An Oslo Week: Day Trips
A full week of Oslo day trips ends with a flex day, either a deeper push into Nordmarka’s trail network or a return look at Fredrikstad, on top of the fjord islands, forest, Drammen, Fredrikstad, Lillehammer, and splurge day above. No rental car across all seven days. This is the full version of our 6 day plan ; see the 2 day version if a week is more than you need.
| Day | Day trip | Travel time from Oslo |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oslofjord islands (Hovedoya, Lindoya) | 7-15 min by ferry |
| 2 | Nordmarka forest (Frognerseteren, Sognsvann) | 30-35 min by T-bane |
| 3 | Drammen and Spiralen | 30-40 min by train |
| 4 | Fredrikstad and Gamlebyen | About 1 hour by train |
| 5 | Lillehammer and Maihaugen | 1h45-2h15 by train |
| 6 | Oslofjord cruise or Tryvann skiing | Departs central Oslo |
| 7 | Flex day: deeper Nordmarka or return to Fredrikstad | 30-35 min or about 1 hour |
Book these before you go
- Compare hotel rates near Oslo S , the base for every train in this plan
- Book the day 6 Oslofjord cruise , which does sell out on clear summer evenings
- Book a Fredrikstad day trip tour if day 7 pulls you back there
- Book a Lillehammer and Maihaugen tour given how much ground the museum covers in one visit
Day 1: the ferry hack to a ruined monastery
Walk to Radhusbrygge for the Ruter B1 ferry to Hovedoya, a 7-minute ride on the standard NOK 44-46 Zone 1 ticket. Cistercian monks from Kirkstead Abbey in England founded an abbey here in 1147, burned in 1532, its stone later quarried into Akershus Fortress (background on visitoslo.com ).
Day 2: the forest loop by T-bane
T-bane line 1 ends at Frognerseteren, where a marked trail runs down through Nordmarka to Sognsvann, a real local swimming lake in summer. Loop back on lines 4 or 5 from Sognsvann. Winter turns this into ski country, with roughly 2,600km of groomed cross-country trail.
Day 3: Drammen and the spiral tunnel
Vy trains run every 15 minutes, about 30-40 minutes each way, to a working city rather than a curated stop. The reason to go is Spiralen, a 1,650-metre helical tunnel through Bragernesasen opened in 1961, ending at Spiraltoppen for a real view over Drammensdalen.
Day 4: Fredrikstad’s free ferry to Gamlebyen
Vy trains run roughly hourly from Oslo S, about an hour each way for around NOK 215 (check current times on visitfredrikstadhvaler.com ). Byfergen, a free electric ferry, crosses every 15 minutes to Gamlebyen, the walled old town built in 1567, home to roughly 350 residents inside its ramparts.
Day 5: Lillehammer and the 1994 Olympics
Lillehammer sits 1h45 to 2h15 from Oslo S, with 12-18 daily departures. Maihaugen holds close to 200 buildings collected from the Gudbrandsdalen valley by Anders Sandvig since 1901 (current hours on eng.maihaugen.no ), and the town’s 1994 Winter Olympics history sits alongside the museum.
Day 6: the splurge day, cruise or skis
Book the narrated Oslofjord cruise you skipped on day one, typically NOK 340-830 from Aker Brygge, reaching the outer islands the Hovedoya ferry doesn’t cover. In winter, swap it for Tryvann’s 18 alpine runs, about 25 minutes from the centre by T-bane.
Day 7: a deeper Nordmarka push, or a second look at Fredrikstad
Two honest options rather than one prescribed plan. Ride the T-bane back out to Sognsvann and keep walking past day two’s short loop into Nordmarka’s wider trail network, roughly 2,600km in total, a genuinely bigger forest than one afternoon covers. Or take the early train back to Fredrikstad and slow down: Gamlebyen rewards a second, unhurried pass, and the same regional tourism board that covers the town also covers Hvaler, the archipelago further down the coast, worth researching if the week still has room for one more coastal day.
Is a full week too much time for day trips from Oslo?
Not if you treat day seven as genuinely flexible rather than another fixed stop. Six structured days already cover the fjord islands, the forest, Drammen, Fredrikstad, Lillehammer, and a splurge day, so the last day exists to go deeper into whichever of those actually earned it, not to invent a seventh new destination for its own sake.
Do you need a rental car across all seven days?
No. Every day here runs on a Ruter ticket (current fares on ruter.no ), a Vy regional train, a free ferry, or a booked cruise, and all of them start from Oslo S or the harborfront. Save the car-rental money for a future trip further into the fjords, where public transit genuinely thins out.
Keep one Vy or Ruter ticket receipt from earlier in the week; refund and correction requests need it if a train runs late enough to matter.