Oslo Day Trips: 5 Day Plan
Five days pushes on to Lillehammer, 1h45-2h15 from Oslo S and the long trip on this list, added to the fjord islands, forest, Drammen, and Fredrikstad route above. This builds on the 4 day plan ; see the 6 day version for a splurge day on top.
| 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 |
Book these before you go
- Compare hotel rates near Oslo S , the base for every train in this plan
- Book a narrated Oslofjord cruise as a weather backup for day one
- Book a Fredrikstad day trip tour if you’d rather have Gamlebyen explained than self-guide it
- 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 that also covers the T-bane. 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 ). Continue on the same ticket to Lindoya before heading back for dinner.
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 come summer. Loop back on lines 4 or 5 from Sognsvann rather than retracing the walk in. 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. Drammen is a working city, not a curated stop, and the reason to go is Spiralen, a 1,650-metre helical tunnel through Bragernesasen opened in 1961, ending at Spiraltoppen for a cafe and 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 ). Walk to the river and cross on Byfergen, a free electric ferry running every 15 minutes to Gamlebyen, the walled old town built in 1567. Around 350 people still live inside the ramparts.
Day 5: Lillehammer and the 1994 Olympics
Lillehammer sits 1h45 to 2h15 from Oslo S, with 12-18 daily departures, the long push on this list. Maihaugen is the payoff: close to 200 buildings collected from the Gudbrandsdalen valley by Anders Sandvig, given a permanent site by the town council in 1901, now spread across a village, a town street, and a residential area (current hours on eng.maihaugen.no ). The town’s 1994 Winter Olympics history sits alongside the museum rather than replacing it.
Can Lillehammer really be done as a day trip?
Yes, but it’s tight. Take the earliest realistic train, treat Maihaugen as the one priority rather than one stop among several, and expect the round-trip alone to eat 3.5-4.5 hours of the day. If this is the only day on this itinerary you can spare real time for, staying one night instead is the better call.
Do you need a rental car for any of these five days?
No. Every day here runs on the Ruter ticket (current fares on ruter.no ), a Vy regional train, or a free ferry, and all five depart from or near Oslo S. A car would only slow down the ferry-and-T-bane days, since neither Hovedoya nor Frognerseteren has useful parking near the transit stop anyway.
Buy the Lillehammer ticket the night before on Vy’s app; the earliest departures sell the emptiest cheap-fare seats first.