LEGO

A WEEKEND in the home of Lego? Be there and be square, says Lifestyle Editor Catherine Bennion-Pedley.

As the jail bars slam shut and the Lego robber dramatically bows his head, the credits roll on my six-year-old daughter’s first-ever stop-motion movie.

It may not win an Oscar anytime soon, but there will surely be a sequel. Probably in about 10 minutes’ time.

We’re in the home of Lego – Billund in Denmark – visiting Lego House, which is home to 25 million bricks and a whole heap of fun.

From sitting in a huge pit of Duplo in the shadow of a giant rainbow-coloured waterfall with my son Raffy, four, to being towered over by a Lego Technic dinosaur and marvelling at the 15m-tall tree made of more than 6 million bricks, we’re amazed time and time again by the power of a toy invented more 70+ years ago.

Plus, it’s seriously hands-on and the staff are super-passionate and helpful. There are four zones – our favourite is Yellow.

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Here, we design sea creatures, before releasing scanned versions to splash about in the digital aquarium.

Next, we build characters to reflect our emotions for the dance stage. Poppy and Raffy’s eyes pop as their designs come to life.

Chef’s Table

My husband Andy and I watch the same jaw-dropping reaction from the kids at Lego House’s eatery Mini Chef, where bricks are code for menu items.

We pop our chosen combo into the computer at our table and wait for the ”mini chefs” to cook up a storm.

Once ready, our Lego lunch boxes fly down a chute and characterful robot waiters Roberta and Robert hand them over.

The lemon-and-herb-marinated salmon is the winning dish, although the special-edition chef figure and bag of bonus bricks are the real wins for the children.

Lunch costs £16 for kids, £27 for adults (Legohouse.com).

Of course, we’re not going to fly 500 miles without visiting the original Legoland up the road, too.

It feels quainter and more traditional than its Windsor counterpart back home, but the queues are shorter and there’s so much Lego to play with that a fellow Brit visitor whispers in disbelief: “This stuff would all get nicked back home!”

Driving School

Watching Poppy switch into irate driver mode, gesticulating frantically at the baffled Scandinavian kids as she drives the wrong way around a roundabout, crashes into the police car and makes a sharp U-turn into the car wash at Traffic School is well worth the extra £13 fee.

Even better, it’s a half-hour experience with a photo driving licence lanyard presented at the end – even for those who clearly shouldn’t be allowed on the road!

We kip at the Legoland Hotel, also filled with bricks aplenty, so the kids can escape the dinner table at Panorama restaurant for more Lego play once they’ve had their fill of brick-shaped chips and unlimited DIY ice-cream sundaes from the children’s buffet, £21.

We find the beef carpaccio and rich bouillabaisse hits the spot nicely, though it is pricey at £35 for two courses.

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Our final day at Legoland whizzes by riding the kids’ fave rollercoaster, the Flying Eagle, numerous times and watching Andy doing somersaults at 14m high on Apocalypseburg Sky Battle.

As weekends go, this is pretty fantastic plastic.

We got a first look at the new Lego Masters Academy in Denmark, and with near-constant messages about the dangers of kids in the online world, it gave us a whole new outlook on parenting

At a time where parents are inundated with warnings about the dangers to our kids of the online world and the reduction in free and imaginative play, raising happy and healthy kids can feel daunting. But after a visit to the new Lego Masters Academy at Denmark’s Lego House, I was given a much-needed reminder that all is not lost – and it has genuinely changed how I interact and spend time with my two primary school-aged kids.

We were already a Lego family, with a smattering of neurodivergency all around, but it’s never really been something we’ve enjoyed together, more a solitary pursuit. I’ve learnt there’s a big difference between just whacking up a set by following instructions, and actually sitting down and chatting about how to build the “best castle drawbridge”, or “a fruit bowl with a flat bottom”, to name some recent genuine examples.

There are now several surfaces around our home with various Lego creations on them, and every one of them is an opportunity (which we can’t and don’t always take, of course) to just be together. With the company recently reporting record-high sales figures, I would assume I’m not the only parent with the same idea….

What is the Lego House?

Not to be mistaken with the nearby LegoLAND® Billund Resort, Lego House is officially the Home of the Brick. It’s part interactive museum, part all-you-can-build Lego building buffet, and overall an incredible place to take kids (and adults).

The newly-opened Lego Masters Academy

If you haven’t seen the reality TV show Lego Masters on Channel 4, check it out. It started in the UK in 2017 and has since exploded in popularity, with versions now running in Australia, France, Japan, the United States, Germany, Norway and South Korea, and more.

Teams compete to build the best Lego project, as per the brief, until there’s only one winning team left.

The new Lego Masters Academy at Lego House essentially takes some of the incredible skills you see on the TV show, and breaks them up into teachable segments so even the most basic Lego builder can feel confident veering away from the step-by-step instruction booklets and creating something from their imagination.

What

If you’re not a Lego superfan, you may not know that certain building techniques have names (the Lowell sphere, for example, which is explained in the Level 3 session), but they do.

The SNOT technique is another one, which means Studs Not On Top, and allows the creator to build outwards, on-the-round, and sideways, rather than just stacking high.

What do you do at Lego Masters Academy?

Think classroom learning, but intensely fun. You (and your friends/family), are seated at tables facing a (human) Lego teacher, with a large screen used for instructions above them. The room itself is a thing of beauty, with almost floor-to-ceiling pick-a-brick shelves full of almost every type and colour of brick imaginable.

Both of our ‘classes’ included a mix of guided instructions and free building to a theme – for example, “give your character something to shade them”, and “your figure needs to climb high, build something for them to stand on”.

There are four different levels, focusing on creativity, storytelling, technical building, and teamwork. As of today, Levels 1 and 3 are available to book, Levels 2 and 4 will be coming in 2026.

Level 1 – Family Fun – described as a ‘playful introduction to Lego creativity’. Great for families and casual builders.

Level 2 – Build Me Up – a way to improve on basic building skills and learn how to take things to ‘the next level’.

Level 3 – aROUND the bricks we go – all about refining and improving some of the basic skills (learning the Lowell Sphere and SNOT, for example).

Level 4 – Mastery – perfect for ‘aspiring designers and Lego Masters’ who want to push their skills to the limit.

As well as walking away with some new Lego engineering skills, you’re also able to take home what you’ve built. You might also want to bear this in mind when choosing what pieces you pick to use during the free-build elements of the classes (but don’t let that distract you from the fun of the lesson, the Lego House Store is well stocked with individual blocks.)

Where to eat in Lego House

It’s very easy to take a packed lunch into Lego House and pop outside to eat, but the MINI CHEF restaurant is well worth a visit but we were advised to book our table ahead of our visit.

Diners choose their foods using coloured Lego bricks – red for protein, green for salads/vegetable, blue for energy/carbohydrates – with different shapes identifying different dishes, and the prices are set per meal. It’s a small but varied menu, and adults get to choose from an extra list of dishes (using a special black brick!) and kids get a special surprise if they attach a yellow brick.

The food is surprisingly delicious (our dishes included Scandinavian salmon, veggie meatballs and Danish chicken thigh) and without wanting to ruin any surprises – delivered in an appropriately themed-box via two very special Lego robots.

• FYI – MINI CHEF will be temporarily closed for renovations from 27 October 2025 to March 2026.
• Prices as of September 2025 – 229DKK adults, 135DKK kids

There’s also the BRICKACCINO cafe serving fresh snacks, desserts, sandwiches and hot and cold drinks.

How to get to Lego House from the UK

You can fly directly to Billund, Denmark, from the UK’s London airports, but will need to transfer if flying from elsewhere.

Alternatively, there are regular flights to Copenhagen, and then it’s a very beautiful and comfortable two-hour train from the city’s main train station, København H, followed by a 40-minute bus ride.

We did this and aside from adding a few hours to the travel time, the trains and buses were so easy to navigate via the DSB app, that it was part of the adventure, rather than an added stress.

What are the best bits of Lego House?

The Experience zones are split into four sections – Red, Yellow, Green and Blue Zones, and each Zone has a huge number of interactive stations where you can build to your heart’s content.

The Lego sea animal aquarium was a big hit for our family, where we got to see our Lego fishy creations swim off into a huge animated aquarium. There’s also a Lego minifigure mood changer, where we saw our built characters come to life and dance on a digital stage.

There’s heavy emphasis on the ‘experience’ elements of the House, it isn’t just a shrine to incredible creations behind glass – but there are plenty of these in the Masterpiece Gallery if you want to see what some of the biggest names in AFOL (Adult Fans of Lego) have created. Prepared to be wow-ed.

The History Collection explores the history of Lego, and includes hundreds of the company’s most popular and famous sets, as well as explanations about how this simple studded brick became so iconic.

What shou

Of course it wouldn’t be a Lego experience without a Lego store. But this one is unique. Here, you can buy sets that are exclusive to the House, such as the famous Wooden Duck, which was one of the first Lego toys made, and dates back to the 1930s.

There’s also the Lego House Architecture set, true to scale and complete with the iconic coloured roof.

Tip – the store is busiest as it nears closing time (the Experience zones close at 4pm, and the House and store close at 5pm). So, if you’re organised and know what you want, consider heading there earlier in the day so you don’t panic buy or miss out. That said, it wasn’t too busy for us and we had plenty of time to create our exclusive Lego House minifigures as well as pick up the exclusive set, and a pack-a-brick box (or four).

How much does it cost to visit Lego House and what time is it open?

• Entry to LEGO House : £32
• Masters Academy session: From £23 per/person per session

Standard opening hours: