The crown jewels sit in a vaulted treasury under Rosenborg, a Bronze Age Sun Chariot gleams in its case at the National Museum, and out on the Oresund coast the galleries at Louisiana open straight onto a sculpture park facing Sweden. Copenhagen folds royal castles, world-class art and hands-on science into one compact, train-connected city. This page sorts all 26 museums by what you came to do, shows the real prices and ratings, and flags the ones worth booking before you go.
Frederiksborg Castle holds 4.7 across 285 reviews, and the David Collection is free to enter.
Short answer
Copenhagen's museums run from one genuinely free collection to paid royal castles, and most of the big sites sell timed tickets worth booking ahead on a busy day. Admission on the ticketed museums here starts around $20, and under-18s get in free almost everywhere. Several of the art museums, among them SMK, the Glyptotek and Louisiana, close on Mondays. If your list runs past three or four paid sites, the Copenhagen Card can pay for itself, and the David Collection, home to one of the world's finest holdings of Islamic art, still costs nothing to enter.
Six ways in: royal palaces, art, history and culture, science and nature, the quirky one-offs, and the big attraction that anchors a first visit. Pick the kind of day you want and the theme drops you straight onto the museums that fit, with the ones you can book ahead listed first.
These are the ticketed museums with the strongest listings: real ratings, real from-prices, and admission you can hold in advance. Frederiksborg leads on rating, Christiansborg bundles the most under one ticket, and Experimentarium is the family pick. The free and door-only museums sit further down, marked as what they are rather than dressed up as bookings.
Hellerup (~15 min by train from the centre) · Hands-on science, built for families
A large hands-on science center in Hellerup with sixteen interactive zones, a giant tesla coil and the well-known Tube spiral staircase. The best rainy-day pick in Copenhagen for families with kids.
from $40per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Hillerod (day trip, ~40 min by train) · A Renaissance castle on three islets
The grandest Renaissance castle in Scandinavia, set on three islets in a lake at Hillerod, now the Museum of National History with 500 years of royal portraits and a baroque garden. A free app audio guide comes with the ticket.
from $20per person; free app audio guide, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Slotsholmen · Five centuries of arms in the Royal Arsenal
Housed in Christian IV's 1604 Royal Arsenal, with a 163-metre cannon hall on the ground floor and 500 years of Danish military history above. Quieter than the big-name palaces and consistently well reviewed.
from $20per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Slotsholmen · Royal reception rooms, ruins and the tower
The seat of Danish power on Slotsholmen, holding parliament, the Supreme Court and the Royal Reception Rooms. A single ticket bundle covers the state rooms, the medieval ruins beneath, the royal kitchen and stables.
from $35per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, King's Garden · The Danish crown jewels in a royal castle
A 17th-century royal summer residence in the King's Garden, best known for the crown jewels and coronation regalia held in the treasury below the castle. Compact and dense, it rewards an unhurried hour or two.
from $23per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, by the main station · Not a museum, but the city's icon
The 1843 pleasure garden by the main station, one of the world's oldest amusement parks and the most-booked attraction in the city. Entry covers the gardens and atmosphere; rides are extra. Included here as the landmark it is, not as a museum.
from $28entry; rides extra, live price on the listing Check availability →
Helsingor (day trip, ~45 min by train) · Hamlet's castle, a UNESCO site
The Renaissance fortress at Helsingor that Shakespeare made Elsinore in Hamlet, guarding the narrowest point of the Oresund. A UNESCO World Heritage site with royal chambers above and the casemates and the statue of Holger the Dane below.
from $23per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Frederiksholms Kanal · Denmark's story from the Vikings to now
Denmark's largest cultural-history museum runs from Stone Age tools and the Sun Chariot through a world-class Viking hall and into ethnographic and modern collections. Adult admission is now paid; under-18s go free.
from $21adult; under 18 free, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Frederiksstaden · The monarch's home and the guard change
The Danish royal family's winter home, four rococo palaces around an octagonal square. The museum wing opens private royal apartments to visitors, and the changing of the guard happens on the square at noon.
from $21per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Kastrup, by the airport (~15 min by metro) · Northern Europe's largest aquarium
A whirlpool-shaped building on the Oresund shore holding Northern Europe's largest aquarium: a walk-through Amazon tank, hammerhead sharks and a huge ocean tank. An easy metro ride from the centre near the airport.
Check latest prices Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Radhuspladsen · Oddities on the town-hall square
A curiosities museum on Radhuspladsen, sitting in a cluster with the H.C. Andersen Fairy-Tale House and Guinness World Records. A single admission covers Ripley's, and a four-way combo bundles all the neighbours.
from $26per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Every museum on the site in one table: what it is best for, which part of the city it sits in, what a ticket costs where one exists, and its rating where the listing publishes one. Free museums say so; missing figures read "on the listing" rather than a made-up number.
| Museum | Best for | Area | Ticket from | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Experimentarium | Hands-on science, built for families | Hellerup (~15 min by train from the centre) | $40 | ★ 4.8 |
| Frederiksborg Castle | A Renaissance castle on three islets | Hillerod (day trip | $20 | ★ 4.7 |
| Danish War Museum (Krigsmuseet) | Five centuries of arms in the Royal Arsenal | Central Copenhagen | $20 | ★ 4.7 |
| Rosenborg Castle | The Danish crown jewels in a royal castle | Central Copenhagen | $23 | ★ 4.6 |
| Christiansborg Palace | Royal reception rooms, ruins and the tower | Central Copenhagen | $35 | ★ 4.6 |
| National Museum of Denmark | Denmark's story from the Vikings to now | Central Copenhagen | $21 | ★ 4.5 |
| Kronborg Castle | Hamlet's castle, a UNESCO site | Helsingor (day trip | $23 | ★ 4.5 |
| Tivoli Gardens | Not a museum, but the city's icon | Central Copenhagen | $28 | ★ 4.5 |
| Amalienborg | The monarch's home and the guard change | Central Copenhagen | $21 | ★ 4.3 |
| The Blue Planet aquarium | Northern Europe's largest aquarium | Kastrup | on the listing | ★ 4.3 |
| Ripley's Believe It or Not! | Oddities on the town-hall square | Central Copenhagen | $26 | ★ 4 |
| Copenhagen Contemporary | Warehouse-scale installation art | Refshaleoen (former shipyard | on the listing | |
| Louisiana Museum of Modern Art | Modern art, sculpture park and the sea | Humlebaek (day trip | on the listing | |
| Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek | Antiquities under a palm-filled winter garden | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| Designmuseum Danmark | The home of Danish design | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| Thorvaldsens Museum | One sculptor, one purpose-built museum | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| ARKEN Museum of Modern Art | A ship-like museum on the beach | Ishoj (day trip | on the listing | |
| The Workers Museum (Arbejdermuseet) | Everyday Danish life since the 1800s | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| Cisternerne | Art in a dripping underground reservoir | Frederiksberg | on the listing | |
| Medical Museion | Medical history, not for the squeamish | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| STORM (Storm P. Museum) | Denmark's museum of humour and satire | Frederiksberg | on the listing | |
| Karen Blixen Museum | Out of Africa, at the writer's home | Rungsted (day trip | on the listing | |
| Rundetaarn (Round Tower) | A 17th-century tower you spiral up | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| SMK, National Gallery of Denmark | Denmark's national gallery of art | Central Copenhagen | on the listing | |
| Frilandsmuseet (Open Air Museum) | Historic farms and houses in the open air | Lyngby (day trip | on the listing | |
| The David Collection | World-class Islamic art, free to enter | Central Copenhagen | Free | Free entry |
The Copenhagen Card covers entry to more than 80 attractions and every bus, Metro, S-train and harbour bus in zones 1 to 99, from 589 DKK for 24 hours. That transport net reaches the airport Metro and the regional trains out to Humlebaek, Hillerod and Helsingor, so Louisiana, Frederiksborg and Kronborg all fall under the same card.
Prices scale with time rather than the number of museums, which is why the longer cards work out cheaper per day. These are the 2026 adult rates. A separate child card covers ages 3 to 11, and one adult can bring up to two under-12s free on public transport.
| Card length | Adult price | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | 589 DKK | about €79 / $92 |
| 48 hours | 859 DKK | about €115 / $134 |
| 72 hours | 1,039 DKK | about €139 / $162 |
| 96 hours | 1,219 DKK | about €164 / $190 |
| 120 hours | 1,419 DKK | about €190 / $222 |
Almost every headline museum on this page sits on the card: Nationalmuseet, Rosenborg, Christiansborg, Amalienborg, the Glyptotek, SMK, Designmuseum Danmark, Louisiana, Kronborg, Frederiksborg, Experimentarium and entry to Tivoli. The exception worth remembering is the Blue Planet aquarium, which the card does not include. The Copenhagen City Pass is a different product altogether, public transport only with no museum entry, so it is less a rival to the Card than the thing you buy when all you need is to get around.
| What you get | Copenhagen Card | City Pass |
|---|---|---|
| Entry to 80+ museums and attractions | Yes | No |
| Tivoli Gardens entry | Yes | No |
| Unlimited transport, zones 1 to 99 | Yes | Yes |
| Airport Metro into the city | Yes | Yes |
| Trains to Humlebaek, Hillerod, Helsingor | Yes | Travel only |
| Blue Planet aquarium | No | No |
The math is not complicated. Full-price adult entry to three or four of the paid castles and art museums already runs past the 72-hour card, and that is before a single train fare. Add a day trip to Louisiana or Kronborg, where the card pays for both the ride out and the ticket at the door, and it tips further its way. Keep your list short, or lean on the free David Collection and the under-18 exemptions, and single tickets can still come out ahead. We work through the break-even case by case in the guide to whether the Copenhagen Card is worth it.
One museum here is genuinely free to walk into all year, and it is a good one: the David Collection, a hushed townhouse by the King's Garden holding one of the world's great collections of Islamic art alongside European and Danish pieces. The old assumption that SMK and the National Museum were free no longer holds, since both now charge adults, though under-18s still enter free everywhere. For a free hour the David Collection is the dependable answer, and three city-run museums, Thorvaldsens, Nikolaj Kunsthal and the Copenhagen Museum, now open free to all on the last Wednesday of each month. Our guide to free museums in Copenhagen keeps the full, current list.
Central Copenhagen, Kronprinsessegade · World-class Islamic art, free to enter
A quiet townhouse museum by the King's Garden holding one of the finest Islamic art collections in the world, alongside European decorative arts and Danish Early Modern pieces. Free to enter and rarely crowded.
Free entry, no ticket needed.
The full directory, grouped the way you would actually plan a trip. Within each theme the museums you can book ahead sit first, then the official-ticket and free ones, so the practical choices come before the wildcards.
Hillerod (day trip, ~40 min by train) · A Renaissance castle on three islets
The grandest Renaissance castle in Scandinavia, set on three islets in a lake at Hillerod, now the Museum of National History with 500 years of royal portraits and a baroque garden. A free app audio guide comes with the ticket.
from $20per person; free app audio guide, live price on the listing Check availability →Central Copenhagen, King's Garden · The Danish crown jewels in a royal castle
A 17th-century royal summer residence in the King's Garden, best known for the crown jewels and coronation regalia held in the treasury below the castle. Compact and dense, it rewards an unhurried hour or two.
from $23per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Central Copenhagen, Slotsholmen · Royal reception rooms, ruins and the tower
The seat of Danish power on Slotsholmen, holding parliament, the Supreme Court and the Royal Reception Rooms. A single ticket bundle covers the state rooms, the medieval ruins beneath, the royal kitchen and stables.
from $35per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Helsingor (day trip, ~45 min by train) · Hamlet's castle, a UNESCO site
The Renaissance fortress at Helsingor that Shakespeare made Elsinore in Hamlet, guarding the narrowest point of the Oresund. A UNESCO World Heritage site with royal chambers above and the casemates and the statue of Holger the Dane below.
from $23per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Central Copenhagen, Frederiksstaden · The monarch's home and the guard change
The Danish royal family's winter home, four rococo palaces around an octagonal square. The museum wing opens private royal apartments to visitors, and the changing of the guard happens on the square at noon.
from $21per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Refshaleoen (former shipyard, east harbour) · Warehouse-scale installation art
A non-profit art center in a former welding hall on Refshaleoen, built for the kind of huge, walk-into installation and light works that ordinary galleries cannot hold. Pairs well with a street-food stop at nearby Reffen.
Check latest prices Check availability →
Humlebaek (day trip, ~35 min by train) · Modern art, sculpture park and the sea
The reason many people take a train out of Copenhagen: a modern-art museum on the Oresund coast at Humlebaek where the galleries open onto a sculpture park and views across to Sweden. Calder, Giacometti and rotating shows, all a short walk from the station.
Check latest prices Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, behind Tivoli · Antiquities under a palm-filled winter garden
The brewer Carl Jacobsen's collection behind Tivoli: ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman sculpture, a strong run of French and Danish art including Rodin and Degas, all around a domed winter garden of palms. One of the loveliest interiors in the city.
Check latest prices Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Bredgade · The home of Danish design
The national design museum in an 18th-century former hospital on Bredgade, telling the story of Danish and international design through the famous chair corridor, ceramics, fashion and the Danish Modern movement.
Check latest prices Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Slotsholmen · One sculptor, one purpose-built museum
A museum built in the 1840s for a single artist, the neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and one of the most striking interiors in the city with its coloured walls and mosaic floors. Thorvaldsen is buried in the central courtyard.
Official tickets →
Ishoj (day trip, ~25 min by train plus a walk or bus) · A ship-like museum on the beach
A dramatic deconstructivist building on the beach at Ishoj, south of the city, showing modern and contemporary art with a strong run of temporary exhibitions. Quieter than Louisiana and a genuine architectural piece in its own right.
Official tickets →
Central Copenhagen, by the Botanical Garden · Denmark's national gallery of art
The largest art museum in Denmark, running from old masters through a strong Danish Golden Age collection to modern French and Danish art. General admission is now charged, though under-18s go free.
Official tickets →Central Copenhagen, Kronprinsessegade · World-class Islamic art, free to enter
A quiet townhouse museum by the King's Garden holding one of the finest Islamic art collections in the world, alongside European decorative arts and Danish Early Modern pieces. Free to enter and rarely crowded.
Free entry, no ticket needed.
Central Copenhagen, Slotsholmen · Five centuries of arms in the Royal Arsenal
Housed in Christian IV's 1604 Royal Arsenal, with a 163-metre cannon hall on the ground floor and 500 years of Danish military history above. Quieter than the big-name palaces and consistently well reviewed.
from $20per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Central Copenhagen, Frederiksholms Kanal · Denmark's story from the Vikings to now
Denmark's largest cultural-history museum runs from Stone Age tools and the Sun Chariot through a world-class Viking hall and into ethnographic and modern collections. Adult admission is now paid; under-18s go free.
from $21adult; under 18 free, live price on the listing Check availability →
Central Copenhagen, Romersgade · Everyday Danish life since the 1800s
The story of ordinary working Copenhageners, set in the original 1879 workers' assembly hall, with a preserved family apartment, a period coffee shop and strong social-history exhibitions. An easy, human counterpoint to the palaces.
Official tickets →
Rungsted (day trip, ~30 min by train) · Out of Africa, at the writer's home
The coastal home at Rungsted where Karen Blixen, the author of Out of Africa, was born, wrote and is buried. The house is kept as she left it, set in a bird sanctuary that runs down toward the sound.
Official tickets →
Lyngby (day trip, ~25 min by train) · Historic farms and houses in the open air
Part of the National Museum, an open-air museum at Lyngby with dozens of historic farmhouses, mills and cottages moved here from across the old Danish realm and set in real fields. Admission is charged in season; under-18s go free. Best on a dry day.
Official tickets →Hellerup (~15 min by train from the centre) · Hands-on science, built for families
A large hands-on science center in Hellerup with sixteen interactive zones, a giant tesla coil and the well-known Tube spiral staircase. The best rainy-day pick in Copenhagen for families with kids.
from $40per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Kastrup, by the airport (~15 min by metro) · Northern Europe's largest aquarium
A whirlpool-shaped building on the Oresund shore holding Northern Europe's largest aquarium: a walk-through Amazon tank, hammerhead sharks and a huge ocean tank. An easy metro ride from the centre near the airport.
Check latest prices Check availability →Central Copenhagen, Radhuspladsen · Oddities on the town-hall square
A curiosities museum on Radhuspladsen, sitting in a cluster with the H.C. Andersen Fairy-Tale House and Guinness World Records. A single admission covers Ripley's, and a four-way combo bundles all the neighbours.
from $26per person, live price on the listing Check availability →
Frederiksberg, under Sondermarken park · Art in a dripping underground reservoir
A former underground water reservoir beneath Sondermarken park, now a dank, dripping, cathedral-like space that hosts one large immersive art installation a year. Unlike anything else on this list, and best in warm months.
Official tickets →
Central Copenhagen, Bredgade · Medical history, not for the squeamish
The University of Copenhagen's medical collection in a former surgical academy on Bredgade, with anatomical specimens, old instruments and an original 18th-century operating theatre. Small, specialist and genuinely unsettling in places.
Official tickets →
Frederiksberg, by the Frederiksberg Runddel · Denmark's museum of humour and satire
Built around the cartoonist Robert Storm Petersen and rebranded STORM, this small Frederiksberg museum is Denmark's home for humour and satire, mixing his drawings with rotating shows on comedy and caricature.
Official tickets →
Central Copenhagen, Kobmagergade · A 17th-century tower you spiral up
Christian IV's 1642 observatory tower, climbed not by stairs but by a wide cobbled spiral ramp, with a view over the old town from the top. Tickets are sold only at the door, so there is nothing to book ahead.
Visitor info →Central Copenhagen, by the main station · Not a museum, but the city's icon
The 1843 pleasure garden by the main station, one of the world's oldest amusement parks and the most-booked attraction in the city. Entry covers the gardens and atmosphere; rides are extra. Included here as the landmark it is, not as a museum.
from $28entry; rides extra, live price on the listing Check availability →Six of these museums sit outside the city, up the North Zealand coast or south toward Ishoj, and each is an easy train ride: Louisiana at Humlebaek, Frederiksborg at Hillerod, Kronborg at Helsingor, and a few quieter ones in between. Geography rather than theme, so they get their own section, and the Copenhagen Card covers both the ride and the entry at most of them.
Hillerod (day trip, ~40 min by train) · A Renaissance castle on three islets
The grandest Renaissance castle in Scandinavia, set on three islets in a lake at Hillerod, now the Museum of National History with 500 years of royal portraits and a baroque garden. A free app audio guide comes with the ticket.
from $20per person; free app audio guide, live price on the listing Check availability →Helsingor (day trip, ~45 min by train) · Hamlet's castle, a UNESCO site
The Renaissance fortress at Helsingor that Shakespeare made Elsinore in Hamlet, guarding the narrowest point of the Oresund. A UNESCO World Heritage site with royal chambers above and the casemates and the statue of Holger the Dane below.
from $23per person, live price on the listing Check availability →Humlebaek (day trip, ~35 min by train) · Modern art, sculpture park and the sea
The reason many people take a train out of Copenhagen: a modern-art museum on the Oresund coast at Humlebaek where the galleries open onto a sculpture park and views across to Sweden. Calder, Giacometti and rotating shows, all a short walk from the station.
Check latest prices Check availability →Ishoj (day trip, ~25 min by train plus a walk or bus) · A ship-like museum on the beach
A dramatic deconstructivist building on the beach at Ishoj, south of the city, showing modern and contemporary art with a strong run of temporary exhibitions. Quieter than Louisiana and a genuine architectural piece in its own right.
Official tickets →Rungsted (day trip, ~30 min by train) · Out of Africa, at the writer's home
The coastal home at Rungsted where Karen Blixen, the author of Out of Africa, was born, wrote and is buried. The house is kept as she left it, set in a bird sanctuary that runs down toward the sound.
Official tickets →Lyngby (day trip, ~25 min by train) · Historic farms and houses in the open air
Part of the National Museum, an open-air museum at Lyngby with dozens of historic farmhouses, mills and cottages moved here from across the old Danish realm and set in real fields. Admission is charged in season; under-18s go free. Best on a dry day.
Official tickets →The David Collection is the only major Copenhagen museum free to everyone, all year, with no ticket needed. Under-18s enter free at essentially every paid museum, from the National Museum to Rosenborg and the Glyptotek. Three city-run museums, Thorvaldsens, Nikolaj Kunsthal and the Copenhagen Museum, also open free to all on the last Wednesday of each month. The older idea that SMK and the National Museum are free is out of date, as both now charge adults.
Many are, and it catches people out. Most of the art museums close on Mondays, including SMK, the Glyptotek, Thorvaldsens, Louisiana and ARKEN. Plenty stay open, though: the National Museum, Rosenborg, Christiansborg, Amalienborg, Frederiksborg, the Blue Planet, Experimentarium and the Round Tower all run on Mondays, at least in the main season. If Monday is your museum day, build it around those.
For most museum-focused trips, yes. The card starts at 589 DKK for 24 hours and covers 80-plus attractions plus all public transport in zones 1 to 99. Three or four paid castles and art museums, plus a day trip where the train fare alone adds up, usually pushes you past the card price. If your list is short or leans on free entry, single tickets can still win, so it pays to count first.
One to two museum-focused days suit most trips. Clustered well, you can see two to four major museums in a day, for example the National Museum, the Glyptotek and Christiansborg, which sit within a short walk of each other around Slotsholmen. Save a separate half-day or full day for the coast trip to Louisiana, which is worth slowing down for.
Most first-timers pick one royal site, one art museum and one wildcard. Rosenborg for the crown jewels, the Glyptotek or SMK for art, and the National Museum for the Viking and Danish story make a strong core. Add Louisiana on the coast if you have a spare day, and Tivoli in the evening for the city's oldest crowd-pleaser.
Experimentarium in Hellerup is the standout, with sixteen hands-on zones built for children and a reliable rainy-day fix. The Blue Planet aquarium near the airport, the National Museum's Children's Museum, Tivoli and the open-air farms at Frilandsmuseet all work well for families too. Under-18s enter free at nearly every paid museum, which keeps a family day affordable.
Yes to both. The card covers entry to Louisiana and the regional train out to Humlebaek to reach it, and it covers entry to Tivoli Gardens, though rides inside Tivoli cost extra. The one popular site it leaves out is the Blue Planet aquarium, which you pay for separately.
On a busy day it helps, especially at the time-slot sites like Rosenborg and Christiansborg, where a reserved slot saves you a wait at the door. For most other museums you can turn up and buy on the spot outside peak summer weekends. One exception runs the other way: the Round Tower sells tickets only at the door, so there is nothing to book ahead there.
The deeper reads on planning a museum day, the city passes and the collections worth your time:
A ranked, honest shortlist, from the crown jewels to the sculpture park by the sea.
The real 2026 prices, and the point where the card starts paying for itself.
The 40-minute train north, the tickets, and how to shape the day around the art.
Which are genuinely free in 2026, which quietly went paid, and where the free days are.
A day-by-day plan that clusters the collections so you spend less time walking.
Hands-on science, the aquarium and the places children actually enjoy.
Browse all museum guides and answered questions.
Written and kept current by Anders Nielsen, a Copenhagen-based museum specialist and cultural guide who has led international visitors through the city's collections since 2015. Every ticket price and rating shown is the platform's own figure, read from the live listing, and where a listing publishes no number this site says so rather than inventing one. Free museums are marked free, not sold.