Best Things to Do in Oslo

Oslo packs acclaimed art collections and striking waterfront architecture right beside pine forests and island beaches. Here are the ten experiences that define a visit.

1. Walk up the marble roof of the Oslo Opera House and visit MUNCH. Climb the angled white Carrara marble plaza of Snøhetta's Opera House for free views over the fjord, then step next door into the thirteen-storey MUNCH museum to see three versions of Edvard Munch's The Scream.
2. Explore the National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) and City Hall. Spend a morning inside the largest art museum in the Nordic region at Aker Brygge (home to Munch's original 1893 painted The Scream), then step inside the monumental mural hall of Oslo City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize is presented.
3. Stroll through Vigeland Sculpture Park (Frogner Park). Open 24 hours a day for free, Gustav Vigeland's life work lines an 850-metre axis with more than 200 expressive bronze and granite human figures culminating in the 14-metre carved Monolith.
4. Step aboard the polar ship at the Fram Museum and Norsk Folkemuseum. Cross the bay to Bygdøy to walk the decks and engine rooms of the wooden polar schooner Fram and see the 1200 AD wooden Gol Stave Church at the Open-Air Folk Museum.
5. Steam and swim at an Oslofjord Floating Sauna. Book a 90-minute slot on a wood-fired cedar sauna raft at Sukkerbiten, Langkaia or Aker Brygge and plunge straight into the refreshing waters of the inner fjord.
6. Walk the Akerselva River trail through Grünerløkka. Follow waterfalls, brick textile mills and footbridges down to Mathallen food hall and the vintage shops and coffee roasteries of Thorvald Meyers gate.
7. Ride Metro Line 1 up to Holmenkollen Ski Jump. Watch the city drop away below your window as the T-bane climbs 400 metres into the forest to the cantilevered steel ski jump tower.
8. Wander the ramparts of Akershus Fortress. Built in 1299 on a rocky headland above the harbour, its medieval halls, royal mausoleum and cannon bastions are free to walk through daily.
9. Hop an electric Ruter ferry to Hovedøya and Lindøya. Ten minutes from Aker Brygge, Cistercian abbey ruins and pastel wooden summer cottages sit on car-free islands.
10. Climb to the Ekebergparken Sculpture Park. Stand at the exact hillside viewpoint that inspired Edvard Munch's blood-red sky in The Scream.