Rainy afternoon and restless kids? Head to a museum. This list runs from science centers where kids blow giant bubbles and open-air museums with old farms to wander, to planetarium shows, art museums and history rooms full of things to look at up close. A few sit out of town along the coast, an easy train ride for a full day out.
Museum of Illusions Copenhagen is a hands-on museum of more than 60 interactive exhibits on Strøget. Kids walk into the Infinity Room and the Symmetry Room, sit at the Cloning Table with copies of themselves, and stand by the Infinity Portal and the Beuchet Chair.
Touching the exhibits and taking photos is the point, and the museum explains how each trick works.
The Danish War Museum fills the king's 1604 armory with 500 years of military history, from samurai armor to a Leopard 1 tank in the courtyard. In the Battle Ready hall kids can climb inside an armored personnel carrier from Afghanistan, sit behind a machine gun and stand beside a Lynx helicopter.
The Warrior exhibition asks what killing does to soldiers, which suits older kids better.
Frilandsmuseet is one of Europe's oldest open-air museums, open since 1901. Farms, houses and mills from across Denmark, Skåne and the Faroe Islands were taken down and rebuilt here among historic gardens and heritage breeds: horses, goats, sheep and rabbits kids can pet.
The Freddy Frogface Village is the play zone, based on Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books, with a labyrinth, soapbox cars, apple trees to climb and a reading cave.
The Danish Architecture Center is Denmark's national center for architecture, inside the BLOX building on the harbor front. Kids ride the DAC Slide, a 40-meter spiral by Carsten Höller that drops four floors, and build, draw and peek through the Wonder Wall in the Educatorium children's space. Exhibitions trace Danish architecture from the Viking Age to today, with child-friendly storytelling built in. The café's rooftop terrace overlooks the harbor.
ENIGMA covers communication history, from the Danish postal service of 1624 to the internet.
Kids can crawl, slide and type through Teleportalen, a play area that turns the digital world into a physical one, and design their own stamps. The basement arcade has Atari, Nintendo, C64 and Amiga games to play. Older kids can crack Enigma machine messages and head underground into a Cold War bunker.
Copenhagen's city history museum fills a historic building behind City Hall with more than 400 finds, from the Ice Age to today. Kids can stand over the skeleton of a medieval warrior who survived sword and axe blows, spot a Viking Age bone comb and a wooden bicycle, and explore a large interactive model of the city. Film, voices and sound installations tell the stories.
The planetarium's big dome screen shows space films, some in English and some in Danish, and every ticket includes one. The exhibitions hold the largest moon rock outside the United States, on loan from NASA, plus astronaut tests, two humanoid robots and Tomás Saraceno's 25-meter-high Cosmic Threads installation. Weekends and school holidays add science shows and a LEGO space workshop.
Cirkusmuseet tells the story of circus life through costumes, props and films, set in the old Avedørelejren army barracks. Kids can follow a treasure hunt through the exhibition, then dress up, draw and juggle in the play area.
On Sundays, a professional circus artist runs Circus Fun in the big Fægtesalen hall, where kids and parents try juggling, tightrope walking and trapeze.
Arbejdermuseet tells the story of Danish working-class life inside an 1879 building with steep staircases, small apartments and a grand Banquet Hall.
The Children's Workers Museum is the draw for kids: they deliver groceries, sort bottles at a brewery, dress up and play in a 1930s apartment, then take a hidden staircase from the blue kitchen down to a recreated backyard with laundry lines.
Cisternerne is a former drinking-water reservoir under Søndermarken park, built in 1856-59: three dark, granite-walled chambers with stalactites growing from the concrete ceiling. Each year an international artist makes a show for the space, so the visit changes every year.
The 2026 show, Marina Abramović's Seven Deaths, is about an hour of opera films that stage seven deaths. It suits curious, calm kids who are fine in the dark.
ARKEN is an art museum on the shore of Køge Bay, in a concrete building shaped like a stranded ship, with a 150-meter-long gallery spine and porthole doors. A family workshop stays open all day, with hands-on projects tied to the current exhibitions.
Ishøj Beach, with a playground, a bathing jetty and summer lifeguards, starts just outside, so art and a swim fit in one outing.
Designmuseum Danmark fills a former 1750s hospital with Danish and international design, from the 'Danish Modern' story of 1920s to 1970s classics to Chinese and German porcelain.
Kids tend to head for the quiet garden, where Anne Brandhøj's wooden 'Playmates' figures are made for touching and climbing. On selected Saturdays and in school holidays, the banquet hall becomes a workshop where kids make something to take home.
Denmark's national natural history museum sits in a corner of the Botanical Garden. Until the move, the building at Øster Voldgade holds the historic Mineral Hall and changing special exhibitions.
The new museum brings the whole collection under one roof in eight exhibitions, from Universe and Earth to the Arctic and an Ocean Hall, in galleries built underground beneath the garden.
Denmark's national gallery holds 700 years of art, from Rubens and Rembrandt to Matisse and the Danish Golden Age painters. The 1896 building joins a modern extension through Sculpture Street, a high-ceilinged, skylit hall with views over Østre Anlæg park.
Every weekend the Children's Workshop opens: kids put on an apron and make their own art with SMK's in-house artists, around a monthly theme from the current exhibitions.
Denmark's national history museum fills the Prince's Palace with 42,000 objects on display, from a longbow made around 7,000 BCE to the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. Kids can lift a real gold bar, meet a mummy and the Egtved Girl, see the Gundestrup Cauldron that inspired the Asterix and Obelix artist, and find astronaut Andreas Mogensen's spacesuit.
Experimentarium is a hands-on science center spread over three indoor floors and a rooftop. Kids make soap bubbles of every size in the Bubblearium, splash with water at The Beach, navigate a ship simulator in The Port and see their own body through a thermal camera in Under Your Skin.
The exhibits are built for play, so kids need no Danish or English to join in.
Rainy afternoon and restless kids? Head to a museum. This list runs from science centers where kids blow giant bubbles and open-air museums with old farms to wander, to planetarium shows, art museums and history rooms full of things to look at up close. A few sit out of town along the coast, an easy train ride for a full day out.
Museum of Illusions Copenhagen is a hands-on museum of more than 60 interactive exhibits on Strøget. Kids walk into the Infinity Room and the Symmetry Room, sit at the Cloning Table with copies of themselves, and stand by the Infinity Portal and the Beuchet Chair.
Touching the exhibits and taking photos is the point, and the museum explains how each trick works.
The Danish War Museum fills the king's 1604 armory with 500 years of military history, from samurai armor to a Leopard 1 tank in the courtyard. In the Battle Ready hall kids can climb inside an armored personnel carrier from Afghanistan, sit behind a machine gun and stand beside a Lynx helicopter.
The Warrior exhibition asks what killing does to soldiers, which suits older kids better.
Frilandsmuseet is one of Europe's oldest open-air museums, open since 1901. Farms, houses and mills from across Denmark, Skåne and the Faroe Islands were taken down and rebuilt here among historic gardens and heritage breeds: horses, goats, sheep and rabbits kids can pet.
The Freddy Frogface Village is the play zone, based on Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books, with a labyrinth, soapbox cars, apple trees to climb and a reading cave.
The Danish Architecture Center is Denmark's national center for architecture, inside the BLOX building on the harbor front. Kids ride the DAC Slide, a 40-meter spiral by Carsten Höller that drops four floors, and build, draw and peek through the Wonder Wall in the Educatorium children's space. Exhibitions trace Danish architecture from the Viking Age to today, with child-friendly storytelling built in. The café's rooftop terrace overlooks the harbor.
ENIGMA covers communication history, from the Danish postal service of 1624 to the internet.
Kids can crawl, slide and type through Teleportalen, a play area that turns the digital world into a physical one, and design their own stamps. The basement arcade has Atari, Nintendo, C64 and Amiga games to play. Older kids can crack Enigma machine messages and head underground into a Cold War bunker.
Copenhagen's city history museum fills a historic building behind City Hall with more than 400 finds, from the Ice Age to today. Kids can stand over the skeleton of a medieval warrior who survived sword and axe blows, spot a Viking Age bone comb and a wooden bicycle, and explore a large interactive model of the city. Film, voices and sound installations tell the stories.
The planetarium's big dome screen shows space films, some in English and some in Danish, and every ticket includes one. The exhibitions hold the largest moon rock outside the United States, on loan from NASA, plus astronaut tests, two humanoid robots and Tomás Saraceno's 25-meter-high Cosmic Threads installation. Weekends and school holidays add science shows and a LEGO space workshop.
Cirkusmuseet tells the story of circus life through costumes, props and films, set in the old Avedørelejren army barracks. Kids can follow a treasure hunt through the exhibition, then dress up, draw and juggle in the play area.
On Sundays, a professional circus artist runs Circus Fun in the big Fægtesalen hall, where kids and parents try juggling, tightrope walking and trapeze.
Arbejdermuseet tells the story of Danish working-class life inside an 1879 building with steep staircases, small apartments and a grand Banquet Hall.
The Children's Workers Museum is the draw for kids: they deliver groceries, sort bottles at a brewery, dress up and play in a 1930s apartment, then take a hidden staircase from the blue kitchen down to a recreated backyard with laundry lines.
Cisternerne is a former drinking-water reservoir under Søndermarken park, built in 1856-59: three dark, granite-walled chambers with stalactites growing from the concrete ceiling. Each year an international artist makes a show for the space, so the visit changes every year.
The 2026 show, Marina Abramović's Seven Deaths, is about an hour of opera films that stage seven deaths. It suits curious, calm kids who are fine in the dark.
ARKEN is an art museum on the shore of Køge Bay, in a concrete building shaped like a stranded ship, with a 150-meter-long gallery spine and porthole doors. A family workshop stays open all day, with hands-on projects tied to the current exhibitions.
Ishøj Beach, with a playground, a bathing jetty and summer lifeguards, starts just outside, so art and a swim fit in one outing.
Designmuseum Danmark fills a former 1750s hospital with Danish and international design, from the 'Danish Modern' story of 1920s to 1970s classics to Chinese and German porcelain.
Kids tend to head for the quiet garden, where Anne Brandhøj's wooden 'Playmates' figures are made for touching and climbing. On selected Saturdays and in school holidays, the banquet hall becomes a workshop where kids make something to take home.
Denmark's national natural history museum sits in a corner of the Botanical Garden. Until the move, the building at Øster Voldgade holds the historic Mineral Hall and changing special exhibitions.
The new museum brings the whole collection under one roof in eight exhibitions, from Universe and Earth to the Arctic and an Ocean Hall, in galleries built underground beneath the garden.
Denmark's national gallery holds 700 years of art, from Rubens and Rembrandt to Matisse and the Danish Golden Age painters. The 1896 building joins a modern extension through Sculpture Street, a high-ceilinged, skylit hall with views over Østre Anlæg park.
Every weekend the Children's Workshop opens: kids put on an apron and make their own art with SMK's in-house artists, around a monthly theme from the current exhibitions.
Denmark's national history museum fills the Prince's Palace with 42,000 objects on display, from a longbow made around 7,000 BCE to the Bronze Age Sun Chariot. Kids can lift a real gold bar, meet a mummy and the Egtved Girl, see the Gundestrup Cauldron that inspired the Asterix and Obelix artist, and find astronaut Andreas Mogensen's spacesuit.
Experimentarium is a hands-on science center spread over three indoor floors and a rooftop. Kids make soap bubbles of every size in the Bubblearium, splash with water at The Beach, navigate a ship simulator in The Port and see their own body through a thermal camera in Under Your Skin.
The exhibits are built for play, so kids need no Danish or English to join in.
