking the cans out of Germany, and it is why cans are sold only to customers living in a Scandinavian country. The desk for the declaration is on the ground floor; for a normal family shop it takes a couple of minutes at the till.

• No deposit back at home. No Danish or Swedish deposit has been paid on the cans, so the reverse vending machine at home pays nothing for them. BorderShop says you may still put them in the machine, but no receipt comes out.
• Deposit-free on board. The shop on the ferry also sells deposit-free cans, but only in a window in the middle of the crossing: from 13 minutes after departure until 18 minutes before arrival, according to BorderShop. That is enough for a tray, not for a shop.
• Currencies. Prices are shown in Danish kroner, euros and Swedish kronor, but cash is accepted in kroner and euros only; see payment.

Shop before check-in, never after

The one thing to get right: the BorderShop is on the German side, and the check-in lanes are a one-way system. Once you have passed the booths and are in a waiting lane, there is no way back to the shop. So the order on the way north is: BorderShop first, then check-in, then the ferry. Scandlines closes check-in for cars 15 minutes before departure, so leave the shop with at least half an hour to the sailing you are aiming for. With a Standard ticket you can take the next sailing with space if the shop took longer than planned; with a Low Price ticket you are tied to one departure. How the tickets differ is on the prices page, and the check-in itself is described on the Puttgarden ferry port page.

Day trip from Rødby for the shop alone: sailings and price

Fleggaard and Calle in Burg: the alternative 9 km from the ferry

The BorderShop is not the only border shop on Fehmarn. In Burg, about 9 km and a quarter of an hour from the port on the B207, Fleggaard and Calle stand side by side with what the BorderShop does not have: full groceries, meat, cheese, coffee and household goods at German prices, plus beer and wine in the same quantities. If you have a trailer or need food for a week in a holiday home, Burg is worth the detour; if you only want drinks and sweets, the BorderShop is faster because you stay in the port.

• Sundays in winter: Fleggaard and Calle open on Sundays because Fehmarn is a tourist area, but from November Sundays are closed under German shop-closing law; the BorderShop in the port is open all year. On 3 October and 31 October 2026 both shops in Burg open 11:00 to 17:00.
• Click and Collect: at Fleggaard and Calle you order before 10:00 and collect the next day from 6:00. At the BorderShop you order at least 3 hours before collection, the same day.
• Deposit: Fleggaard and Calle also sell cans without deposit against an export declaration.
• Time: allow an extra hour for Burg, driving and shop included, and put it before check-in, not after.

Opening hours from fleggaard.dk and calle.dk, checked on 23 September 2026. Both shops change their hours by season and on public holidays.