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

Verdict: Avoid. Cheap for a reason. Read the cons first.

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

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.

Facts: 110 min walk to Karl Johans gate; 60 min to the airport; price €€€; best for quiet, families; lines 1, 2.

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

Hotels in Vestre Aker: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D17309%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Oslo

- [Sentrum](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-oslo/sentrum): Recommended. 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.
- [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.