Being a natural born explorer in the sense I like to visit as much as possible from I place I go to, in order to consolidate and diversify my knowledge, Oslo was no exception in the way I have approached our vacation. It is true that the visit from the capital city of Norway was “provoked” mainly by the wish to run the city marathon from September 2024, the biggest city running event from whole Norway, as it is advertised, but we knew from the very beginning that we will have many more things to explore in Oslo. The title is a bit more flamboyant than it should be, hence little misleading, but not by far. As I am about to share with you some key things you need to do there & places you need to visit.
1. Oslo city by foot!
It is mandatory, in a place like this, to explore as much possible of it by walking and enjoying. This way you can both take the whole goodness of the surroundings, its history, and for sure discover new specific places you would want to go to, and I will go into detail a bit later. Truth being said, I’ve had the opportunity to do an extra exploration via my very steady marathon thru the streets of Oslo, but that is another story. The walks really helped us understanding and enhancing our knowledge about the city.
2. Akershus Fortress
This place is wonderful, and you can find many more details here. The purpose is not to tell details about it, because you find a lot on the internet. But the key for us was exploring the town by foot and coming across this medieval place free to visit, and also full of history. We didn’t know anything about it prior, so we discover it by accident. Of course, now we are up to date with all the information, but without our long trademark walks most likely we would have failed to discover and visit it!
3. Oslo Opera House
I think this really is the landmark of Oslo, and we know we had to visit it. Since the capital city of Norway was not that big, and since we have accommodated in the center, it was only a 600 meter walk. We never entered inside, but rather took advantage of it’s shape, with an unique roof, which allows you to climb it from the bottom. Shaped like an iceberg, by the same architectural company that also built the new Library of Alexandria, the Opera House has also an additional “flavor”: tens, maybe hundreds of seagulls, that not only are coming very close, but they do like to stay and capture some wonderful pictures of them with the surroundings that can be spotted from the roof.
4. Munch Museum
Who didn’t heard about “The scream”, Edvard Munch’s famous painting? Maybe there are many who didn’t, though. Frankly speaking, I have heard, but I didn’t remember the painter is from Norway, and let alone knew he has a huge museum quite freshly built in Oslo! But climbing the Opera House, I have discovered and explore more about this, and in the end we ended up entering and checking out the full facility, with all the floors dedicated to Munch’s work. 100% you should go there and see it!
5. The Natural History Museum
Like the Opera House, this was on the list before going to Oslo, and not discovered by accident. The Natural History Museum is the biggest in Norway, and it is very rich in artefacts, dinosaur history, human history, universe history, and many, many more. On top of this the surrounding garden and the buildings themselves offer a huge slice of Norwegian culture both for architecture, and for nature itself, reinforcing the idea that, indeed, Oslo is a very, very green city!
6. KOK floating sauna
This was our main attraction, by far. I know Fins invented saunas, but Norwegians like them as well very much. After our experience with the isolated sauna from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, we decided to give a shot also to KOK floating sauna from Oslo. You are basically tacking a boat with a skipper and a sauna. You can dive in the water – which I’ve did – and fully enjoy the experience. Be careful, there are no showers and toilets on the floating thing, but you can take a shower at the departure, I guess. We preferred a private experience, but you can also share it with up to 10 people, I think. In any case, it is something you want to do in Oslo, and I highly recommend it!
7. Electrical boat cruise with brunch into the Oslo fjord
Another written in stone activity was a brunch at the board of an electrical silent ship which took us in the surroundings of Oslo, as close as the entrance in the fjord. We had a great guide, Suzie, with Brim Explorer. It is a link directly to their side, but our booking was made thru Get your Guide. The food is really good, the drinks as well, and, most important, you learn a lot of interesting things about Oslo’s history and about the small islands present near the city shores, and not only this – you can get ideas of new places to see once you get off board.
8. Oslo’s city parks
I already have mentioned a huge spread of green where the Natural History Museum is, but Oslo has many more other – and some bigger! – green places. For example, Vigeland Park is by far the most famous and biggest. And on top of the huge green surroundings, it hosts also more than 200 sculptures which enriches very well the perception about Norwegian heritage. Unfortunately, our time there was very limited, because of the rain, but if you can “budget” more time for it, you should 100% put it on your priority list. We did spent much more time in the park that surrounds the royal palace. It is smaller, but for sure deserves also your core attention.
9. Oslo Town Hall
Of course, very famous for being the place were Nobel prize is handed, the building is shaped both out of simplicity and greatness. Hard to explain the feeling, even if it was under renovation, and this faded away some of its natural shines. In any case, our bad luck was that we couldn’t enter to visit it from the insight, because we didn’t know the procedure: it is open, for free, each day until 16:00, but it might be also closed if there are some special events in a certain day. Take a look on the calendar, and don’t make the same mistake as we did, and missed it. 🙂
10. The Oslo Tree
The Oslo Tree is a very spectacular work of art that replicates a real tree, but gives it enhanced qualities. As mentioned before, we have discovered this work of art by wandering on the beautiful city streets of the Norwegian capital. By reading this, you will know it from the beginning and the good thing is that you can see it at every time. It even has a web page, which really was a surprise! It is something unique from all my traveling – never seen something like this, so for sure it worth you going to have a flavor of it.
With these being said, I think – even that was not the purpose – we can limit to these 10 activities. There might be more, but in a four night stay round, and a marathon squeezed here – by the way you should also try the running event! – it should be more than enough. To wrap up this purely informational article, I would like to point out where we accommodated and from where we grab a very good snack, every time needed.
Some tips about route & stay
Hotel Bondenheimen is situated in the city center, it was reserved via booking.com, and for such a city and such a location & breakfast included, to pay only slightly more than 150 EUR / night it really is a great deal. The conditions were 10 out of 10 and also the food from the breakfast great. We don’t have any recommendation for restaurants, because we weren’t to any. We tried to spend most of our time exploring and resting, so then the sausages and muffins from either Narvesen or 7-Eleven. For the airport, Gardermoen, you should not worry a bit, as the train shuttle leaves every 10 minutes from the train station and the other way around, of course, 50 kilometers in 22 minutes, not bad.
This is my guide. More information are always available online. The purpose is to guide you where to pick this up from, and what to seek. Enjoy Oslo!