Written by Jess
What a surprise! Everything I had heard about Norway as a whole was how expensive it is, and while this is true, it is not as bad as I thought. The good thing is my experience taught me some tips on how to save some moola while still having a great travel experience.
Where to stay: Find a hostel or hotel that offers either a free breakfast and/or dinner. Either way, you’ll save about $20 every time you eat there. That is the average rate for a meal, so it goes a long way. I stayed at the Scandic Karl Johan, which was fantastic. The location was phenomenal, the service was great, the rooms were nice, and the bathroom floors were HEATED. (As someone who is always cold, I realized I will need this in whatever future house I have.) The best part though was their buffet breakfast fully stocked with various bread, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc. I had so many croissants that I should be embarrassed, but they were delicious. I stayed with two other people, so the $120 per night went down to $40. (Quite a steal in Oslo!)
What to do: Oslo has many beautiful sights- most of them natural. (That means they are free! 😉 ) If you travel to Oslo, be sure to travel down to Aker Brygge. It’s an area that is right on the water, where you can even take a ferry out to an island, which is what I did with my friends. There we did some hiking and hung out by the beach.
We also went to the Viking Ship Museum, the Historical Museum, and the Norwegian Cultural Museum. Our total cost of going to all these museums was about $25 – there were student discounts, thank god. But seriously, you can’t miss any of these places. I loved learning about the Vikings and the ships they had there were beautiful. Many of the objects were also for women which I found to be interested (go boss ladies).
How to get around: Traveling from the airport, we used Flytoget, an airport express train, that costs about $11 each way for students. The train is really nice and only takes about 20 minutes to get to the Oslo city center. Once there, I would suggest getting a day pass or more for public transportation. The pass includes access to the metro, bus, tram, and ferry. This makes getting around really easy, just keep an eye on the times you can hop on and off the bus and ferry. One important thing to note is the museums I mentioned before are actually located in Bydoy, a place that’s a bit too far from the city center, so you’ll need to take a bus to get there.
Overall Review: Oslo was beautiful, there is always something to do or see. Everything is really nice, even the public bathrooms were the nicest I have ever been to * gasp*. I always thought Oslo was a giant city, but the populations about 600,000. So it’s not that big of a city and you can definitely feel that while you’re there. The majority of people speak English so I never worried about communicating with people.
Pro tip: Be sure to always remember the conversion rate from Kroners to dollars is very different. One American dollar is equal to about 8 Kroners. This honestly caused me to panic a few times, just be careful much you think you’re spending versus how much you really are.
Travel by the Book 