Oslo’s reputation is accurate but badly targeted. People arrive braced for everything to be expensive and are then caught out by the specific things that actually are.
What is expensive: alcohol, restaurant dinners, taxis, and anything bought in a hotel or on a boardwalk.
What is not: public transport, museums relative to other capitals, and an enormous amount of the best of the city, which is free.
Understanding which is which is worth more than any other advice on this page.
The alcohol situation
This is the single largest shock and it needs explaining properly.
Beer and wine up to 4.7% are sold in supermarkets. Everything stronger — wine, spirits, strong beer — is sold only by Vinmonopolet, the state monopoly.
Vinmonopolet’s hours are restrictive. Roughly to 6pm on weekdays and 3 or 4pm on Saturdays, and it is closed all day Sunday and on public holidays. Supermarket beer sales also stop at 8pm on weekdays and 6pm on Saturdays, and there are no sales at all on Sundays.
If you want a drink on a Sunday and have not planned for it, you are going to a bar.
A pint in a bar costs roughly what two or three pints cost in most of Europe. A bottle of wine in a restaurant costs multiples of the shop price, and the shop price already includes a heavy alcohol tax.
Norwegians deal with this by vorspiel — drinking at home before going out — and by buying at the airport on the way in. Duty-free allowances are worth using; the arrivals shop at Gardermoen exists precisely for this and Norwegians returning from abroad queue at it.
None of this is a scandal; it is deliberate public health policy that has broad domestic support. But nobody warns visitors clearly and they should.
What is free
- The Opera House roof
- Vigeland Sculpture Park — 200 sculptures, never closes
- Ekebergparken — contemporary sculpture and the best view
- Akershus Fortress grounds
- Oslo City Hall and the murals
- The 22 July Centre
- Medieval Park
- Nordmarka — 430 square kilometres of it
- The Royal Palace park and the changing of the guard
- The city beach at Tjuvholmen, and swimming anywhere
- The Tjuvholmen sculpture park
You can spend three days in Oslo and pay for nothing but a transport ticket, food and a bed.
The transport bargain
A 24-hour Ruter ticket covers the metro, trams, buses and the fjord ferries to the islands.
That last part is the thing to exploit. The island ferries and the Nesodden crossing are ordinary public transport, so a fjord trip costs nothing extra. In most cities this would be a paid excursion.
Three daily budgets
Excluding accommodation, per person, per day.
Careful — around NOK 400–600
Supermarket breakfast and lunch: bread, brown cheese, cured salmon, fruit. Free sights. Prawns off a boat or a supermarket dinner eaten on the Opera House roof. One coffee out. A 24-hour transport ticket and the islands.
This is entirely pleasant and it is what a lot of young Norwegians do.
Comfortable — around NOK 1,200–1,800
Café breakfast. Lunch at Mathallen or Vippa. One or two museums. A proper dinner with a drink. Transport.
Generous — NOK 3,000 and up
A tasting menu, wine with it, taxis, and a bar afterwards. Oslo has a serious high-end restaurant scene and it is priced accordingly.
Eleven ways to spend less
- Buy alcohol at the airport arrivals shop. Legal, expected, and half the price.
- Eat lunch as your main meal. The dagens at a restaurant is a fraction of its evening prices.
- Use the supermarkets. Kiwi, Rema 1000 and Coop Extra are cheapest; Meny is the good one.
- Get a 24-hour or 7-day Ruter ticket and use the ferries.
- Under 18s go free at most museums, and there are student and senior rates.
- Tap water everywhere. It is excellent and nobody buys bottled.
- Skip the boardwalk restaurants at Aker Brygge entirely.
- The Oslo Pass is worth it only if you are doing three or more charging museums a day plus transport — do the arithmetic on your actual plan.
- Free museum days exist at some institutions; check individual sites.
- Walk. The centre is small and the walking is good.
- Do the forest. A day in Nordmarka costs a metro fare, and it is the best day in Oslo.
Practical money notes
Norway is effectively cashless. Card and phone everywhere; some places take no cash at all. Vipps, the domestic payment app, needs a Norwegian bank account and you will not have one — a card is fine.
Decline dynamic currency conversion. Always pay in kroner.
Tipping is not expected. Service is included. Rounding up for good service in a restaurant is appreciated and not required, and nobody tips in a bar or a taxi.
VAT is 25 per cent and is included in displayed prices. Non-residents can reclaim it above a threshold.
Prices are in kroner (NOK) and the exchange rate has moved a great deal in recent years — the krone has been weak, which has made Norway meaningfully cheaper for visitors than it was a decade ago. Check the current rate rather than trusting a figure from an old guidebook.