30 min
40 min
11 · 12 · 13
5.9 / km²
1
2
1,536
−20% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
The Akerselva path along the eastern edge, down past Kuba towards Grønland, is the stretch Oslo police advise against after dark. Vogts gate and Thorvald Meyers gate are lit and busy; take those instead.
Staying in Sagene
Sagene is the borough above Grünerløkka: Torshov, Bjølsen, Sandaker, Iladalen and the mills on the Akerselva that gave it its name. It is what Grünerløkka was before the bars arrived - the same brick tenement grid, the same river, considerably cheaper, and with almost nothing in it aimed at a visitor.
That is the whole trade. A flat here runs below Grünerløkka rates and well below anything in the west, Torshov has a genuine local restaurant and bar strip around Hegermanns plass, and the walk south along the Akerselva into town is the best half hour in Oslo on a clear day. For a week or a month, it works.
For three nights it does not. There is no metro station in the borough - trams 11, 12 and 13 down Vogts gate are the whole service, and they take fifteen minutes to the centre before you have walked to the stop. Nothing on a sightseeing list is here. And the borough climbs: Torshov sits uphill of Ring 2, which you notice with a suitcase and again on ice in February.
What works
- Cheaper than Grünerløkka for the same 1890s tenement flat
- Torshov has a real bar and restaurant strip that is not aimed at visitors
- The Akerselva path walks you into the centre in about half an hour
- Residential and quiet at night, which Grünerløkka is not
What does not
- No metro station anywhere in the borough - trams 11, 12 and 13 only
- About 30 minutes on foot to Karl Johans gate, and uphill coming back
- Not one thing a first-time visitor came to Oslo to see is here
- Mostly private flats, so no reception, no breakfast and no late check-in
Torshov is the neighbourhood North of Grünerløkka, uphill from ring road 2.The police advise that the area along the Akerselva river from Grønland to Cuba is best avoided after dark. It is known for instances of rape, muggings and drug dealing.