Is it worth visiting Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark with Kids?

Museums and kids are always a tricky combination as there is the fear that kids will get bored, try to touch everything or have a meltdown in front of everyone but we took the risk and visited Louisiana Museum of Modern Art with a 3yr old and a baby. In this blog post we'll cover if it was worth it and if you choose to, how to do it with kids.

Getting There & Where to Stay

Louisiana is easy to reach by train, it's about 40 minutes from Copenhagen Central on the Kystbanen coastal line, with Humlebæk station a 10 minute walk from the museum entrance. There's a cosy café in the old ticket station right at the stop, which was a nice place where we had a quick lunch before heading to the Museum.

We stayed in Malmö rather than Copenhagen, which is what I'd recommend if budget is a factor because accommodation (and everything else) in Malmö is significantly cheaper.

Central Copenhagen (40 minutes by train)

Copenhagen Marriott Hotel sits right on the harbour with spacious rooms, harbour views, and a location that's central for Nyhavn, Tivoli, and the main sights. Family rooms and cots are available.

Malmö (60 minutes by train)

Clarion Hotel Malmö Live is our pick for families in Malmö because the location is really central and it's well set up for kids with rooms are spacious enough to spread out as a family. The views from the hotel over Malmö are also stunning with either sea or city views and if you can manage to escape the kids there's also a sky bar. Another plus if that it's a pet friendly hotel if you happen to be travelling with pets!

How family friendly is the museum?

The museum is modern, spacious and has great accessibility so it's easy to push the pram around everywhere. There's a dedicated children’s wing with plenty to entertain the kids including crafts, Lego, dressing up and a reading room which I’ll go into more detail below. Finally there are wide open spaces in the gardens where the kids can run around explore the outdoor art and even roll down hills!

Highlights for the kids

Yayoi Kusama lights exhibition

Yayoi Kusama is the famous Japanese artist who is known for her fascinating light installations and love of polka dots. Inside is a mirrored room, water across the floor, hundreds of colourful lights hanging all around you and a real magical feeling when you're experiencing it.

A max of 4 people allowed in at a time and you are allowed in for 1 minute but the queue is quite long. We waited for about 20 minutes to go in and during that time I managed to sit down and entertain our daughter with some drawing pens on a nearby table and watching the film that was on repeat whilst Minna waited in line with our son. There is water in the exhibition so it's worth keeping a close eye on your kids to make sure they don’t fall in or touch the lights.

Visiting the Children's wing

My daughter loves dress up play so when we told her there was dress up here she was so excited to visit. When you get to the children’s wing there are 3 floors of entertainment, the first has some crafts and an enclosed reading room. The reading room has kids books in different languages and is a calm space where phones aren't allowed. We didn’t stay in here for too long as you have to take your shoes off before you go in and the enclosed room smelt like feet…

On the middle floor is where there is dress up play. There are racks of traditional acting costumes and hats where kids can try on all the different clothes and look at themselves in a bendy mirror.

Opposite this there is a Lego area where there are only yellow bricks, the idea being to focus on the form and building rather than on finding the right colours for everything. As a big kid I sat down for “five minutes” but when I checked the time I realised that an hour had passed of us playing!

Downstairs there was a creative area for painting and drawing where on one side you could take a sheet with a face on it and paint it ready to take home and the other side had charcoal for drawing. There was a drying rack so you could leave it here whilst you explored the rest of museum or tape it up so you didn't get paint everywhere (we decided to leave ours on the drying rack forever and take a few extra sheets with us she could draw on with pens on the train back to Malmo). Fortunately they have lots of bibs so you can try and minimise the chances of paint getting everywhere. There are toilets and a cafe here so if you want to relax a bit more you can easily grab a coffee and a snack whilst the kids paint!

The gardens

After lots of indoors time it felt so nice getting outdoors. There are lots of wood in the gardens and you get great sea views and there’s lots of green space for them to roam around in with lots of art installations to explore here too. My daughter’s favourite was seeing the permanent snowman in the freezer.

The gardens feel quite calm with lots of shade and you can even walk around a few trails. There’s a really cosy restaurant here with indoor and outdoor seating with great views of the sea.

The Jetty

If you want you can also head for a swim in the sea off the jetty. Note the jetty is probably one of the only places where we found it difficult to access with a pram (there are steps but we couldn’t find an obvious path to push the pram down) plus there is a one way turnstile meaning if you do this you’ll have to re-enter the museum from the main entrance again instead of through the gardens so it’s best to do this before you leave. Make sure to bring a towel and swimming clothes if you want to do this!

Is it worth visiting Louisiana with kids

In short yes. I didn’t know how this would be as I have this constant fear that my toddler would destroy a priceless piece of art but luckily she was constantly entertained. The hardest part was waiting for the Yayoi Kusama installation because the queue is so crowded but it did pass faster than I expected (we had one small tantrum which I consider a success!) If you know your kid won’t wait, it might be worth skipping this altogether. It’s a shame to miss, but do what’s easiest for you and your family.

The children’s wing is a lot of fun and you can easily dedicate half a day just here, when you add in the garden exhibitions, the cafe with pretty sea views and the jetty where you can swim from you can easily spend a full day here with enough to keep the kids happy throughout the day!

If you're visiting from Malmö read on for some related posts:

• The Best Family-Friendly Things to Do in Malmö with Kids