One Day in Oslo, Norway: A Quick-Hitting Oslo Itinerary
If you’re planning to spend one day in Oslo, Norway, then you’ve come to the right place! If you’ve only got 24 hours or so to visit it, it’s a city well worth getting a taste of during such a short trip. Let me help you make the most of your brief time here!
Oslo, Norway, will always hold a special place in my heart. That’s because it’s the first city that I lived in outside of Canada for a prolonged period of time.
I spent the second semester of my third year of university at the University of Oslo, an experience which had an immense impact on my life. It’s where I started this very blog in 2011, though my early posts were long ago put into draft mode since they were more or less a public journal, and not necessarily a guide for readers to explore.
I don’t know what it is, but as of late, I keep having people reach out to me to ask about what to do in Oslo. They’ll say that they’ve got 24 hours in Oslo on a layover, or one day in Oslo before heading towards other places in this corner of Europe, like Copenhagen, Brussels or London.
I was continuing to happily give advice to readers, and then it just all clicked that it was time to write a post. For one, it’d be good to point readers and followers to it should they ask again, but perhaps more importantly, I want to write this article and take a walk down memory lane.
I can remember being in Oslo like it was yesterday. I can remember writing those first articles and beginning to develop an eye for stories, and the excitement I felt around that. How blessed am I that I’m just as excited to write this post hundreds of articles later?
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A Little Bit About Oslo’s History
Oslo is a city teeming with an incredibly lengthy history, which is part of what makes it so well-worth visiting.
It’s contested, but it seems that it has been a bustling city since before AD 1000. During the Viking Age, it was part of the region of Viken, which was a Danish province at the time. After many years of dispute between the power of Danish and Norwegian monarchs, Norway officially reigned supreme on the claim to their land in 1241, although still under Danish rule.
For hundreds of years, under the reigns of various kings, the influence of traders from countries across Europe, and the Great Fire of 1624, Oslo has seen many changes and challenges over its thousand years of existence. As the city flourished in the 1800s, academia, arts, and commerce became staples in the city’s culture. And in 1814, when Oslo became the capital of an independent Norway, this moment in time saw the building of many more prominent historical structures, which are still present in the city today.
In the modern age, Oslo has become a city known for its blending of urban and natural environments, its role in awarding the annual Nobel Peace Prize and as a city seamlessly blending the old world history with modern innovation. This makes it a dynamic place to visit, if only for a day!
Where to Stay on a Quick Trip to Oslo
If you’re planning on making the most of a quick visit to Oslo, then it’s important to base yourself in a central place. Your best bet is to stay in Sentrum, which translates literally to “centre”. This is one of the oldest parts of Oslo, and remains the centre of its main attractions and history today.
Sentrum is the best place to access central sights, like the Royal Palace and Tjuvholmen island. It’s also the area surrounding Oslo's main street, Karl Johan street, the Akershus fortress overlooking the harbour and the great Oslo fjord. All that to say, central is definitely your best bet on this quick trip.
Despite Norway being a considerably pricy place to travel, accommodations in Oslo offer a good variety of options for every budget. Hotel Verdandi Oslo is a great budget-friendly option in Sentrum. If you’re looking to stretch your budget a little further, Hotel Christiania Teater is an excellent mid-range hotel, and Hotel Continental is a fantastic luxury option.
Of course, you can feel free to use the map below to help you choose the best place to stay during your next trip to Oslo, too. There are so many excellent places to stay to choose from.
What Should You See if You’ve Got 24 Hours in Oslo?
My feeling is that this article is going to be useful whether you’ve got 24 hours or 24 days, but I just know from speaking to people that a lot of travellers aren’t spending too much time in Norway’s capital because it’s a touch pricey.
I spent a good six months there, which is indeed longer than 24 hours, but I do want to respect what information people are looking for, so I’m going to move forward with a jam-packed, albeit brief, Oslo itinerary that should help you make the most of your time there.
I’m just going to let you know, full-stop, that I’ve got an ear-to-ear smile right now, so I hope the history I have with the city, and the passion I have for people to give this city a chance shines through.
THE OSLO PASS
The Oslo Pass offers a perfect solution for anyone looking to see all that Oslo has to offer, however limited their time. The pass provides free admission to as many as 30 major museums and attractions, from art galleries to museums for the entire family, including several of those listed below.
It also gives access to the public transport system, allowing you to hop on any tram, subway, bus, or ferry ride without needing to purchase another ticket or fare. You'll also get discounts on activities, restaurants, and other services, including sightseeing tours, concerts, and dining.
You can get 24, 48, and 72-hour versions of the pass, with corresponding child, adult, and senior prices. You can get yours online or pick one up as you’re walking through the city. All in all, the Oslo Pass offers good value and saves you the time and trouble of buying separate tickets for each attraction.
Visit Vigeland Park
When I lived there, we mostly just said we were heading down to “Vigeland Park,” but technically, you’d be visiting the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Frogner Park.
No matter how long you’ve got in Oslo, you need to make a stop here, and that’s largely because I can assure you that you’ve never seen anything else like it. Gustav Vigeland, arguably Norway’s best-known sculptor, has over 200 bronze statues throughout the park. The Monolith (monolitten) is probably the most famous statue, and you can’t miss it since it’s an eye-catching structure cast of a single piece of stone and sitting at the highest point of the park.
I used to love to just walk around and look at the different sculptures, some of which border on the fantastically absurd (which, as you might have gathered, is just my style). I’ve always been a fan of “The Angry Boy” (Sinnataggen) sculpture in particular, but I think the true joy of Vigeland Park is walking around and finding the sculpture that resonates best with you.
When I was studying at the University of Oslo, we used to go to REMA 1000 (the main supermarket chain), and buy portable barbecues, some beers, and a few packs of polse (Norwegian hot dogs) and we’d just hang out in Frogner Park/Vigeland Park. If you do the same, don’t forget to buy some crispy onions as well, they’re delicious to have on the hot dogs. Oslo is very expensive, and amongst the Oslo street food, the hot dogs are one of the more affordable snacks.
Go Back in Time at the Viking Ship Museum (VIKINGTIDSMUSEET)
The Oseberg Ship. Photo Credit: Peulle . Used under Creative Commons License
This museum on the Bygdøy peninsula houses three of the world’s best-preserved Viking ships. These ships are verified to have ridden the waves but were retired and used in burial rites, likely for a wealthy individual. Being buried and protected from the elements, they ended up being incredibly well preserved.
If you’re going to come all the way to Oslo, and even if you’ve just got 1 day in Oslo, you ought to make it out here. Again, as with Vigeland Park, it’s something in Oslo that you’re not going to find elsewhere, so, to me, that means you need to prioritize it during your visit.
If you’ve got time to spare, they’ve usually got some pretty neat films playing that enable you to imagine what those now dormant Viking ships would have been like in action.
It just occurred to me that the show Vikings has likely made this place even more popular than it was when I was there, but for me, it was a fairly relaxed and tranquil museum that allowed you to take it all in at your own pace. If you do visit, let me know if that’s changed!
Note: At the time this article was updated, a new Viking Museum was under construction with a move of the current museum planned for the not to distant future. We’ll update you once we have more information.
Walk Atop the Oslo Opera House
The Oslo Opera House is perhaps the most recognizable building in the city nowadays. It is the home of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet.
In my opinion, the coolest part about the structure is that it’s designed architecturally so that the roof slopes down to the ground floor beside the entrance, so you can walk along the roof. The views from the top of the Oslo Opera House offer some of the best panoramic views of the Oslo Fjord, making this a stop that you need to prioritize if you’ve only got one day in Oslo.
I also love the story behind the Oslo Opera House. After a national debate, they held a design competition, and a Norwegian architectural firm won, then proceeded to complete the building ahead of schedule and under budget. How’s that for some classic Scandinavian efficiency?
It’s one of those buildings that some Oslo residents love and others not as much, but I’m a big fan.
Take a Walking Tour of Central Oslo
Oslo is an incredibly compact city, and you can set eyes on a lot of the sights rather easily. I’m going to go forth and let you know what you’re going to want to include on your makeshift walking tour, but if you had more than 1 day in Oslo, I would probably recommend just getting off at either Nationaltheatret Stasjon or Oslo Sentralstasjon and going for a wander.
Here’s what I’d recommend that you do to get a feel for the city on your own Oslo walking tour.
Get off at Oslo Central Station (Sentralstasjon), and walk out the main entrance. Take a moment to appreciate the views around you, but note that if it’s anything like when I was there, you may come across a few people around who have substance abuse issues or individuals who are currently on the streets without permanent housing.
Head west and walk up Karl Johans Gate. You’ll be walking towards Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament, but Karl Johans Gate is often seasonally decorated and filled with shops that are worth popping into. If it is like it was when I lived there, it’s a very pedestrian-friendly boulevard.
You’re going to arrive at a central park. Check out the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), then walk a little further west to the National Theatre (Nationaltheatret). Neither building is going to overwhelm you, but they’re certainly gorgeous.
On the hill just a little further west, you’ll see the Royal Palace of Oslo (Slottet), the official residence of the current Norwegian monarch. Photographers are likely going to want to stop here, as the yellow of the building tends to turn out quite nicely in photographs, whether it’s a sunny or cloudy day.
From here, you should walk south towards Oslo City Hall (Rådhuset). When I first arrived, I couldn’t understand how this red-bricked structure fit into the fold with the rest of the city, but after some time, I came around to it.
Right beside Oslo City Hall is the Nobel Peace Center (Nobels Fredssenter) and the National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet). If you’ve got the time, both of these sites are worth a visit.
Just south of the Nobel Center is where you’ll find the area of Aker Brygge, and it’s a good way to finish your little tour and look at some of the restaurants and shopping that are available right beside the Oslo Fjord.
If you want to keep going, the Akershus Fortress is about a 15-minute walk away. Originally built to protect the city from external threats, the castle currently houses the Norwegian Military Museum and the Norwegian Resistance Museum.
IF YOU’VE GOT TIME, POP INTO NORSK FOLKEMUSEUM OR THE FRAM MUSEUM
The Fram Museum. Photo Credit: Tore Storm Halvorsen . Used under Creative Commons License
As it stands, this is already a bit of an ambitious itinerary in terms of all that we’ve packed into trying to see Oslo in a day, but if you’re on a roll and you’ve got a little time to spare, then I'd definitely add these two gems to your list.
The Norsk Folkemuseum is an Open-Air Museum offering visitors an immersive look into the history of Norway. The museum's grounds allow visitors to visit 160 buildings containing exhibits that reflect the diverse regions and social classes of Norway across many generations. You'll also have the opportunity to observe or even participate in traditional occupations, crafts and activities.
Among the buildings, the Gol Stave Church dates back to the year 1200, and its architecture is one of the museum's main attractions. The museum also houses a permanent indoor exhibition featuring folk art, costumes, and toys, complemented by various temporary exhibitions. If you want to learn more about Norwegian culture while you're in Oslo for the day, you definitely want to stop here.
The Fram Museum tells the story of Norwegian polar exploration. The highlight is that the museum has a whole building dedicated to the Gjøa, the first vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. It had a crew of six led by the world-famous Roald Amundsen.
This museum wasn’t necessarily the talk of the town when I lived there, but in 2017 the ship was made fully accessible to visitors, and that seems to have had a big impact on how the museum is regarded by tourists. It looks nicely renovated and ready for your visit.
What’s the Best Time to Visit Oslo, Norway?
This was the nation where I picked up the phrase, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing,” so I’m not sure there is really any time that you’d want to avoid. It largely just depends on what you’d like to do.
Winter is a great opportunity for folks who love cross-country skiing, or skiing in general, simply because you can literally take the metro a short distance to do either. I did that multiple times, and it wasn’t uncommon to see the metro packed with people going cross-country skiing right after work. You should note, however, that you’re going to be dealing with very short days.
Given how wonderful and long the days are in the summer, I would say that you should visit Oslo in the summertime if you can, but if you can’t, it’s not a big deal. Autumn and spring are also perfectly pleasant, but summer has to take the cake because of the long, lovely days.
The Day Oslo Offers You Will Be One to Remember
I said it before, but something to remember about seeing a city like Oslo in a short time span is that two things make it a great city to visit with limited time. Firstly, it’s a pretty compact city, and you can easily visit most of the most famous sites. Secondly, the public transportation system here is quite good, so you won’t need a car - getting around is not going to be a big problem.
Once your visit is complete, you can head to Oslo Central Station and, from there, some amazing trips across Norway, including cool places like Bergen and Lillehammer, and with a few transfers, you can make your way further into Scandinavia, including Copenhagen and Stockholm.
I honestly struggle to think of other capital cities that would be better suited to a brief 24-hour journey. Obviously, as someone who spent a long time there, I firmly believe that, if you can, you should spend much longer than a day in Oslo. However, I also believe that people need to know that you can accomplish a whole hell of a lot with a limited time in Oslo.
I had a lot of fun walking down memory lane on this one, and I can only hope that my brief visit to the past will make your visit in the future all that it can be.