Oslo City
Well, they call this place beautiful Oslo and I certainly would not argue with that. Oslo pubs are open all year round of course, but the best time of year to come here is obviously the Summer time, when the local scenery is breathtaking. Oslo often enjoys beautiful and very hot Summers, but the Winter time is usually bitterly cold, where temperatures can fall to -30 degrees centigrade and that's without the wind chill factor.

Oslo has a good selection of shops for the shopaholics amongst you. The main Oslo street Carl Johans Gate contains a number of stylish and appealing shops and is a great place to be in the Summer time when the sun is shining. Take a look at Oslo cathedral while you are there. There are also two major shopping centres, Oslo City and Byporten, both located within walking distance of the Oslo central railway station Sentralstasjon.

Frogner park is the most visited tourist attraction in Oslo and is often crammed with tourist busses when the sun is shining. Within Frogner park is the Vigeland sculpture park and museum which contains 200 sculptures from the famous Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. Many of the Oslo icons can be found within the park and if you go nowhere else in Oslo, you have to come here! You can buy refreshments or even a decent meal from within the park and it's such a great place to hang out for the whole day when the sun is shining. Frogner park has a great water park for the kids and is the home of the annual Norwegian Wood rock festival, which has been held in June every year since 1992. Click here for pictures of Frogner Park.

One of the the major tourist traps in Oslo is Aker Brygge, which was formerly one of Norways largest shipyards. It's almost a city within a city and packed with restaurants, shops and pubs, with a panoramic view of the Oslo Fjord. From Aker Brygge, you will get a great view of the fortified Akershus castle which dates back to 1299. It's well worth a visit for the views of Oslo alone. No trip to Oslo would be complete with an evening boat trip around the Oslo fjord. Tickets can be purchased for less than 300 NOK from the waterfront in front of the Oslo Town Hall, which is where the Oslo Tourist Office can also be found. For Fjord pictures, click here.

From Aker Brygge, you can take a ferry in the Summer time to the Bygdøy peninsular, where you will find the Viking ship museum, which contains three viking ships that were found in large burial mounds in the Oslo Fjord area. Just up the road, you will find the Kon Tiki museum which houses the papyrus boats Ra I and Ra II, along with Thor Heyerdal's Kon Tiki raft. Directly opposite the Kon Tiki museum, there is the Fram museum, which is dedicated to the exploits of arctic explorers, Roald Amundsen and Fritjof Nansen. The polar ship Fram is very well preserved and you can actually go onboard. Each of the cabins has details of who occupied it on each of its more famous voyages. For pictures of the Fram and Kon Tiki museums, click here.

The world famous ski jump at Holmenkollen is only a short train ride away on Line 1 of the Tbane. You can climb to the top of the ski jump too for awesome views of the Oslo area and there's even a ski jump simulator, but this is not something for those with a weak heart! The area also has some great places to walk. While on the subject of walks, why not take the Line 3 train up to Sognsvann and take a walk around the lake or up into the tree lined hills. Click here for Holmenkollen pics.

For art lovers, no trip to Oslo is complete without a visit to the Munch Museum, the home of many of the works of Norway's finest artist, Edvard Munch. The Royal Palace sits impressively at the end of Carl Johans gate and offers a great view of the city, particularly on May17th, the Norwegian National Day, where the whole of Carl Johan is full of marching bands, school children and enough Norwegian flags to cover a small planet! Tours of the Palace take place three times an hour between 17th June and 12th August, but you must buy tickets in advance from www.ticketmaster.no, as they are not available at the Palace. For Palace and May 17th pictures, click here.

For the kids in the family, or even the big kids that would rather not grow up, take a trip out to Tusenfryd, Oslo's very own theme park. The park is open from late April until early October. Busses leave Oslo bus station at regular intervals between 10:00 and 16:00. Check their web site for more details.

We have tried to cover the main attractions here in Oslo, but if there's something else that you want to see which is not mentioned above, then the best place to look is the web site of the Oslo Tourist Office, which covers just about anything that you might want to see in the City. Have a great time in beautiful Oslo and enjoy the pubs too!