Four Of The Best Free Things To Do In Oslo

Last month I headed for a long weekend in Oslo. I had a wonderful weekend exploring the city and seeing what Norway has to offer. Before I went a few of my friends had worried me with comments about how expensive the city was. I’m not going to talk much about spending and money in the city, but I did a whole post on it so you can read it here.

So knowing it was likely to be expensive, I planned our trip around some free things I had discovered. We bought a Citypass for 48 hours which covered all our main attractions. And then we did the free things on our final day before heading to the airport. Whether you’re trying to save money or not here are four of my favourite free things to do in Oslo city.

Frogner sculpture park

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll have seen loads of photos of this place already. But it’s one of Olso’s sculpture parks which is totally free to enter and explore. Firstly the actual park itself is huge and beautiful so I’d highly recommend taking your lunch there. Or if it’s warm a proper picnic would be amazing. Lining a large walkway are loads of stone sculptures all depicting people and their relationships. You have parents and their children, grandparents, brothers and sisters and the sculptures are lovely.

As you walk towards the end of the walkway there are some steps up to the main sculpture. Again featuring loads of people and family groups. We had such a great time exploring the park and looking at the sculptures that you can easily spend a few hours here.

See the changing of the guard

Just like in London you can go and see the changing of the guard in Oslo. At 1.30 pm every single day (regardless of the weather) you can watch the royal event which takes about 40 minutes. To watch the ceremony just head up Karl Johans Gate towards the Royal Palace. If it’s summer season or the weekend I’d suggest getting there a bit early as it can get quite busy but it’s worth heading out to see.

The King’s Guard is a military group who are responsible for the safety of the Royal Family and are on control 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And have been since 1888.

If it is the summertime mounted police officers and a Norweigan military band lead the guards through the streets of the city starting at Akershus Fortress at 1.10 pm. So remember to add extra time on to see this if you can. I think we were just out of season when we went there as this didn’t happen.

Explore Ekebergparken and marvel at the views over Oslo

Ekebergparken is another of Oslo’s sculpture parks, but this one is set over a larger space with sculptures placed in the grounds. So if you’re planning to see all the sculptures you will need to explore and go looking for them. The ones we did spot were awesome, but my favourite thing about this park is its views.

The park is situated on a pretty steep hill, and if you continue to walk up you come to a viewing area near a restaurant in the park. And the views from this spot are stunning and you can see out pretty far over the city right to the Ski slopes on the other side of the hills. And you can see some of the Fjords and water around the city. Usually, the best views cost money and mean you have to walk up hundreds of steep steps. Not only does this not cost any more, but it’s sloped without steps so much easier to walk up.

Visit the cities Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens open daily at 7 am and close 9 pm during peak season (15th March- 15th October), and 5 pm outside of these times. And it’s a beautiful way to spend a morning in Oslo (although maybe not quite 7 am, you will be on holiday after all!) There are over 1,800 different plants in the gardens and it holds a large and varied collection of trees planted in awesome ways.

There’s a scent garden there which is for everybody to experience but especially so for the blind and mentally handicapped which I think is lovely. The fact that they’ve thought about these people and put something in the space for them to experience. This is one of the things we didn’t get to spend as much time doing as I’d have liked. So I’ll definitely be heading back next time I’m in the city.

Do you take advantage of free things to do in cities when you go away?