How To Spend 60 Hours In Oslo (Or A Long Weekend)

Me and my friend have an annual tradition of going on a European city break together. This year we picked a few places with reasonably priced flights on the weekend we’d chosen. Then we picked from a hat. This is how we ended up going to Oslo. I love Scandivania anyway so knew Norway would be a good pick. Our flights were less than £100 each with British Airways, and our hotel was less than £150 each for two nights.

So beforehand our expenses were pretty limited. But I did worry about money when we got there as people had scared me about how expensive the city is. Although it was pricey, we didn’t find it unbareable, but I’ll do a whole other post about doing Oslo on a budget. This post is about how to spend 60 hours/ 2.5 days in the city, and what to do.

Day 1- Flights and transport

We opted for a pretty early flight on Friday morning which got us into Oslo Airport by 10.45am. I love early flights as you can make the most of the day ahead of you. The trains were really easy to navigate into the city and got us until the main station just before midday.

The first thing we did when we arrived in the Central Station was to popm by the Visitor Centre and grab our 48 hour Oslo passes. They are great value at about £55 and give you access to masses of attractions for free, alongside all your tram and bus travel.

The next stop was a quick 15 min walk to our hotel to drop our bags. Thankfully we were able to check in early which always makes a big difference as you can sit down and relax before heading back out.

Day 1- Afternoon activities

After having a snack lunch in our hotel that we’d brought with us in a bid to save money, our first stop was Popsenteret which is a pop music museum. We were the only ones in the whole museum and we had so much fun. We travelled through the eras of different music and listened to plenty of Norweigan music and influential music that made it. There was a chance to record your own song, master it and create your own front cover which was lots of fun. Alongside drums, guitars, keyboards and bass guitars to play around with. It confirmed the fact that I’m not good with musicial instruments.

Next up we jumped onto a tram to head down to Anker Bridge where the Noble Peace Centre is. Downstairs there’s a changing exhibition which was all about climate change when we were there. It was really interesting and really drove home how much our world can change over our lifetimes. Upstairs was an exhibition on the current year’s Nobel Peace Prize which was both saddening but uplifting to read about. There’s areas to celebrate all the past winners, and how the prize came to be. I found the whole exhibition to be fascinating and I bet it would spectacular to presented on 10th December each year.

As we were pretty knackered after a long day we walked around the piers and then headed for an early dinner. We have a tradition of going to the Hard Rock Cafe so we honoured this on our first night.

Day 2- A morning of museums

After a great sleep we were raring to go on Saturday morning so took a bus over to another part of the city to head to some museums and exhibitions. We started with the Fram museum which was all about polar exploration. The museum itself was very interesting with a lot to see, and you could go aboard a boat to see what life would have been like.

Next up was the Viking Ship Museum which had two huge Viking boats displayed which had been dug up in Norway. There wasn’t quite as much to see in this museum but it was still fascinating. Right next door is the Norsk Folkemuseum aka a museum about the cultural histoey of Norway. We didn’t see many of the indoor exhibitions as this place is huge and the queues inside were crazy as it was raining. So we explored the outdoor areas and saw a lot of replicas of what housing and villages would have been like in the past.

We decided to have a quick afternoon break and due to the rain and lack of indoor seating we headed back to our hotel for an hour rest.

Day 2- An afternoon of exploration

Next up we jumped on a tram back down to Anker Bridge to walk along to the Astrup Fearnly Museum. The museum focused on modern and cotemporary art. There was a lot of Damian Hirst art on show which was pretty interesting. Now I’m not normally a huge art fan, but with the Oslo Pass it was included so I thought why not. Plus my friend is a massive art lover. The exhibitions were really interesting, but some of the artwork was damn right odd.

We took a slow walk back along the water edge to get a tram up to Ekebergparken which is one of Oslo’s sculpture Park. The park itself is huge and we didn’t even make it around a quarter of it. This was mainly because it was quite steep and due to rain was a little muddy. We were a bit too exhausted for that! One of the best things about this park – other than the fact that it’s free – are the amazing views over the city.

To end our evening we headed for dinner in a pizzeria close to our hotel. So once we had eaten we could stumble back and crash ahead of our final part day in the city.

Day 3- A morning out at sea

We kicked off our final morning on a Fjord Sightseeing Boat tour. Our boat was rammed full of people. But because we got there early we got lovely views as we road the seas. Although one thing I have to say is even though it was just the start of September it was freezing out on the Fjords. Our two hour boat ride took us around loads of the islands and fjords and it was fascinating to see. I bet in the summer time when people are back at their summer houses it would be great to see.

After warming up we headed over to Frogner Park which is another sculpture park in the city. And in my opinion even more stunning. The whole place is covered in sculptures of people and families and we had such a great time walking around. We took our lunch to eat in the park which made for a nice backdrop.

Due to the weather we decided to chill in the hotel lounge before taking an early trip to the airport. But we had planned to visit the botanical gardens, but we were too cold to be outside any more.

Have you ever been to Oslo?

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