110 min
60 min
1 · 2
0.1 / km²
3
5
431
+13% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Vestre Aker
Vestre Aker is the hillside north-west of Ring 3: Vinderen, Slemdal, Holmenkollen, Voksenkollen and the edge of the Nordmarka forest. It holds the ski jump, the ski museum, the Frognerseteren restaurant and the two hotels everyone means when they say they are staying at Holmenkollen.
As a place to sleep for a city trip, it does not work. Metro line 1 is the only line to Holmenkollen, it climbs to nearly 500 metres, and the ride to the centre is 20 to 30 minutes each way before you have walked to the station at either end. When you step off at Holmenkollen there is no restaurant strip, no shop worth the name and no second option - you are eating in the hotel, at hotel prices.
There is one exception, and it is the reason this is on the map at all: if you came to Oslo for skiing, this is where the trails start, and in February the difference between the city and 400 metres up is snow instead of grey slush. Book two nights of it at the end of a trip if you want the view. Do not base a first visit here, and do not book it in summer because the photographs looked good.
What works
- The trails and the ski jump start at the metro station
- Snow up here in winter when the centre has rain and slush
- Views over the whole city and fjord from Holmenkollen and Voksenkollen
- Genuinely quiet - forest, detached houses and no traffic
What does not
- 20 to 30 minutes each way on metro line 1, the only line to Holmenkollen
- You eat in your hotel because there is nothing else within walking distance
- Not walkable to the centre at all - it is 9 km and 400 vertical metres
- In summer there is no reason to be up here after you have seen the jump
These hills are home to several good hotels and some of Oslo's best restaurants. Metro lines serve the outer settlements in Oslo North and one reach downtown in some 20-30 minutes. The metro there climbs to a maximum of almost 500 meters above sea level.