The best museum in Copenhagen is the National Museum, the best building is the Glyptotek, the best day out is Louisiana, and the best value is the Round Tower at 60 DKK. Almost everything worth seeing costs 110 to 150 DKK, under-18s go free nearly everywhere, and the free-entry rules changed in 2024 in a way most guides still have wrong. Here is what each place actually costs, what it is worth, and which ones to skip.
This is the culture half of everything there is to do in the city. We have covered museums and landmarks together, because nobody plans a day around only one of them.
The Short Answer
| If you have… | Go to |
|---|---|
| One museum only | The National Museum of Denmark, 150 DKK |
| One building only | Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 150 DKK |
| One day and good weather | Louisiana in Humlebaek, 145 DKK plus the train |
| One hour and no money | The David Collection, free, always |
| One view | The Round Tower, 60 DKK, or the free Christiansborg tower |
| Children in tow | Experimentarium or Den Blå Planet |
| Rain and no plan | The Slotsholmen cluster: Christiansborg, Thorvaldsens and the Black Diamond, all within 200 metres |
The Museums, Ranked by What They Are Actually Worth
1. National Museum of Denmark — 150 DKK
Ny Vestergade 10. The single best museum in the city for understanding the country you are standing in: Viking gold, the Egtved Girl, the Sun Chariot. April to October it opens daily 10:00 to 17:00; November to March it closes on Mondays. 135 DKK if you book online, under 18 free, and the ticket is valid for a year.
It is not free. A great many guides, and for a while our own pages, said it was. It has been ticketed since 2019. Allow two and a half to three and a half hours. The one place where 150 DKK feels underpriced.
2. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek — 150 DKK, or free once a month
Dantes Plads, five minutes from Central Station. Carlsberg money spent on antiquities and French painting, wrapped around a Winter Garden that is the warmest and most photographed room in Copenhagen. 135 DKK online, 120 for under-27s and students, under 18 free. Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, Thursday to 21:00, closed Mondays.
Free on the last Wednesday of every month, which is also when it is busiest.
One warning for 2026: the Greek and Roman sculpture galleries and the Central Hall are being rearranged from around April until October, with some rooms shut and works off view. Check what is open before paying full price.
3. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art — 145 DKK
Humlebaek, about 35 to 40 minutes by train from Central Station plus a ten-minute walk. The building, the sea view and the sculpture park are the exhibit as much as the art is. Adults 145 DKK, students 130, under 18 free, and the online ticket is valid for a year on any opening day with no timed slot.
Tuesday to Friday 11:00 to 22:00, Saturday and Sunday 11:00 to 18:00, closed Mondays. Those late weekday closes make it the strongest dark-evening option anywhere near Copenhagen. Note that you need a ticket even to see the café, shop and sculpture park; there is no free grounds access.
The best museum in Denmark and the only one worth leaving Copenhagen for. Allow half a day including travel.
4. SMK, the National Gallery — 140 DKK
Sølvgade 48. Denmark’s deepest collection and its most navigable big museum; the Danish Golden Age rooms are the reason to come rather than the touring blockbusters. Adults 140 DKK, under 27 95, under 18 free. Closed Mondays, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Wednesday to 20:00.
SMK is not free. Several widely-read guides state that the permanent collection costs nothing and only special exhibitions charge. That is wrong: one ticket covers the whole museum, and it is 140 DKK.
Our full guide to SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark goes room by room: the Golden Age paintings to find first, Hammershøi’s Strandgade interiors, a Matisse that is far smaller than you expect, and why Wednesday evening is the time to go.
5. Designmuseum Danmark — 140 DKK
Bredgade 68. The Chair Hall is a genuinely great twenty minutes and the rest is a competent, compact museum. 140 DKK, 90 for students and under-27s, under 18 free. Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Thursday to 20:00, closed Mondays. The shop, café, library and garden are free without a ticket, which is worth knowing on a wet afternoon. Best if Danish design is a reason you came, thin if it is not.
The Chair Hall is now a floor-to-ceiling tunnel of 125 chairs arranged as a family tree, from Wegner and Jacobsen to Eames and Breuer, and ticket sales stop an hour before closing. Our full review of Designmuseum Danmark covers the tunnel, what is on this winter and who should skip it.
6. The David Collection — free
Kronprinsessegade 30. The finest collection of Islamic art in northern Europe, in a townhouse, for nothing, guided tours included. Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, Wednesday to 21:00, closed Mondays.
The best free hour in Copenhagen, and almost no roundup leads with it. It is not on the Copenhagen Card because it does not need to be.
7. Cisternerne — around 115 DKK
Under Søndermarken in Frederiksberg: a dripping underground reservoir converted into one large installation a year. The space beats whatever is in it. The 2026 season runs roughly mid-March to the end of November, with Wednesday and Thursday evenings to 20:00 and Mondays closed in October and November. There are no timed slots, so expect a queue. The best wet-weather hour in the city, but check it is in season.
8. The Workers Museum — 135 DKK
Rømersgade 22. A preserved 1930s working-class flat and a period coffee hall. Daily 10:00 to 17:00, Thursday to 20:00, and one of the very few good museums open on Mondays. Quietly the most moving social history in Copenhagen and consistently under-ranked.
9. Medical Museion — 110 DKK
Bredgade 62, next door to the Designmuseum. An eighteenth-century anatomy theatre and specimen jars in the old surgeons’ academy. Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 17:00, weekends 11:00 to 17:00. Three floors and no lift. The most memorable small museum in the city if you have the stomach for it.
10. Copenhagen Contemporary — 140 DKK
Refshaleøen. Enormous warehouse installations you can walk inside. Hit or miss by exhibition, but nothing else in Copenhagen shows art at that scale. Students 95, children 3 to 17 just 25 DKK. Thursday to 21:00, closed Mondays.
For children: Experimentarium and Den Blå Planet
Experimentarium in Hellerup is open daily 9:30 to 17:00 and recommends three to four hours. It uses dynamic pricing that varies by day and season and publishes no fixed adult rate, which is annoying but honest. It is the best rainy-day venue in Copenhagen with children and close to pointless without them.
Den Blå Planet, the national aquarium at Kastrup, is 249 DKK for adults (219 online) and 131 for children. It sells one-hour timed slots that go at weekends and holidays, and it is not on the Copenhagen Card, which is the single most expensive omission on that card. Open Mondays to 21:00, which makes it useful on the day everything else shuts.
The Landmarks
Rosenborg Castle — around 150 DKK
Øster Voldgade 4A. The crown jewels in the basement are the most impressive single room of objects in Copenhagen. 140 DKK online, students 100, under 18 free but still ticketed. Daily 10:00 to 17:00 most of the year, extended to 09:00 opening from late June to end of August, and Mondays closed from 2 November to 23 December.
Book ahead. Visitor numbers are capped for security and it sells out on busy days. Copenhagen Card holders cannot pre-book and must scan at the ticket office for a slot, so arrive early. There is no lift. Read more in our full Rosenborg guide.
Christiansborg Palace — 225 DKK for all four, or 150 for the good bit
Only the Royal Reception Rooms and the Ruins earn their money. The Palace Ticket at 215 DKK online covers all four attractions; the Reception Rooms alone are 140 online; the Royal Kitchen, Royal Stables and Ruins are 75 to 85 DKK each. Paying separately for the Stables, open only 13:30 to 16:00, is the worst-value single ticket in central Copenhagen.
The tower is free, 44 metres up with a lift, and closed Mondays. It beats all four paid attractions for the view. Note that the Reception Rooms close for state events on scattered dates through the year, so check before you go. Our Christiansborg guide has the detail.
Amalienborg — 135 DKK, and a free noon ceremony
The square outside is the landmark and it costs nothing. The Changing of the Guard happens at noon every day, and which version you get depends on the season in a way that surprises most visitors. The museum inside Christian VIII’s Palace is 125 DKK online for about an hour of preserved royal apartments. Worth it on a Copenhagen Card, optional otherwise.
The Round Tower — 60 DKK, and the best value in Copenhagen
Købmagergade 52A. A 1642 spiral ramp, no stairs and no lift, leading to the best central rooftop view in the city. Adults 60 DKK, students 40, under 18 free. Open 362 days a year: April to September daily 10:00 to 20:00; October to March Monday and Tuesday 10:00 to 21:00, Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00.
It is not included in the Copenhagen Card, which their own site states plainly and which most guides get wrong. In winter the observatory at the top opens with a staffed telescope on Monday and Tuesday evenings, 18:00 to 21:00 — a genuinely seasonal experience for 60 kroner.
Church of Our Saviour — 70 DKK, and closed in January
Christianshavn. Four hundred steps, the last hundred and fifty on an external spiral around the twisted spire. The best view in Copenhagen and the only one that frightens people. Adults 70 DKK, students and over-65s 53, children 20, free with the Copenhagen Card. The tower runs daily 09:00 to 20:00 with last entry half an hour before.
Two caveats worth planning around: it closes for the whole of January, and it shuts at short notice in rain, snow or high wind. Book ahead, because capacity is limited, and have a plan B.
The Marble Church — free, with a 50 DKK dome climb
The interior is free, Monday to Thursday 10:00 to 17:00, Friday from 12:00, Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and Sunday from 13:00, closing for services and concerts. The dome tour costs 50 DKK, children under 12 free, and runs Saturdays and Sundays at 13:30 with a maximum of fifteen people and tickets sold on the door only. The cheapest big view in the city, and easy to miss because it is weekend-only and walk-up-only.
Free and always open
Kastellet, the star fortress, is the best free walk in central Copenhagen and the reason the Little Mermaid detour is survivable. Nyhavn is fifteen minutes of genuinely beautiful gabled houses and then the most expensive beer in Denmark; photograph it at eight in the morning. Grundtvig’s Church in Bispebjerg is the best building in Copenhagen that no roundup ranks, an expressionist brick cathedral, and free. And Freetown Christiania costs nothing to walk into.
Free Entry: the Section Everyone Else Has Wrong
This is where Copenhagen guides are most consistently out of date, so here is the current picture, checked against the venues and the city.
Free always: the David Collection, all the church interiors including the Marble Church and Grundtvig’s, the Christiansborg tower, Kastellet, Nyhavn, the Little Mermaid, Christiania and the Botanical Garden.
Free on a fixed day: the Glyptotek is free on the last Wednesday of every month, not every Tuesday as several 2026-dated guides still claim. Thorvaldsens Museum has seniors free on Tuesdays.
And here is a genuine, checkable contradiction. The City of Copenhagen’s own notice states that from 1 July 2024, following a City Council decision, its three municipal museums — Thorvaldsens Museum, Nikolaj Kunsthal and the Museum of Copenhagen — changed from free entry every Wednesday to free entry on the last Wednesday of the month only. Thorvaldsens Museum’s own prices page, at the time of writing, still advertises “free admission for all on Wednesdays.”
Both are official pages and they disagree. Plan for the last Wednesday of the month, and treat a free ordinary Wednesday as a bonus if you get one. One 110 DKK ticket covers all three of those museums for 48 hours anyway, which softens the blow.
Free by age: under-18s go free at the National Museum, SMK, the Glyptotek, the Designmuseum, Thorvaldsens, Louisiana, Cisternerne, the Round Tower, Rosenborg, Amalienborg, Christiansborg and the Workers Museum. Under-27s get reduced rather than free entry at SMK and the Glyptotek.
The direction of travel is worth stating plainly: Copenhagen is moving away from free entry, not towards it. The municipal free Wednesday was cut to one a month and the two national museums now charge 140 to 150 DKK. Any guide describing Copenhagen’s big museums as free is describing the city as it was.
Is the Copenhagen Card Worth It?
The DISCOVER card covers 80-plus attractions plus unlimited public transport across the whole Capital Region including the airport.
| Duration | Adult | Junior 12–15 | Child 3–11 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 hours | 589 DKK | 399 | 100 |
| 48 hours | 859 DKK | 509 | 140 |
| 72 hours | 1,039 DKK | 589 | 180 |
| 96 hours | 1,219 DKK | 699 | 220 |
| 120 hours | 1,419 DKK | 789 | 260 |
Do the arithmetic rather than trusting the marketing. A museum-heavy two days — National Museum 150, Glyptotek 150, SMK 140, Designmuseum 140, Rosenborg 140, Christiansborg 215, Church of Our Saviour 70 — comes to about 1,005 DKK plus two days of transport. The 48-hour card at 859 DKK wins, but only because that itinerary is three or four paid venues a day.
The card loses if your list leans on free venues, or on the Round Tower and Den Blå Planet, neither of which is included. A 24-hour card at 589 DKK needs roughly four paid attractions in a single day to break even, and most people do not manage four. Our full break-even analysis goes further.
Overrated, and Why
The Little Mermaid. Not overrated because she is small — overrated because of what she costs you in time. It is a 25 to 35 minute walk each way for a 1.25-metre bronze you will photograph over other people’s heads. See her as a two-minute stop at the end of the Kastellet walk, never as a destination. There is more in our honest take on the statue.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the Guinness World Records museum. The four-attraction Fun Pass is 231 DKK online and 260 at the door for replicas and photo panels on Rådhuspladsen. The same money buys the National Museum and the Round Tower with change. The problem is not that it is bad; it is that it charges Louisiana money 400 metres from world-class alternatives.
The H.C. Andersen Experience, at 71 to 80 DKK for twenty to thirty minutes of scenography, is the same operator in the same building with the same ticket desk. If you want Andersen, the National Museum costs less and says more.
Home of Carlsberg at 235 DKK is a corporate history exhibition with a very large bottle collection. Fine on a Copenhagen Card, borderline at full price unless you add the cellars tour.
Tivoli’s ride pass at over 300 DKK, if you are an adult without children. Entry from 180 already buys the gardens, the architecture and the evening lighting, which is what most adults actually enjoy about Tivoli.
Not overrated, despite its reputation: Louisiana. The travel time is the real cost. At 145 DKK it is the cheapest world-class museum on this page.
Planning: Clusters, Late Nights and the Monday Trap
Monday is the trap. Closed on Mondays: the Glyptotek, SMK, the Designmuseum, Thorvaldsens, Louisiana, Copenhagen Contemporary, Medical Museion, the David Collection, the Danish Jewish Museum and Nikolaj Kunsthal. Open on Mondays: the Workers Museum, Den Blå Planet until 21:00, Experimentarium, the Round Tower until 21:00 in winter, Christiansborg, Tivoli in season and the National Museum from April to October.
Late nights by day of week. Thursday is the big one: the Glyptotek, Copenhagen Contemporary and the Workers Museum all run to 20:00 or 21:00, and the Designmuseum to 20:00. Wednesday belongs to SMK, to 20:00, and the David Collection, to 21:00. Louisiana runs to 22:00 Tuesday to Friday.
Walkable clusters for a wet day:
- Slotsholmen: Christiansborg with its four attractions and free tower, Thorvaldsens Museum and the Black Diamond, all inside 200 metres.
- Bredgade: Designmuseum Danmark and Medical Museion are twenty metres apart, with Amalienborg, the Marble Church and the Danish Jewish Museum a few minutes further.
- Nørreport and the park museums: SMK, Hirschsprung, Rosenborg, the Workers Museum and the David Collection within a ten-minute radius. All five shut on Mondays except the Workers Museum.
- Rådhuspladsen: the National Museum, the Glyptotek and Tivoli within 400 metres.
Book in advance for: Rosenborg, which has a hard cap and sells out; Den Blå Planet, with non-refundable one-hour slots; and the Church of Our Saviour tower. Almost everything else you can walk into.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best museum in Copenhagen?
The National Museum of Denmark for the collection and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek for the building. If you will travel 35 minutes out of the city, Louisiana in Humlebaek beats both.
Are museums free in Copenhagen?
A few are. The David Collection is free every day it opens, and church interiors and the Christiansborg tower cost nothing. The Glyptotek is free on the last Wednesday of each month. Most of the big museums charge 110 to 150 DKK, and under-18s go free almost everywhere.
Is the National Museum of Denmark free?
No. It is 150 DKK, or 135 booked online, and has been ticketed since 2019. Under-18s go free and the ticket is valid for a year.
Is SMK free?
No. Adult entry is 140 DKK, with under-27s at 95 and under-18s free. One ticket covers the permanent collection and the special exhibitions.
Is the Copenhagen Card worth it?
Only if you do three or four paid attractions a day. A 48-hour card at 859 DKK beats a museum-heavy two-day itinerary, but a 24-hour card at 589 DKK rarely pays off. Note that the Round Tower and Den Blå Planet are not included.
Is the Little Mermaid worth seeing?
As a two-minute stop at the end of a walk through Kastellet, yes. As a destination in its own right, no. It is a small bronze at the end of a long walk, with a crowd.
Which Copenhagen museums are open on Mondays?
The Workers Museum, Den Blå Planet, Experimentarium, the Round Tower, Christiansborg, and the National Museum from April to October. Most of the major art museums close.
Do you need to book Copenhagen museums in advance?
For Rosenborg, Den Blå Planet and the Church of Our Saviour tower, yes. For the Glyptotek, National Museum, SMK, Designmuseum, Louisiana and Cisternerne, no.
What Has Changed for 2026
Five things worth knowing that most published guides predate.
- The Glyptotek is part-closed. The Greek and Roman sculpture galleries and the Central Hall are being rearranged from roughly April to October 2026, with rooms shut and works off view, and no children’s programming until September. It is still worth visiting; just know what you are paying for.
- Cisternerne is seasonal. The 2026 season runs roughly 14 March to 30 November, so it is shut for the whole of the winter, and it also closes on Mondays through October and November.
- Christiansborg has moved online. The old kongeligeslotte.dk site is gone and Christiansborg now sits under Den Kongelige Samling alongside Rosenborg and Amalienborg. Every competitor’s Christiansborg link is now a redirect or a dead end, and the same applies to the old kongernessamling.dk address.
- The Post & Tele Museum no longer exists. It reopened as ENIGMA, Museum of Communication, on Øster Allé 3 in 2022, with the M3 Metro stopping at the door. Anyone searching the old name is looking for a museum that was renamed four years ago.
- The free-Wednesday rule changed in 2024, as set out above, and the museums’ own pages have not all caught up.
One to look forward to rather than plan around: the new Natural History Museum of Denmark is due to open on 6 March 2027, which will be the biggest addition to Copenhagen’s museum landscape in a generation.
Not a museum, but worth fitting in on the first clear morning of any trip: the Church of Our Saviour tower in Christianshavn, 400 steps to a viewing point on the outside of a gilded spire, included on the Copenhagen Card. It closes in rain and wind, which is why timing matters — details in our guide to the Church of Our Saviour.
Related Reading
- The Glyptotek in detail covers the collection, the Winter Garden and the free-entry day.
- The National Museum goes through the Viking rooms and what to prioritise in three hours.
- The Round Tower explains the ramp, the observatory and why 60 DKK is the best deal in the city.
- Louisiana as a day trip covers the trains, the timings and how long to allow.
- Where to go when it rains builds on the museum clusters above.
Final Thoughts
Copenhagen is a city where the culture is genuinely good and genuinely priced. Nothing here is a rip-off except the franchise attractions on Rådhuspladsen, and nothing is free except the handful of places that are properly free. Pick two or three paid venues rather than six, use Thursday evenings, avoid Mondays, and remember that the Round Tower at 60 DKK and the David Collection at nothing will probably outlast the expensive ones in your memory of the trip.
Last verified: September 2026 against venue websites. Prices and hours in Copenhagen move; the free-Wednesday rule in particular is contradicted between the city’s notice and the museums’ own pages.
