ARKEN is included on the Discover card, not Hop. Adult entry is €19 (145 DKK) without one, and it is closed on Mondays. The train from Copenhagen is covered.
The Discover card covers entry and the whole journey out. The Hop card covers neither, and that is the distinction this page turns on.
A contemporary art museum built like a beached ship on the coast south of Copenhagen, with a sculpture park and the sea behind it. Allow two hours, plus the journey.
ARKEN was designed as a wreck run aground — long white hull, sloping decks, a spine of a gallery running through the middle of it. It is one of the more committed pieces of architecture in the country, and it is as much the reason to come as the art inside.
Contemporary and modern art, with large temporary exhibitions that get the run of the main gallery. What is on changes substantially through the year, so the programme is worth checking before you commit an afternoon and a train journey.
The grounds run out towards Køge Bay, with sculpture set in the landscape and a beach beyond it. In summer this turns a museum visit into an afternoon out, which is not something the city-centre galleries can offer.
Two things decide whether this trip works: which card you are holding, and what day of the week it is. Confirmed against arken.dk.
Ishøj, about 30 minutes south of Copenhagen by S-train and then a bus. The whole journey is on the Discover card.
All three are included on the same card, so the only cost of adding them is the time. For the full list, see every attraction the Copenhagen Card covers.
Vast installation art in a former welding hall at Refshaleøen, with the space to show work nothing in the city centre could fit.
Carl Jacobsen's collection of ancient sculpture and French painting, around a glass-roofed winter garden beside Tivoli.
Denmark's national art collection, from the old masters through the Danish Golden Age to contemporary work in the glass wing.
Entry is €19 per adult (145 DKK) and the S-train and bus out to Ishøj are covered too. The Discover card includes all of it, along with 80+ more attractions and unlimited public transport across the Capital Region.
Entry is free on the Copenhagen Card Discover, covering the collection, the temporary exhibitions and the sculpture park. The Hop card does not include ARKEN — Ishøj is a day trip, which that card excludes. Adult admission without a card is €19 (145 DKK).
ARKEN closes every Monday, all year. It opens Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 5pm with Thursday running to 9pm, and at weekends from 9am to 5pm — the weekend opening is two hours earlier than the weekday one, which catches people out in both directions.
Nothing needs booking. Show the QR code in the Copenhagen Card app at the desk and walk in. Bus 128 from Ishøj station is covered on the same card, so there is no ticket to buy at either end.
One scan per attraction applies, so this is a single visit per card. Given the journey is around 30 minutes each way, most people build an afternoon around it rather than planning to return.
Show the live QR code in the Copenhagen Card app at the entrance and let staff scan it. Your booking confirmation email is not your card, and a screenshot of the QR code will not scan — it has to be the app itself, which works offline once activated.