Nine islands, a monastery ruin, cliff swimming and beaches — all reachable on a normal city transport ticket.
Oslo has islands, twenty minutes from the town hall, and getting to them costs nothing beyond the tram fare you have already paid.
The B-line ferries leave from Rådhusbrygge 4 at Aker Brygge and run on the standard Ruter ticket. They run frequently in summer and on a reduced timetable the rest of the year.
Hovedøya
The nearest, ten minutes out, and the one to choose if you pick one.
A Cistercian monastery was founded here in 1147 by English monks from Kirkstead in Lincolnshire. It was dissolved at the Reformation in 1532 and burned. The ruins are extensive, open, free and unfenced, standing in a meadow above the water.
There are also nineteenth-century gunpowder magazines and fortifications from when the island was military, several small beaches, cliffs to swim from, and a nature reserve with rare limestone flora.
There is a café in summer and nothing at all in winter.
Gressholmen and Rambergøya
Joined together, further out, and quieter. Old airfield — Oslo’s first airport was a seaplane base here from 1927 — and now grazed by sheep, with rabbits, birdlife, and shallow water.
A café in summer. Good for walking; less good for a swim, as much of the shore is rocky and shallow.
Langøyene
The party island, and the one with the best beaches — proper sand, on both sides.
It was used as a rubbish tip between the wars and was capped and landscaped; it closed for several years for environmental remediation and has reopened. There is camping in summer.
Busy and loud on a hot Saturday, empty on a Tuesday.
Lindøya, Nakholmen and Bleikøya
The cabin islands. Hundreds of small painted wooden hytter on leased plots, dating from the 1920s when the city let workers build summer huts on the islands.
They are still there, still small, still painted red, yellow and green, and they are privately used — you can walk the paths, and you are walking past people’s holiday cabins, so behave accordingly.
Lindøya has a small beach and a kiosk.
Practical
A standard Ruter ticket covers the ferry. A 24-hour ticket covers as many islands as you can fit in a day.
Timetables are much reduced outside summer and some islands lose their service entirely in winter. Check the Ruter app.
There are no shops. Take food and water. The cafés are summer-only and limited.
Toilets are basic and seasonal.
Fires are banned in and near woodland from 15 April to 15 September, and the islands are largely wooded. There are designated barbecue spots on some.
Take your rubbish home. The bins fill by mid-afternoon on a hot day and the islands are nature reserves.
The other water trip
The Nesodden ferry, also from Aker Brygge and also on a standard ticket, crosses to the peninsula opposite in twenty minutes. It is a commuter route, it is beautiful, and it costs nothing extra — a fjord cruise for the price of a bus ride, which is what to do if the weather is uncertain.
