Oslo With Kids: A 5-Day Family Itinerary

We get pretty excited when we find a city that has plenty of attractions AND has easy access to nature. Not knowing too much about visiting Oslo with kids before planning our family trip to Norway, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was exactly the type of city we love.

If you are anything like us and like to balance your cultural sightseeing with as much time in nature as possible, then you’ll also love a family trip to Oslo! I mean, in how many cities can you hop on the metro and be hiking in the forest within 20-30 minutes? 

The perfect balance of culture and nature earned Oslo a good spot on our list of the best family-friendly cities in Europe.

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Where to Stay in Oslo

Since we were visiting Oslo with a toddler and preschooler, we chose an vacation home rental apartment that was close to public transportation and that would allow us to get from the airport without having to take a taxi (and needing car seats).

We were excited to find a large Oslo rental apartment only a short walk from the Majorstuen T-Bane station. Accommodation in Oslo is very expensive, so to save money on our Norway trip, we rented our apartment just outside central Oslo with great public transit access.

Having a vacation rental also meant having access to laundry, which enabled us to pack less clothing for our 23-day family trip to Norway. You can see what we brought with us on our post on How to Pack For Norway with Kids.

5 Days in Oslo with Kids – Our Itinerary

Here is how we spent 5 days in Oslo with our two kids, who were 4 years old and 23 months old at the time:

Arrival Day

Oslo Playgrounds

After a long trans-Atlantic flight, we arrived at our Oslo apartment around 12:30 PM and put the kids down for a nap. They managed about 3 – 3.5 hours of sleep on the overnight flight, but were both pretty tired.

After naps, we followed these tips to help with jet lag and tried to get them on local schedule asap, so we took them outside. Our apartment was conveniently close to Stensparken, which had plenty of green space and a playground for the kids to run around.

Day 1 in Oslo with Kids

Frognerparken & Vigeland Sculpture Park

After a pretty successful first night and a reasonable sleep in until 7:30am, we were off to Frognerparken. This was the perfect first outing on our family trip to Oslo as it ticked all our boxes: get outside in the sunlight, let the kids run and burn off some energy and visit our “must-see Oslo attractions” first. It also had the added benefit of being only a 15 minute walk from our apartment. 

Frogner Park is the largest park in central Oslo and within it you’ll find Vigeland Sculpture Park, one of the top attractions in Oslo. Vigeland Sculpture Park has more than 200 sculptures all done Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland.

Shortly after we entered Frogner Park, we crossed the statue-lined bridge into Vigeland Sculpture Park. Between the bridge and the stunning two-tiered fountain was Norway’s largest collection of roses. This was the perfect spot to hand our 4 year old a camera and let her get creative. 

From there we climbed the stairs to the Monolith sculpture – a truly incredible piece of work. Of course, as we marveled at all the sculptures, our two monkeys were trying to climb on anything and everything. That aside, this was a great place to let the kids be kids. We finished up the sculpture park by going up another hill to one last sculpture.

It should come as no surprise that this section of the park was filled with visitors, but as we walked back through the park on the west side, we found relative solitude. 

That is until we ended up at a very large Oslo playground (on the west side of the main entrance to the park). The playground was very busy and for good reason. There was plenty of space and structures for kids of all ages to play, including a sand pit.  

Slottsparken

After a fun visit to Frogner Park, we headed towards the Oslo Opera House. As we were becoming used to, the walk there was a lot of fun. Our first stop was in Slottsparken, the garden surrounding the Royal Palace.

Spikersuppa

Our next stop on our way to the Oslo Opera House was Spikersuppa, a park with a large fountain & pool full of little kids playing in it to cool off on a hot day. In the winter this turns into an ice skating rink, free for anyone to use.

Oslo Opera House

After a short nap break at our apartment rental, we set out on foot once more to the Oslo Opera House. We were surprised an opera house ranks among Oslo’s top attractions, but this one earns it. A popular activity here is walking the roof and to take in the harbor views – our kids loved this!

The Oslo Opera House was built as an extension of the Norwegian idea that nature is free for everyone to walk in and thus, you are invited to walk on the roof. 

The Opera House is right on the waterfront and you do truly get to walk up the roof all the way to the top of the building. You can walk up either side and it’s a great place to let the little ones explore (away from the edge, of course). 

Day 2 in Oslo with Kids

Nordmarka Forest

While researching things to do in Oslo with kids, we discovered that there were several great hiking areas that were easily reached by public transportation. We were excited about the idea of being able to avoid renting a car and still see the surrounding natural areas.

And just as we had hoped, we were able to take the metro, also known as the T-Bane, from central Oslo to the Frognerseteren station in about 20 minutes. We basically got off the train and immediately were on a hiking trail in the Nordmarka Forest, it was that easy!

Our 3.7 mile / 6 km hike to Sognsvann Lake took approximately 2 hours. The hike itself was not overly difficult and was over varying terrain, from wide hiking trails to single track with some navigating over streams and bridges.

Our final destination, Sognsvann Lake, is a very popular recreation area. It has a 2 mile / 3.2 km walking & jogging path around the lake that is stroller friendly, plus picnic tables, a beach, a dock, beach volleyball, etc. This area is also used for cross-country skiing in the winter. What’s even better, it’s only a short walk from the Sognsvann train station.

Not being familiar with the area, it would be difficult to find your way through Nordmarka Forest without a good hiking app as there are many unmarked trails. I hadn’t yet discovered AllTrails (my current favorite hiking app) when we visited Oslo with kids, but this popular hiking trail is very close (if not exactly) what we hiked in Nordmarka Forest. You can see and download the trail map on AllTrails.

We have an entire post full of all our best tips for hiking with kids and this one with all the best hiking gear for kids.

Oslo National Gallery

After lunch and a nap, we activated our Oslo Passes and went to the National Gallery to see the famous The Scream painting by Edvard Munch. We walked around the whole top floor in about 20-30 minutes. The Scream was the big attraction, but there were other paintings by notable artists as well.

If you’d like to see The Scream on your family trip to Oslo, check with the National Museum first, as it’s not always on display. That said, a version of The Scream is always on rotation at the Munch Museum.

Reptile Park

Then it was time for an activity just for the kids. We walked about 5 minutes to the Reptile Park, a small attraction over 2 floors with frogs, snakes, spiders, lizards, monkeys, scorpions, an alligator, stick bugs, etc.

It was a quick visit, but it was definitely worth going for how much the kids liked it. They were not happy when it was time to leave!

Day 3 in Oslo with Kids

With our 24-hour Oslo Pass still active, today was our museum-hopping day. We took a couple of buses to get to the Bygdøy Peninsula.

It’s mainly a residential area on the west side of the city center, but is also home to some of Oslo’s most popular museums plus it has a large recreation area with trails and beaches. That’s right, you can even do a little hiking between museum stops – I love Oslo!

Museum of the Viking Age (Formerly the Viking Ship Museum)

UPDATE: The Viking Ship Museum is closed for a major rebuild and will reopen in 2027 as the Museum of the Viking Age.

Our first stop was the Viking Ship Museum. This museum has the world’s best preserved Viking ships and is worth a visit. It’s well set up with plenty of space to walk around the ships plus small sets of stairs leading to lookout platforms to see the ships from up high.

They also project The Viking Alive film on the ceilings and walls of one area of the museum. Of course, anything that even resembled screen time was exciting for our kids!

Bygdøy Peninsula Walking Trails

Between our museum visits, we headed west towards the natural part of the peninsula where there is dense forest and many walking trails.

We enjoyed our walk through the forested area and ultimately came out on the beach. We followed the path as far as we could along the beach before heading back inland. There are many fun places for kids to stop and play, climb rocks, look in tide pools, etc.

From here, we walked about 20 minutes to get to the Kon-Tiki and Fram museums. We later realized we could have saved the extra 20 minute walk by hopping on bus 30! 

Kon-Tiki Museum

The Kon-Tiki Museum is dedicated to Thor Heyerdahl, who crossed the Pacific Ocean on a balsawood raft Kon-Tiki in 1947. On display at the museum were some of the original vessels used on Heyerdahl’s expeditions. 

Our kids were somewhat interested in the boats because they bear a striking resemblance to Moana’s boat. There was also a life-sized whale shark model and a replica of a cave that they could walk through. 

Fram Museum

After a brief stop for ice cream, we continued on to the Fram Museum. Almost the entire museum is taken up by the Polar Ship Fram, which is apparently the strongest wooden ship ever built and holds records for sailing the farthest North and South. 

You can explore the ship in its entirety and there is also a polar simulator (which we missed). Of course the kids loved this place as they climbed up the pathways to then cross the gangway on to the ship, then finding all the other areas to climb and explore on the ship.

All three of these museums were stroller accessible.

A rainy afternoon gave us a good excuse to take it easy and let the kids play with the toys in our vacation home rental apartment. 

Day 4 in Oslo with Kids

Hovedøya Island

We took advantage of the easy access to nature from the city on the fourth day of our Oslo itinerary, by taking the tram down to the harbor to catch a ferry to Hovedøya Island. 

Hovedøya Island was beautiful! Most of the island is nature reserve, so it has lots of dense forest. There are paths throughout the island, some inland through forest and some by the water.

The views from the waterfront pathways were pretty amazing. Aside from the great hiking trails, there are beaches and fields for ball games. You can also find ruins from a monastery and cannon batteries on the island. 

We circumnavigated Hovedøya Island in about 90 minutes, going at a reasonable pace. The kids walked a little bit, but we carried them in their backpack carriers a lot as they seem to be lacking energy today. Some of the paths on the island are wide and flat, making them stroller accessible.

Hovedøya Island is well worth a visit and is a very short ferry ride (maybe 5 minutes). The B1 island ferries run regularly and seasonally; check the Ruter timetables before you go

Akershus Fortress

In the afternoon, we took the kids for a fun little walk at the Akershus Fortress. It was a really fun place to take them to explore. There were plenty of old buildings, fortress walls, a pond, good fjord and city views, and some cannons for the kids to climb on. 

We spent about an hour there, just wandering and getting the kids some entertainment, exercise and fresh air. The Akershus Fortress grounds are free to enter and generally open long hours, while the museums inside have set opening times.

Looking for more info on Norway? This Norway Travel Guide has everything you need to know before you go!

Day 5 in Oslo with Kids

Maridalsvannet Lake along the Akerselva River

For our final day in Oslo with kids, we planned to do the 5 mile / 8 km one-way walk along the Akerselva river from Maridalsvannet Lake to the center of Oslo. We hopped on the #25 bus and took it to the headwaters of the Akerselva River.

The entire walking path is either crushed gravel or paved and is quite beautiful through many forested areas. Along the way we enjoyed the many bridges, waterfalls, trees, ducks, old factory buildings, playgrounds and parks. 

The best part of starting this one-way hike near the lake is that it’s all downhill as you walk towards sea level. You could even bike it, which we considered, but we really enjoyed walking it.

The kids had a lot of fun running along the path and we stopped at two separate Oslo playgrounds for them. The second one was especially unique, with a fountain and stream with locks holding back and/or letting water flow downstream. 

We also stopped for a treat at Hønse-Lovisas hus, a small red cottage which serves Norwegian waffles and coffee.

If you’d like a trail map of this kid-friendly walking trail in Oslo, you can see and download the map from AllTrails.

Frognerparken (again)

Our final afternoon was spent back at Frognerparken and Vigeland Sculpture Park. We wanted to give the kids time to just run and play, while we enjoyed a second visit to one of our favorite places in Oslo.

Follow Along on our Family Trip to Norway

We hope you enjoyed reading about our 5 days in Oslo with kids. If you’d like to continue along on our 25-day family trip to Norway, our next stop was 7 Days in Bergen with kids. Getting to this beautiful coastal city was half the fun on the Oslo to Bergen train with kids. It’s one of the most beautiful train rides in the world!

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