Norway on a Budget: Real-World Ways to Save

If you love outdoor activities and beautiful scenery, you simply must visit Norway. With it’s lush mountains and stunning fjords, Norway is one of the most naturally beautiful places we’ve ever seen. The challenge for many travelers is how expensive it is to travel to Norway. We visited Norway with kids for 25 days, so were eager to find ways to travel Norway on a budget!

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How Much Does a Trip to Norway Cost?

If you are planning a trip to Norway on a budget, there’s one small problem… Norway consistently ranks among the most expensive destinations in Europe, so budgeting ahead matters.

After spending 25 days there, we can confirm first-hand that traveling to Norway is very expensive. By using our best skills for planning affordable family travel, we visited Norway on a budget and are able to share some of the easiest ways to save money in Norway:

How to Save Money in Norway

1. Walk Everywhere in Norway

Walking as much as you can while sightseeing is an excellent way to save money in Norway. Walking in lieu of taking a taxi or subway in Norway makes sense for so many reasons:

Norway’s big cities (like Oslo and Bergen) are beautiful and it’s a joy to walk their streets and discover their many treasures. We spent 5 days in Oslo with kids and 7 days in Bergen with kids, and with only a few exceptions, we walked everywhere we went.

Many of the top things to do in Oslo are located close together and can all be reached on foot within 30 minutes or less. Even the further afield attractions such as Vigeland Park can be reached by walking from Central Oslo in under an hour.

Walking certainly helps when visiting Norway on a budget. For example, an Oslo taxi from Vigeland Park to the Oslo Opera House will cost approximately $18 – 25 USD (180 – 250 NOK) each way, depending on traffic. 

Even Oslo public transit is expensive, with each adult Zone 1 ticket costing approx. $4.30 (44 NOK) and child tickets costing $1.80 (18 NOK).

If you are looking to save money in Norway, you can easily see that the simple act of walking could could save a family of three traveling in Norway between $20 – 80 USD per day!

And finally, walking is always a great idea early in your trip to Norway as it helps you get the lay of the land and find good restaurants, grocery stores etc.

2. Buy an Oslo Discount Attraction Pass

Another easy way to visit Norway on a budget is to buy a discount attraction pass. Discount cards entitle you to free or discounted entry to major attractions and sometimes even public transportation. The key is to look at the things to do in Oslo and compare the cost of buying the pass vs. paying for the things you want to do individually.

The Oslo Pass is a great option for visitors to Oslo on a budget. The Oslo Pass offers free admission to over 30 museums and attractions, free public transportation and discounts at top restaurants.

We used a 24-hour Oslo Pass during our visit and saved $42 USD in admission and transportation costs.

3. Self-Cater in Norway

When you travel to countries like Italy, Mexico or Thailand eating the local food is an integral part of the experience, so you really have to eat out at Italian restaurants a lot. This is not true when you travel to Norway… no offense to Norwegian cuisine, but you won’t be missing an integral cultural experience if you skip eating out in restaurants in Norway.

Despite Norway being one of the most expensive countries in the world to visit, we actually spent less per day on food in Norway than we did on our family trip to Italy!

Buying groceries and cooking our own meals in our vacation rentals really helped us travel to Norway on a budget.

4. Rent a Vacation Home Rental

Speaking of vacation rentals (like Airbnb and VRBO), they are an excellent place to stay for families traveling to Norway. We love to rent vacation homes with kids primarily because kids can have their own beds in their own bedrooms.

Not only does this give parents some privacy at night, but it really helps kids get a better sleep than they’d get if they were sharing a room and a bed in a small hotel room. Trust me when I tell you that well rested kids make much better travelers! You are spending a lot of money on a family trip to Norway – make sure everyone is well rested so you actually enjoy it!

Many vacation rentals come with laundry facilities. Having the ability to wash your clothes while traveling to Norway, means you can pack less clothes. Using this strategy almost always allows us to travel with just carry-on bags, saving big money on checked luggage fees. You can see how we packed for Norway with kids.

5. Stay Outside the City Center

Oslo and Bergen both have really good public transportation. You can save money on accommodations in Norway by renting a place outside of the city center. Just make sure you are within easy walking distance to a Metro or Light Rail station.

For example of how we reduced our Norway travel cost, we saved significant money on our accommodations by renting apartments in Oslo, Bergen and Ålesund just slightly outside the city center. Even after factoring in the occasional public transportation cost, we saved a ton of money on our Norway trip with this strategy.

6. Find Free Things To Do

Norway is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Chances are good you want to travel to Norway to enjoy the outdoors, which is great news as Norway has endless amazing, free things to do.

You can save tons of money in Norway by enjoying many of its amazing free activities. For example, you could go for a hike, walk along the ocean, go to a park or a playground, walk on the roof of the Oslo Opera House, etc.

The vast majority of our activities on our family trip to Norway were free. Many of these free things to do were our favorite experiences as we came to Norway to relish in its natural beauty.

7. Skip the Floibanen Funicular

The Fløibanen Funicular is a very popular 8-minute funicular ride in Bergen to a viewpoint 320 meters above sea level. The views from above are the main reason it’s one of the top things to do in Bergen.

8. Cluster Your Attractions

In each Norwegian city you will find clusters of attractions. You can save money on transportation with some easy advance planning. Simply plan your itinerary to visiting all the things to do in each area in a single visit.

9. Rent Cars Only When Necessary

It’s easy to get around Norway without a rental car, so rent one only if you are going somewhere not easily serviced by rail or plane. Traveling by train in Norway was one of our favorite experiences on our trip, and they sometimes have special family friendly cars.

Did you know the train from Oslo to Bergen is considered one of the world’s most scenic train rides?

We were also surprised to find it’s reasonably affordable to fly domestically within Norway, so don’t rule it out as an option until you actually look into the cost. 

Lastly, it’s not exactly cheap, but if you want to choose one splurge in Norway, a trip on a Hurtigruten ferry through the fjords is a solid choice. You don’t need to book an entire Norwegian coastal expedition – you can book a shorter port-to-port trip as we did. We took the Hurtigruten between Ålesund and Geiranger – the scenery of Geirangerfjord was incredible and was so worth the price!

Final Thoughts – Norway on a Budget

In closing, don’t let the potential high cost of traveling to Norway scare you off – you can travel to Norway on a budget. With these easy tips you can easily save tons of money and make your trip to Norway more affordable.

In the end, you will find Norway is more expensive than most destinations, but it is worth every single Krone!

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