A Lovely Day Trip To Malmö from Copenhagen

If you’re visiting Copenhagen for a few days or so, why not add to your trip with a visit to Sweden just across the Øresund Bridge. Here’s everything you need to know to plan a day trip to Malmö from Copenhagen.

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In August, during an unfortunately stormy week, we spent four nights in Copenhagen to celebrate my birthday. Along with the many brilliant things to do in Copenhagen itself, I really wanted to make sure we had time to head just 30 minutes across the impressive Øresund Bridge (that shot to fame in the exceptional thriller series, ‘The Bridge’) and explore the Swedish city of Malmö – it’s not every day that you get to experience two countries (both first-time visits for me) in such a short space of time and distance.

I didn’t necessarily know what to expect from Malmö but that didn’t really matter too much to me; we wanted to visit for the day and spend a few hours exploring. Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden with more of an industrial feel than perhaps Copenhagen and I say that in the sense that I don’t think this is really a ‘touristy’ place to visit – just a normal Swedish city for workers really both here in Malmö and commuters who work in Copenhagen. Lund, around 10-15 minutes further on the train, is a popular and vibrant university town that also makes for a great day trip from Copenhagen.

So, we caught an early morning train and made our way to Malmö to simply wander and experience our first trip to Sweden. Now, I must caveat all of this with the fact that the weather was generally quite atrocious and the city was setting up for the 40th anniversary of the extremely popular Malmö Festival that was due to commence the following day. It therefore felt as though it was the calm before the storm; everywhere was actually eerily quiet or perhaps that was due to the rain! It was therefore quite difficult to actually enjoy wandering around with the two little ones. The weather did however pick up just after we had made the decision to start making our way back to Trianglen Station to get the train back to Copenhagen. We therefore managed a good few hours in Malmö and I will share my experiences and thoughts here to hopefully help others when it comes to planning a day trip to Malmö from Copenhagen.

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VISIT MALMÖ FROM COPENHAGEN

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HOW TO GET TO MALMÖ FROM COPENHAGEN

The easiest and most popular way to travel to Malmö from Copenhagen is by train. From Copenhagen’s Central Station, trains depart every 20 minutes and arrive in malmö around 35 minutes later. We realised that the train passing through the Central Station (København H) made an earlier stop at Nørreport Station which was much closer to our hotel and so, having booked our tickets online via the Omio app, we were simply able to sit back and relax all the way into Sweden. It added a little bit of time onto our journey, perhaps 5 or 10 minutes, but it would have taken us longer to get to the Central Station anyway.

One way train tickets to Malmö Trianglen cost us £25.29 for two adults, one child and an infant. We didn’t book a return ticket as we weren’t entirely sure on when we planned to return. We had a bit of a disaster running to the train coming back to Copenhagen, trying to book tickets whilst running and being forced onto the train by the conductor – as soon as those doors shut, tickets were no longer available online and couldn’t be purchased on the train itself! The conductor was ultimately very friendly and forgiving but advised us it was easier to book tickets through the official website which he had to spell out for us – this website looks much more straight forward however.

A quick little tip is to get off one stop earlier at Malmö Trianglen thanks to the impressive architectural entrance hall.

Thankfully, other than the minor hiccup on our return journey, the journey from Copenhagen to Malmö was really easy. It honestly makes combining two countries into your Copenhagen trip extremely simple.

Another option which I think I would be interested in next time is to take a coach (eg Flixbus) across as you’ll get the best views of Øresund Bridge – it takes a little longer, up to 60 minutes, but it would definitely be worth it.

Make sure you take your passport and travel documents with you as there are routine border checks in place!

THINGS TO DO IN MALMÖ

EBBAS HUS

Welcome to quite possibly the tiniest house in the whole of Malmö. Ebba Olsson and her family moved into this little home in around 1910 and, when the city was being redeveloped in the 1960’s, Ebba refused to sell! That therefore leads to this interesting contrast of a super small cottage in the middle of the city squished between two full size buildings.

The house is now a museum, closed when we visited unfortunately, but inside you can find all of the original furniture, decor and belongings still in situ. Essentially frozen in time offering a glimpse into historic Malmö.

As at the time of writing, February 2026, the museum remains temporarily closed however you’re still able to observe this unique piece of history from outside.

Google Maps

STORTORGET

Stortorget is the main square in the centre of Malmö dating back to 1540, once actually the largest market square in the whole of Northern Europe, some 2500m2. When we visited, there were cranes and all manner of workers setting up for the Malmö festival so I feel that we didn’t really get the full impact of such a beautiful square.

I really enjoyed the architecture on the eastern edge of the square with the gable end of the huge 5-storey Lejonet Pharmacy building being covered in fully restored advertising paintings from around 1900. This was really interesting and so too was the fact that the pharmacy that this building houses is the oldest in Sweden. The old town hall makes up the eastern edge plus on the northwest corner there’s the former palace of Jörgen Kock who later become the Mayor of Malmö.

There are a few restaurants around the perimeter but it’s Lilla Torg where you’d want to be spending time if you’re after something to eat. Stortorget is the sort of square that you will certainly walk through, admire the buildings, and carry on your exploration of Malmö.

LILLA TORG

Although we didn’t spend long in Malmö, we immediately fell in love with Lilla Torg and it became our favourite part of the city. From the slight disappointment of Stortorget with, on the day we visited, cranes and construction fences everywhere, it was as though we had been transported into a completely different city; Lilla Torg, a historic market square, was the Sweden we had expected.

Lilla Torg, or Little Square in comparison to Stortorget being the Big Square, is surrounded by old traditional buildings that are now home to restaurants, bars and shops. I wanted nothing more than to return on a warm sunny day in order to soak up the atmosphere sat in front of one of the restaurants having a beer and some food.

If there’s one place that you cannot miss on your trip to Malmö from Copenhagen, it’s this beautiful little square.

MALMÖ CASTLE

Within the expansive green parks of Kungsparken and Slottsparken, is the 16th century Malmö Castle. Once you pass the deep moats and make your way inside, you’ll find a museum, restaurant and an aquarium – probably not exactly what you’d imagine finding in such a history castle.

For those with a few hours spare, particular those with children, Malmö castle makes for a great destination whereby you can learn about natural history, contemplate artwork, observe marine life and reptiles before grabbing a bite to eat. Admission for adults costs 40SEK with those up to the age of 19, free of charge.

FIKA

With all of that exploring, you’ll need a little rest and so where better to do that than Sweden. The Swedes have a daily tradition, fika, whereby things slow down, things are paused with a coffee and a sweet treat. All too often back home, I’ll rush my coffee down whilst multitasking work emails and trying to get on top of the morning chores. That’s not fika.

Here in Malmö, you’ll need to find a café or coffee shop, take a seat, grab a cinnamon roll and flat white and relax, recharge and savour the moment. There are many great cafes and coffee shops in Malmö and some that come highly recommended are Lilla Kafferosteriet, Beans & Tales Café, Nostra Café and Nordic Brew Lab.

DISGUSTING FOOD MUSEUM

What else could you want to do in Malmö? If you’re interested, there’s a Disgusting Food Museum showcasing 80 of the world’s most disgusting foods… Now, I love food, we all probably love food, but there’s many foods that I would just rather stay well away from (I’m thinking about the durian fruit that I could happily never smell again).

At the Disgusting Food Museum, once you’ve seen enough of the exhibits, you’ll head to the tasting bar where, yep, you can smell and try some of the foods that you’ve just learnt why you need to stay clear. There are around 18 delicacies to taste as well as a variety of super hot sauces – all of which are very likely to make you vomit; no wonder they have a lifetime vomit counter. Not for me but some really will enjoy this museum!

Website

TURNING TORSO

To the north of Malmö is the infamous, Turning Torso, a twisted residential skyscraper that can be seen from Copenhagen on a clear day. Whilst the most interesting views are of the skyscraper itself, it is regularly stated online that you can access public viewing areas by pre-booking through I couldn’t find anything official about this unfortunately. So, for now at least, you will have to enjoy observing this architectural marvel from the ground!

QUICK TIPS

As I mentioned earlier, don’t forget your passport and travel documents – you’re travelling into a different country and you could be turned around if there are border checks in place on your particular day of travel. We had ours with us but didn’t experience any checks whatsoever.

We didn’t have any cash with us whatsoever but the currency in Sweden is the Swedish Krona rather than the Danish Krona so plan ahead if you intend to use cash. However, most places are completely cashless and using your card is no issue whatsoever. We didn’t actually have any cash when visiting Copenhagen either and experience no problems – of course, if we needed any, we would have just visited an ATM.

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I hope you enjoyed this post and it will help you plan your own trip to Malmö from Copenhagen. Whilst we were very unlucky with the weather, I would still say that one of the very best things to do in Copenhagen itself is to take time to travel across to Malmö and experience a different country at least for a day.

PHOTOS OF MALMÖ

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