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Copenhagen’s 18 headline sights split cleanly into eight you pay for and ten that cost nothing, and knowing which is which is the whole trick to a capital this expensive. The paid eight run from 60 kr for the Round Tower to 260 kr for the zoo; the free ten include Nyhavn, Christiania, the Little Mermaid and four of the city’s parks.
Denmark uses the krone, written kr or DKK, and has not adopted the euro. Every price below was read from the venue’s own ticket page on 11 September 2026 and converted at 7.47 kr to the euro, 6.44 kr to the US dollar and 8.70 kr to the pound.
Copenhagen is the capital and the seat of the monarchy, which is why the sights here are the national ones: the parliament, the crown jewels, the national museum, the national gallery. Denmark’s second city is covered separately in our Aarhus guide, and Hans Christian Andersen’s home town in our Odense guide.
1. Tivoli Gardens
Tivoli Gardens is the pleasure garden and amusement park behind Central Station, and it opened in 1843. Entrance costs 150 kr to 210 kr (about €20 to €28, $23 to $33, £17 to £24) depending on the day, and rides are a separate ride pass on top.
The thing to get right is the calendar. Tivoli does not open all year: it runs four seasons and closes the garden between them. In 2026 those are 27 March to 20 September, Halloween from 2 October to 1 November, and Christmas from 13 November to 3 January, closed on 24 December. Turning up in the first week of November means a locked gate.
Entrance after 18:00 on a Friday Rock evening costs 275 kr, and under-16s need an adult over 25 with them after 17:30 on those nights. Children aged 3 to 7 pay half the adult price, and the garden itself, with its 1914 wooden roller coaster and the Pantomime Theatre, is worth the entrance without buying a single ride. Tivoli entrance is one of the free entries on the Copenhagen Card, though the ride pass is not.
2. Christiansborg Palace
Christiansborg Palace houses the Danish parliament, the Supreme Court and the prime minister’s office, and you can walk through the royal half of it. The combined ticket costs 225 kr (about €30, $35, £26) at the door or 215 kr online.
The combined ticket is four separate places: the Royal Reception Rooms, the ruins under the palace, the Royal Kitchen and the Royal Stables. Buying them individually costs more, and the Reception Rooms alone are 150 kr. The Great Hall holds the 17 tapestries given to Queen Margrethe II in 1990, woven to Bjørn Nørgaard’s designs and covering a thousand years of Danish history in one room.
Christiansborg is a working palace, so rooms close when the royal family or the government needs them. Check the day’s closures on the palace’s own site before you set out, because the Reception Rooms shut on named dates each year with no substitute offered.
3. National Museum of Denmark
The National Museum of Denmark holds the country’s archaeological collection, including the Sun Chariot, the Egtved Girl and the Gundestrup Cauldron. Admission is 150 kr (about €20, $23, £17) at the door, 135 kr online, and free under 18.
It is the museum that opens on a Monday when the art museums do not, which makes it the obvious Monday plan. The ticket is valid for a year from purchase, so a second visit later in the trip costs nothing. The Children’s Museum inside it lets children sail a Viking ship and cook in a medieval kitchen, and it is the one room in Copenhagen where touching things is the point.
4. SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark
SMK is Denmark’s largest art museum, holding seven centuries of Danish and international art next to Rosenborg’s gardens. Admission is 140 kr (about €19, $22, £16), 95 kr under 27, and free under 18.
SMK closes on Mondays and stays open until 20:00 on Wednesdays, which is the quietest hour to see the Danish Golden Age rooms and the Matisse collection. It sits inside Parkmuseerne, the museum district, and a Parkmuseerne ticket at 345 kr covers one visit to each of six museums in the same park over a whole year.
5. Nyhavn
Nyhavn is the 17th-century canal with the painted townhouses, and looking at it is free. The canal boats leave from here and from Ved Stranden, and a classic canal tour with Canal Tours Copenhagen starts at 199 kr.
Nyhavn is also where Hans Christian Andersen lived three separate times, at numbers 20, 67 and 18, with seventeen of those years spent at number 67 between 1848 and 1865. The quayside restaurants charge Nyhavn prices, so the local move is to buy a beer from a shop, sit on the quay and eat somewhere else afterwards. The boats sail all year and are covered and heated in winter.
6. The Round Tower
The Round Tower is the 17th-century observatory on Købmagergade with a spiral ramp instead of stairs. Admission is 60 kr (about €8, $9, £7) for adults, 40 kr for students, and free under 18.
The ramp was built wide and shallow so a horse and carriage could be driven to the top, and it spirals up the inside of the tower rather than climbing a single flight. Tickets are sold at the door only, with no advance purchase for ordinary entry. Note that the Round Tower is not included in the Copenhagen Card’s 2026 attraction list, whatever older guides say, so budget the 60 kr separately.
7. Amalienborg
Amalienborg is the royal family’s winter residence, four identical rococo palaces around an octagonal square. Watching the changing of the guard costs nothing, and the guard arrives at noon every day.
The guard marches from Rosenborg Castle through the city to get here, so you can pick it up on the way rather than waiting in the square. One of the four palaces houses the Amalienborg Museum, which charges admission and shows the private rooms of four generations of monarchs. King Frederik X has reigned since 14 January 2024, when Margrethe II abdicated after 52 years, and the flag over the palace tells you whether he is in residence.
8. Strøget
Strøget is the pedestrian shopping street running from Rådhuspladsen to Kongens Nytorv, and walking it is free. It runs 1.1 km (0.7 mi) from City Hall Square to Kongens Nytorv, which makes it one of the longest pedestrian streets in Europe.
Strøget is really five streets in a row rather than one, and the character changes as you go: chain stores at the Town Hall end, Danish design and the older shops nearer Kongens Nytorv. The side streets off it, particularly around Gråbrødretorv and Pisserenden, are where the independent shops went when the rents rose.
9. Rosenborg Castle
Rosenborg Castle holds the Danish crown jewels and the crown regalia, in vaults beneath a 400-year-old Renaissance castle in the King’s Garden. Admission is 150 kr (about €20, $23, £17) at the door or 140 kr online.
Rosenborg cannot be pre-booked for a specific slot. You turn up, scan or buy at the ticket office and are given a timed entry ticket for later that day, which is why the first hour after opening is worth the early start in summer. Christian IV built it as a summerhouse and died in it in 1648, and the Treasury below still holds crowns that are on public display and in royal use at the same time.
10. Kastellet and the Little Mermaid
Kastellet is a star-shaped 17th-century fortress with its ramparts intact, and the Little Mermaid sits on the water just beyond it. Both are free, and they are a ten-minute walk apart.
The statue is small, which is the single most repeated complaint about it: it stands 1.25 m (4.1 ft) tall on a rock at the waterline and has done since 1913. Kastellet is the better half of the walk, still an active military site with a windmill, a church and a grass rampart you can circle in twenty minutes. Go early if you want a photograph of the mermaid without a coach party in it, because the tour buses arrive from mid-morning.
11. Rådhuspladsen
Rådhuspladsen is Copenhagen’s main square, in front of the red-brick City Hall, and standing in it costs nothing. It is where Strøget starts and where the city’s New Year and football crowds gather.
The City Hall’s clock is Jens Olsen’s World Clock, an astronomical calculator set in motion in 1955 that tracks the calendar, the planets and the precession of the earth’s axis across 12 movements holding 15,448 parts. The Museum of Copenhagen, which looks after it, calls it the most precise mechanical clock in the world. The building also has a tower, though its opening arrangements change, so check on the day rather than planning around it.
12. Christiania
Christiania is the self-governing Freetown founded on a disused barracks in Christianshavn in 1971, and walking in is free. Its famous Pusher Street was dug up on 6 April 2024 and the open cannabis trade there ended.
Do not go for Pusher Street: it is gone. Residents, politicians and police lifted the cobblestones together, and the Danish justice minister said the street would be permanently closed during 2024. What is still there is the reason to visit anyway: the self-built houses along the lake, the workshops, the murals, the music venues and the lake path, which is one of the quietest walks in central Copenhagen. Photography is restricted in parts of it, and the signs say where.
13. Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden is the University of Copenhagen’s own garden at Nørreport, and the grounds are free to enter. The Palm House, the 19th-century glass house at its centre, charges admission.
The garden is laid out by geography and by plant family rather than for show, which makes it a better walk than a park. The Palm House’s spiral staircase leads to a walkway under the glass roof, and it is the warmest free-ish hour in Copenhagen in February. The garden sits next to SMK and the Natural History Museum, so the three combine into one afternoon in the museum park.
14. Kongens Have
Kongens Have, the King’s Garden, is the oldest royal garden in Denmark, laid out by Christian IV around 1606, and it is free. It wraps around Rosenborg Castle in the middle of the city.
This is where Copenhagen eats lunch when the sun is out. The garden has a puppet theatre that runs free performances in summer, long rose beds along the Rosenborg side, and the Hercules Pavilion at the corner. It is also the start point of the changing of the guard, which forms up here before marching to Amalienborg for noon.
15. Frederiksberg Gardens
Frederiksberg Gardens is a romantic landscape park of canals and lawns below Frederiksberg Palace, and entry is free. Copenhagen Zoo backs onto it, and part of the elephant enclosure is visible from the park side without a ticket.
The canals were cut for the royal family to be rowed between the palace and the pavilions, and small boats still run in summer. The park is a 25-minute walk from Rådhuspladsen or a few stops on the metro to Frederiksberg. If you want the zoo itself, that is 260 kr (about €35, $40, £30) for an adult from March to October and 230 kr from November to February, with children aged 3 to 14 at 160 kr and 130 kr.
16. Fælledparken
Fælledparken is Copenhagen’s largest park, north of the centre in Østerbro, and it is free. It is a working park rather than a sight: football pitches, a skate park, a playground and the city’s 1 May gathering.
Come here to see how Copenhagen actually uses its outdoor space, particularly on a warm weekday evening when every pitch is taken. Parken, the national football stadium, sits on its edge, and the park is a ten-minute walk from Østerport or a short ride on bus 6A. It is also where the Copenhagen Marathon and most of the city’s big outdoor events end up.
17. Assistens Cemetery
Assistens Cemetery in Nørrebro is a working graveyard that doubles as a public park, and it is free to walk through. Hans Christian Andersen, Søren Kierkegaard and Niels Bohr are all buried here.
Copenhageners treat it as a park without embarrassment, sunbathing and eating lunch along the lime avenues, which surprises most visitors more than the graves do. Andersen’s stone is in the older section near the Nørrebrogade wall, and a map at each gate marks the notable plots. It is a fifteen-minute walk from Nørreport, and it pairs well with Jægersborggade’s bakeries and coffee shops on the other side of the wall.
18. Torvehallerne
Torvehallerne is the covered food market by Nørreport station, in two glass halls with about 60 stalls, and browsing it is free. It is the most practical lunch in central Copenhagen.
The two halls divide by category: fresh produce, fish and meat on one side, prepared food, coffee and smørrebrød on the other. It is the easiest place in the city to eat open sandwiches without a restaurant bill, and one of the few central places where a filling lunch stays under 150 kr. It closes earlier than a restaurant district would, so it is a lunch plan rather than a dinner one. What those sandwiches are actually made of is covered in our guide to Danish food.
What a Copenhagen sightseeing day costs in 2026
A day visiting three paid sights in Copenhagen costs roughly 500 kr to 600 kr (about €67 to €80, $78 to $93, £57 to £69) per adult in admissions alone, before transport and food. That is the number that decides whether a city card is worth buying.
The eight paid sights on this list, at their 2026 door prices, are listed below.
| Sight | Adult, at the door |
|---|---|
| Copenhagen Zoo, March to October | 260 kr |
| Christiansborg Palace, all four parts | 225 kr |
| Canal Tours Copenhagen, classic tour | from 199 kr |
| Tivoli Gardens, entrance only | from 150 kr |
| Rosenborg Castle | 150 kr |
| The National Museum of Denmark | 150 kr |
| SMK, the National Gallery of Denmark | 140 kr |
| The Round Tower | 60 kr |
Transport is the smaller cost. A 24-hour City Pass Small covering zones 1 to 4, which includes the airport, is 100 kr, and a 72-hour one is 220 kr. That is what a Copenhagen Card has to beat before its free entries count for anything. The 72-hour Copenhagen Card DISCOVER is 1,039 kr, and we set out the full sum, version by version, on our page on whether the Copenhagen Card is worth it. If you already know you will clear four or five paid sights in three days, you can get your Copenhagen Card from GetYourGuide with free cancellation up to 24 hours before.
Getting to Copenhagen and where to base yourself
Fly into Copenhagen Airport, whose code is CPH, and take the metro, which reaches Kongens Nytorv in 13 minutes. The airport sits inside the city’s own fare zones, which is why the transfer is a normal ticket rather than an express fare.
By land, Copenhagen is on direct rail routes from Hamburg, Stockholm and Malmö into København H, and the Øresund train crosses the bridge from Malmö in well under an hour. Danish domestic trains run Copenhagen to Odense in about 75 minutes and on to Aarhus in about three hours, which is what makes a three-city trip practical without a car. Comparing rail and coach fares on the same dates is quickest through Omio, which sells Danish and cross-border tickets in one place.
Where you sleep changes what this list costs you in time. Indre By puts Tivoli, Christiansborg, Rosenborg, the Round Tower, Strøget and Torvehallerne inside a 20-minute walk. Vesterbro behind the station is cheaper and still walkable. Nørrebro is cheaper again and puts Assistens Cemetery and Jægersborggade on your doorstep at the cost of a bus ride into the centre. Checking what each district charges on the same nights is worth ten minutes, and Trip.com lists all three on one map.
Copenhagen FAQ
How many days do you need in Copenhagen?
Three days covers the 18 sights on this list at a reasonable pace, with the paid ones spread across the days. Two days is enough for the centre if you skip the zoo and the outlying parks, and a fourth day is better spent on a train out to Louisiana, Kronborg or Roskilde than on adding more city.
Is Copenhagen expensive?
Yes, by European standards. Three paid sights in a day come to roughly 500 kr to 600 kr per adult in admissions, a covered-market lunch runs about 120 kr to 150 kr, and a restaurant dinner with a drink starts around 300 kr. The counterweight is that ten of the 18 sights here cost nothing at all.
What is Copenhagen famous for?
Copenhagen is known for Tivoli Gardens, Nyhavn’s painted houses, the Little Mermaid, Christiania, its cycling and its restaurants. It holds 31 Michelin stars across 21 restaurants in the 2026 Michelin Guide Nordic Countries, more than any other city in Scandinavia.
How many people live in Copenhagen?
Copenhagen Municipality had 670,389 residents in the third quarter of 2026, on Statistics Denmark’s figures, in a country of 6,032,304. The wider urban area is considerably larger, which is why the city feels bigger than the municipal number suggests.
Is Copenhagen easy to get around without a car?
Yes. The metro runs around the clock with no driver and no barriers, the S-trains cover the suburbs, and zones 1 to 4 cover everything on this list plus the airport. Cycling is the other answer: the city has roughly 400 km of cycle track and more bicycles than residents.
What language do they speak in Copenhagen?
Danish, and English almost universally alongside it. Menus, museum labels and transport signage are routinely bilingual, and you will not need Danish to visit anything on this list.
WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips
The five tips below each come from a 2026 opening rule or price that changes how you would order a Copenhagen day.
- Do Rosenborg first thing. Rosenborg cannot be pre-booked. You scan at the ticket office and are given a timed slot for later the same day, so arriving at two in the afternoon in July can mean a slot you cannot use.
- Save the National Museum for Monday. SMK, the Glyptotek, Designmuseum Danmark and Louisiana all close on Mondays. The National Museum, the zoo and Tivoli in season do not.
- Check Tivoli’s calendar before you book November. Tivoli shuts the garden between its four seasons, and in 2026 the gap between Halloween ending on 1 November and Christmas opening on 13 November is eleven days.
- Buy the Round Tower separately. It is 60 kr, it is sold only at the door, and it dropped off the Copenhagen Card’s attraction list, so a card holder still pays.
- Catch the guard on the march, not in the square. The changing of the guard forms up in Kongens Have and walks to Amalienborg for noon, so you can watch it from the garden without standing in the crowd at the palace.
About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark for independent travellers, including the city card worth buying, the trains between the three main cities and the hotels and restaurants worth the money. Every price on this page is read from the venue’s own 2026 ticket page, and the page is updated when those prices and opening arrangements change. More of the country is covered on our Denmark pages, with the shortlist on our places to visit in Denmark guide and the checked country figures on our facts about Denmark page.
