# Is Sentrum a Good Area to Stay in Oslo? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Recommended. Book here without thinking about it.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/sentrum
Every Oslo district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo.md

The whole of Karl Johans gate, the Palace, the fortress and the Central Station in one small borough. About a thousand people live here, and you will feel it after 22:00.

Facts: 3 min walk to Karl Johans gate; 22 min to the airport; 15 min to the beach; price €€€€; best for first-timers, sights, business trips, solo travellers; lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19.
Safety: Mixed after dark. Jernbanetorget, Vaterland and the Skippergata-Tollbugata blocks below Karl Johan draw street drinking and dealing after dark. It is intimidating rather than dangerous, but book above Karl Johan if that matters to you.

Sentrum is the core inside Ring 1: Karl Johans gate from the Central Station up to the Royal Palace, the Kvadraturen grid below it, the City Hall and Akershus Fortress on the water. Book here and you walk to almost everything a short trip is for, and you never work out which tram is which.

What you are buying is proximity, not a neighbourhood. This is an office and shopping district with about a thousand residents, so the streets empty on Sunday and the restaurants that stay open are the ones aimed at you. Rates are the highest in the city per star, and a room facing Karl Johan will hear the street until closing time.

The two ends of the borough are not the same place. The upper end by the Palace is quiet and safe at any hour. The lower end - Jernbanetorget, Vaterland, the Skippergata and Tollbugata blocks below Karl Johan - carries Oslo's most visible street drinking and dealing, and it is where the cheapest central rooms are advertised. Read the street name before you book the bargain.

What works:
- Every metro line and most trams stop inside the borough
- Karl Johans gate, the Palace, the fortress and the harbour on foot
- Flytoget from Oslo S puts Gardermoen airport 20 minutes away
- The only district where you need no transport at all for two days

What does not:
- About a thousand residents: dead on Sundays and after 22:00
- Highest room rates in Oslo for the same star rating
- Restaurants on Karl Johan are priced and cooked for tourists
- The cheap rooms are down by the station, and that is why they are cheap

Hotels in Sentrum: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D5916%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Oslo

- [St. Hanshaugen](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/st-hanshaugen): Recommended. Central Oslo with people living in it. Twelve minutes downhill to Karl Johans gate, and the shops on your street are open when you come back.
- [Frogner](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/frogner): Recommended. The wealthy west: Vigeland park, Majorstuen, Aker Brygge and the Bygdøy museums. Wide, quiet streets and the most expensive food in Norway.
- [Grünerløkka](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/grunerlokka): Recommended. Oslo's drinking and eating district, in a grid of 1890s tenements twenty minutes north of the centre. Cheaper than the west, and loud until 03:00 at weekends.
- [Gamle Oslo](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/gamle-oslo): Mixed. The cheapest central beds in Oslo, and the one district Norwegian police name. The Opera, the Munch and Grønland's food streets are all in it, and so is the drug market.
- [Sagene](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/sagene): Mixed. Torshov and Bjølsen, one ring road north of Grünerløkka. The same 1890s tenements for less money, and half an hour on foot from Karl Johans gate.
- [Ullern](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/ullern): Avoid. Skøyen's office towers and the villa hills above them. Four minutes from the airport train and 55 minutes on foot from anything you came to see.
- [Nordre Aker](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/nordre-aker): Avoid. Ullevål, Nydalen and the student halls up towards Sognsvann. Cheap beds on the metro, a football stadium, and no city around them.
- [Vestre Aker](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/vestre-aker): Avoid. Holmenkollen, Vinderen and the forest above them. Two famous hotels with a view of Oslo, 20 to 30 minutes on one metro line from anything you can do in it.