Nordic countries are known for being some of the happiest, but also the most expensive, regardless of where you’re visiting from. Our walking tour guide in Oslo even joked that Munch’s Scream is the horrified expression tourists make when paying for coffee! 😄

I also found Oslo’s prices expensive, even more than I expected. So, I thought it would be interesting to add up my expenses from the 2‑day trip and see how much I spent as a frugal traveller. I mean, as frugal as you can be in Norway! 😄

Flights

I won’t be including flights as that depends on where you’re based. But just for the record, my return Ryanair flight from London Stansted to Oslo Torp was £53 (€63, $70). A good deal, especially for a long Bank Holiday weekend and with convenient departure times. The thing is that getting to and from these airports can cost you more than the flights if you don’t book in advance! But that’s another story…

Accommodation

Wherever you go, accommodation is usually your biggest expense. Two nights at K7 Hotel cost me £97 (115 euros, 129 USD), but that’s for a bed in a dorm, and after a 15% discount on Booking.com. It was the most affordable option in central Oslo when booking just 2 days before!

Transport

Oslo is very walkable and I didn’t need to use any trams and buses. But as I said, getting from the Torp airport to the city and back turned out much more expensive than I thought. But only because I overpaid when I didn’t need to.

Round bus trip with Torp-Ekspressen cost me 700 krone (£51, €60, $68), but advance tickets are much cheaper. Should have done my research before!

Walking tour

I went on this “free” walking tour which was £2.62 upon booking through Viator, and later gave our guide a tip of £5. That’s 9 euros or 10 USD.

Shopping

I went to two local supermarket chains to buy a few things. Not much, just some sweet and savoury snacks, and something to drink. I paid 99.70 NOK in Rema 1000 (£7.26, €8.62, $9.69). The following day, my total at Joker was 58.80 NOK (£4.28, €5.08, $5.70).

Eating out

For breakfast I went to Kaffebrenneriet where a simple sandwich and caffè latte cost 118 NOK (£8.59, €10.20, $11.37). I must point out that it was the most generous cup of coffee I ever had, served in what looked like a soup bowl!

For a much nicer baguette at Backstube plus a cup of coffee from a self-service machine (it was good, though!) I paid 103.80 NOK (£7.56, €9, $10).

A decent falafel platter (without a drink) at a place called New Beirut Kebab was 160 NOK (£11.65, €13.84, $15.42).

Although it’s not eating out as such, I’ll include here the cup of coffee I had in the K7 Hotel lobby. Considering its size and quality, it was a rather shocking 49 NOK (£3.57, €4.24, $4.73).

Total

So, everything together came up to £198.53, which is 235.55 euros or 265.13 USD. That’s a lot, but a large part (about 75%) is the hotel and the airport bus. It would have been less if I’d organized it better, or much more if was extravagant with my spending.

Hope this was helpful as a rough indication in planning your trip to Oslo. 🙂