The best hotels in Oslo
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Flush with its oil spoils, this once humble, overlooked city, enveloped by mountains and fjords, has stepped quietly and confidently into its new cultural era. And true to understated Nordic form, wealth has been infused into angular architecture, art and design projects, mainly popping up along the harbourfront, such as the behemothic National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design (Scandinavia’s largest) designed by German architects Kleihues + Schuwerk, and the towering Munch Museum by Spanish architect Estudio Herreros – a skyscraper seemingly melting like the painter’s infamous Scream that just about brushes the melancholic Norwegian skies. The art and culture brief has extended to parks, such as Ekebergparken sculpture park, scattered to modernist effect on the city’s forest fringes, and the ever-growing roster of festivals hosted by the city throughout the year (including the now legendary Oslo Jazz Festival). Yes, there’s more money to mobilise it, but the city’s creative, literary spirit was there long ago – back in the 18th and 19th centuries when Oslo (then Christiana, the province of Denmark and Sweden) was considered a backwater. Even then, wealthy families would support artists, architects, sculptors, musicians and writers, as the state’s coffers now do, on a much greater scale. It’s the ultimate formula to avoid the unfettered, eyesore, mall-centered vulgarity of new money cities such as Dubai. It’s also the ultimate weekender for the culturally-inclined, with so much of the city’s new offering on the house… and with its burgeoning (sea)foodie scene, floating saunas and nature trails to boot.
Some hotels in Oslo hark back to pre-independence in 1905, others embody Norway’s brooding minimalism. But amid all the newness and fizz of a city brimming with ideas and cash is a curious absence, (or at least limited choice), of beautiful hotels. The Norwegians may be fat on oil profits, but tourism still accounts for 4% of their GDP. Far from a rallying cry to the chains, consider this is a gentle nudge to the independent or family-run hoteliers of this world, who are well-versed in a charming, well-designed, well-anchored boutique. Here we round up our pick of the best hotels in Oslo.
Francisco Nogueira/SommerrohotelSommerro, Oslo
Proud custodian to Oslo’s first rooftop bar and pool, Sommero House is the perfect expression (if not the author) of the city’s new groove. The game-changing new hotel occupies a historic building reminiscent of an oxblood New York apartment block on Solli Plass, in Oslo’s well-heeled Frogner neighbourhood. Come here to people watch, sip negronis to live jazz and absorb GrecoDeco’s richly functional design details. Peachy, plastered walls are dressed by thick, feather-patterned curtains and the main brasserie-bar has the cavernous, Art Deco feel of a golden age cruise liner. That was precisely the intention of Petter Stordalen (of Nordic Hotels, also behind Amerikalinjen and The Thief), who entrusted GrecoDeco to reconcile a Great Gatsby vision with the building’s history as the headquarters for the capital’s electrical company. The result was a beguiling mix of neoclassicism and Art Deco swagger, restrained by a functionalism and patriotic in its references to the country’ cultural and craft heritage. Norwegian artist Per Krohg’s mosaic mural is a focal point of the Vestkantbadet, the rescued public baths in the spa and wellness centre, the hand-knotted rugs in the bedrooms nod to the traditional technique, while the Deco chandeliers in the superior rooms were inspired by the sparkly originals in Oslo City Hall. The details continue: headboards inlaid with timber and mother of pearl, Löfbergs coffee, Byredo potions lining the Deco-tiled bathrooms (mainly showers… Scandinavians prioritise saunas over baths). The more affordable loft rooms are cleverly designed for friends sharing or families, with two rooms in one suite – though this hotel feels more of a grown-up’s playground. Eco-credentials are strong, and extend to complimentary bikes for exploring the neighbourhood’s cafes and galleries or peddling to the capital’s various museums and parks. But with seven restaurants and bars, from To Søstre (for afternoon tea with the tinkle of piano keys) to Frida Ronge’s rooftop Japanese-Nordic showstopper, you’ll need an exceptionally sunny day to pull you off campus… and there’s always the rooftop pool.
Price: Doubles from £200
Amerikalinjen
Surging high above the low-slung trees, the tram lines and showing up a few ugly, grey neighbours, Amerikalinjen projects a sense of importance, of promise, even over a century on from its days as the Norwegian American Line’s HQ. This was back when Scandinavians were crossing the pond, bound for the New World, before the country discovered its fortune beneath its own feet. Nordic Hotels (yes, these guys again), had fabulously ornate Neo-Baroque bones to work with – vast, vaulted ceilings, maritime sculptures, sweeping staircases – which they deftly layered with cool contemporary interiors, keeping the seafaring references front and centre. Archival material (such as menus, vintage maritime maps and architectural drawings of the ship) are framed throughout the rooms and communal spaces, and the distressed mirrors, the velvet sofas and pendants all fling guests back to a glitzy, geometric era of hope and hedonism. Suites stretch out greedily into the company’s former boardrooms, but it’s the library that’s the real showstopper, with its elaborately carved wooden ceilings and shelves heaving with artfully curated liner paraphernalia. The more modern downstairs space flows, like good conversation, from restaurants to bars, mimicking the beating heart of a cruise liner with winking glass and geometric panache. Whether it’s poached hake with fries in the all-day brasserie, coffee and cake in the Haven (a bright, plant-filled courtyard) or a Manhattenhenge cocktail at Pier 42, entire days can be whiled away in this cushioned, convivial setting – as if somehow suspended in time, drifting towards a New World. Don’t miss the basement jazz bar, Gustav, which swings to life every Friday.
Price: Doubles from £270
The Thief
The Nordic Hotels original, The Thief lies in a jammy spot, not far from the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, on its namesake island (or at least pedestrianised peninsula, that appears cast adrift from the rest of the city in the Oslofjord. Its interiors and raison d’etre are as jarring as the works lining its nearby art museum (free, with a flash of your room card). A black and gold theme is painted in contemporary strokes, and illuminated wherever possible, from gold-lined cupboard doors to cubic headboard displays. Furniture feels masculine, if not a little sparse, keeping floor-to-ceiling window views over the Oslojford the main event. And, courtesy of its location, there’s a brow-raising art collection, featuring works from all the usual contemporary suspects – Damien Hirst, Chris Gianakos and Antony Gormley. The thing is, where the group’s other Oslo hotels delivered on hip, Deco decadence with a side of Scandi, The Thief feels more serious, more of an experiment perhaps as this oil-rich city began to dabble in hospitality. What it lacks in haute hygge oomph, it makes up for in its knockout views and ongoing dance with the nostalgic Scandinavia light, as if its fully immersed in the harbour – transparent and porous, inhaling the salty air. While Oslo’s small and manageable by foot, a summer weekend could easily drop anchor here, with the smorgasbord of restaurants and shops lining the Akker Brygge waterfront, and the water itself quite magnetic. The rooftop restaurant is the place to be when Oslo finally switches on the sunshine, with fjord-to-fork seafood and a stellar cocktail menu. And in the chillier months, a small-but-mighty spa lurks underneath, with its sultry, candle-lit pool and crystal steam room.
Price: Doubles from £232
Grand Hotel Oslo
This turreted, stately, landmark hotel cuts an imposing figure on the capital’s Karl Johans Gate, and remains the fanciest, most flamboyant stay in the city. Thrusting its guests back to an era of long, silver service lunches, eccentric characters lingering in the lobby and general high society drama, the hotel doesn’t disappoint on opulent interiors. It is perhaps best known though for hosting the Nobel Peace Prize winner since the Award’s inception in 1901 – they stay in the sprawling, panelled and parquet-floored Nobel Suite, receiving their ovation on the balcony. The hotel itself was a petri-dish of boheme in the 19th and 20th centuries: Per Krogh stayed here (his statue sits directly outside the hotel), Munch famously swapped his painting, The Sick Child, for 100 steak lunches in the Grand Café, and Norwegian playwright and theatre director, Henrik Ibsen would dine here regularly. While still lavishly dressed, rooms and suites have received a contemporary lick – it’s not always a smooth conversation (the odd purple velvet antique chair against heavy linen curtains, or a metallic ottoman..) but overall the palette is creamy, textured and illuminated from all angles by natural light. The suites are spacious and ornate – the Tower Suite hits all the Grande Dame high notes, with hair-raising views across the city. Sink into the inky velvet chairs with a preprandial cocktail at the lobby bar, Othilia before the theatrics begin at Palmen. Here, elevated Nordic classics are whipped out like a dance beneath a gargantuan chandelier and good time snaps of the various celebrities, royals and rock stars who once swanned through the lobby doors line the walls.
Price: Doubles from £157
Getty ImagesCamilla’s Hus
Tucked in a leafy enclave on the edge of Slottsparken and in the Linstow-designed area encircling the Royal Palace, Camilla’s Hus is a charming boutique hotel, right in the centre of it all. The prevailing sense is that you’re dropping your bags at a friend’s old family home, with its pastel clapboard exterior reminiscent of a Hans Andersen fairytale and, inside, rooms dressed according to its owner’s whims (the first being Norwegian novelist and women’s rights campaigner, Camilla Collett). As such, nostalgia appears to be the consistent thread, where even the more contemporary four posters, heavy linen curtains and tiled bathrooms paint a traditional, refined picture of Norwegian life. In the rooms, comfort sits front and centre, with cushioned headboards, quilts, deep copper baths and sofas swatched in soft rugs, but downstairs, Restaurant 29 presents a somewhat moodier, more masculine proposition, with dark, Nordic-sky walls featuring vintage car canvases, contemporary lighting lifting the period features, and dark leather studded chairs recalling a Gents’ Club. This spills onto a light and lovely courtyard terrace, where locals and hotel guests tuck into the amid the potted plants and giant parasols.
Price: Doubles from £209
Att Kvadraturen
A cheap and chic stay is few and far between in pricey Oslo, where your average sandwich will set you back around 12 euros. So Att Kvadraturen’s 2022 arrival was a timely one, (the city may have been booming but tourists’ had long been deterred by the expensive stays and transport). Finally, here was a hotel with bags of style, (courtesy of Gathe + Gram), that wouldn't break the bank. In many ways, Att Kvadraturen embodies the unbuttoned Nordic-cool that has seismically shifted Europe’s hotel scene over the past two decades, and here, it’s simply doing its thing on home turf. Guests swan into the buzzy space with a fully digitalised check-in (no tedious lobby malarky), and can tumble into the rooms and little kitchen-clad ‘apartments’, with their ludicrously comfortable beds and right-on design. The overall aesthetic is a hip-and-hygge take on minimalism, with a paper maché lamp here and cult armchair there. Any richness can be found in the small details – the scalloped side tables in the room and apartments, the calm and colourful prints by Norwegian artist Constance Tenvik, and the Pinterest-perfect marble sinks, restrained by their pared down context. Even rooms at the more affordable end of the scale are decked in heavenly Jensen beds with cushioned banquettes and smart wooden floors, and in the top rung, they’re swing-a-cat spacious, and a sliver of Osloite life, smack bang in the Sentrum of it all (Bjørvika Harbour’s museums and the Royal Palace are all within easy reach). Then there’s the year-round rooftop Rivier Tak for sundowners, the Michelin-starred restaurant, Savage, (a Scandinavian-inclined menu with global influences), and the pocket-sized cinema – which together, constitute more of a happening hub than a hotel. And you can relax on the planning, Kvadraturen neighbourhood guides are superb, sending guests skipping off to natural wine and live music joints (Becco), the best summer swimming spots in the Oslo Fjords and cocktails in a former pharmacy (Svanen).
Price: Doubles from £118
Getty ImagesLysebu Hotel
Osloites have always had a deep connection with nature, made easy by virtue of their clean water and a wooded wilderness that envelopes the city. They tend to retreat to their own island huts or those with jetties protruding from lake banks in the woods. Lying on Oslo’s forested, northern fringes (the gateway to Nordmarka), Lysebu caters to this ritual, and can be reached from the city centre by train in under half an hour. The traditional, clapboard lodge appears to have sprung from a Norwegian storybook, with little white windows and arches painted onto its dark timber exterior like gingerbread house icing. Some rooms and suites tap into the Scandi lodge aesthetic, with Ercol chairs, log fires and a monochrome minimalism, while others in the communal areas err more on the traditional and cosy, with antique furniture, grandfather clocks and roaring fires. It’s essentially the Norwegian take on the country club, where winter weekends centre around skiing-with-spa (and plenty of hygge vignets) then hiking and swimming in summer, with a gourmet restaurant worth traipsing home for). The history is as enchanting as the surrounding Sørkedalen valley itself – originally built by Magnus Poulsson in 1916, Norway gave the hotel to The Fund for Danish-Norwegian Cooporation as a thank you to Denmark for its food aid during the Second World War.
Price: Doubles from £102