7 Ways To Save Money In Oslo (It Can Be Done!)

The biggest thing that I worried about before going to Oslo at the start of September was how much money I’d spend. People that I spoke to scared me a little about how they’d found the city. So before our trip I tried to do some research into ways to save money and do the trip on a budget. We did spend a bit more on evening dinners than we may usually but you can save money in Oslo. If you’re looking for some ideas of what to do in the city check out my Oslo itinary post.But here are my top tips to keep your costs down in the city.

Save money in Oslo but getting an Oslo card

Much like any city you can buy a city pass to cover attractions. We paid just under £60 for our 48 hour Oslo card, but you can also get a 24 hour, 72 hour and longer pass. The pass then covers enterance into almost all the attractions in the city including the Viking Ship Museum, The Noble Peace Centre and the Contemporary Art Museum. You can also take part in free city walks, although sadly we didn’t have time to do this.

The Oslo card also includes all of your travel on trams and buses in the city which we used a lot of. And you get money off certain other things including the Fjords Sightseeing Boat Tour. We bought our Oslo card when we arrived from the Visitor Centre in the main Station. But you can also buy it online and just go and collect it. Getting this card saved us so much money as we didn’t pay for pretty much any attractions.

Look at menu’s for prices before you go in

Food is where you’re likely to spend most of your money. Yes it would have been nice to go out for fancy meals, but this just wasn’t a priority for us. We went to the Hard Rock one night, and a local pizzeria another night and both meals were so nice. But make sure you look at the menu outside to suss out the prices beforehand as they do vary such a lot.

Just walking along the streets we saw a big difference in how much food cost, especially along the main tourist roads. If you check out the menu beforehand you can prepare yourself for what you’re going to spend. And it’s a great way to save money in Oslo.

Use your Oslo card to save money in restaurants

You can get some discounts at restaurants when you use your Oslo card and this is a great way to save some pennies. Check out all the discounts in the booklet or via leaflets in the visitor centre to see what options you have. We made the fatal mistake of only remembering we could have got discount at the Hard Rock Cafe after we left. So make sure you check out beforehand and don’t make our mistake so you can save money in Oslo.

Don’t drink alcohol

Alcohol is probably one of the most expensive things in Oslo. When we were on our boat trip we looked at the menu and it was around £40-50 for a bottle of wine. To me this is absolutely crazy!

When I go away we don’t tend to drink much if at all because we’d rather have a reasonably early night so we can wake up refreshed the next day to explore. Plus I’m not a big drinker at all so not having alcohol wasn’t an issue for us. You may enjoy a glass of wine with your dinner, or a cocktail at lunch but cutting it out will save you plenty of money.

Make your lunch at breakfast

Another foodie based recommendation is to make your lunch for the day at breakfast. Our hotel had a great buffet breakfast selection which we really enjoyed each morning. I had some cooked food and plenty of baked and bread based products.

So we made the decision to make up some rolls and grab some other goodies to wrap up and pop in our bags. I know strictly you’re not really meant to do this, but we didn’t take masses and it definitely saved us quite a lot of money. If we had gone out for lunch on the two days we were there we’d have spent a lot more money. So we managed to save money in Oslo by doing this.

We even bought a Boots meal deal in Heathrow airport before we left to take with us and have on our first day. So we only paid about £4 compared to the much larger amount we’d have spent otherwise.

Take advantage of the great tram and bus network

The tram and bus network in Oslo is great and connects you all around the city very easily. If you get an Oslo card (which why wouldn’t you!?) the travel network is included so take advantage of it. The transport works for the most part all night, although not too reguarly in the early hours. But this would save you plenty of money not having to get taxis.

The only train we paid for was between the airport and the main Oslo station, but this only cost us £10 each way. For an airport transfer I thought this was really reasonable considering how much the express trains are in London.

Check out some of the free attractions

I’m going to do a full post very soon about some of my favourite free attractions in the city, but make sure you take advantage of them. We used our Oslo passes for the 48 hours from when we arrived and then took advantage of the free attractions on our final day when they had run out.

The city has a few sculpture parks which are free to explore and really fun to wander around. You can watch the guards changing at the palace and visit the botanical gardens so there are some free attractions to check out.

Have you ever been to Oslo? Or are you tempted to go now?

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