Oslo Pass Review: Is It Worth the Money?

Oslo Pass Review: Prices, Benefits & Tips

Whenever we visit a new city, we check whether a city pass could save us money on attractions or public transportation. In some cities, they are absolutely worth it, while in others, we wouldn’t bother. Oslo has its own Oslo Pass, so we decided to put it to the test during our trip and see whether it actually makes sense for travelers.

Why We Decided to Try the Oslo Pass

Whenever we visit a new city, we check whether a city pass could make things easier or save us money. Sometimes they are worth it; sometimes they really aren’t. In Oslo, we decided to try the Oslo Pass because it covered several things we already knew we wanted to use, especially public transportation, the airport train, and a few attractions on our list. It also gave us the flexibility to hop on and off public transport throughout the day without buying separate tickets each time.

How Much Does the Oslo Pass Cost

The price depends on how long you plan to stay and how much you want to see. The Oslo Pass is available for 24, 48, or 72 hours, with lower prices for children and seniors. All versions include the same main benefits, so the longer passes give you more time to use them.

Oslo Pass	Adult	Child 6–17	Senior 67+
24 hours	NOK 580	NOK 290	NOK 465
48 hours	NOK 845	NOK 420	NOK 675
72 hours	NOK 995	NOK 495	NOK 795

*The prices above are for 2026.

What Is Included in the Oslo Pass

The Oslo Pass combines free entry to museums and attractions, public transportation, and discounts into one card. Here’s what you get:

• Museums & Attractions. Free entry to 30+ museums and attractions. Includes popular places such as MUNCH, the Fram Museum, the National Museum, the Kon-Tiki Museum, and Holmenkollen Ski Museum.
• Public Transportation. Unlimited travel on Ruter buses, trams, metro, ferries, and local Vy trains. Covers zones 1, 2, 3, 4V and 4N. Local Vy trains to and from Oslo Airport Gardermoen are also included.
• Ferries. Regular Ruter ferries are included within the covered zones. The Bygdøy ferry to the museums is also included with the Oslo Pass.
• Discounts. Discounts are available on selected sightseeing tours, activities, restaurants, shops, and other experiences.
• Other Benefits. The pass is digital through the Oslo Pass app, making it easy to keep everything on your phone. At included attractions, you can generally visit once every 24 hours during your pass validity.

Which Attractions Are Free With the Oslo Pass

The Oslo Pass includes free entry to more than 30 museums and attractions. To give you an idea of the value, here are some of the most popular ones, including several we visited ourselves.

Attraction	Regular Adult Price	With Oslo Pass
MUNCH	NOK 220	Free
Fram Museum	NOK 180	Free
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History	NOK 200	Free
National Museum	NOK 200	Free
Holmenkollen Ski Museum	NOK 200	Free
Kon-Tiki Museum	NOK 180	Free
Nobel Peace Center	NOK 180	Free
Viking Planet	NOK 285	Free

What Is NOT Included

The Oslo Pass covers a lot, but there are still a few things you need to pay for separately:

• Flytoget Airport Express: Not included.
• Flybussen: Not included.
• Non-included attractions: Attractions not included in the Oslo Pass still require a separate ticket.
• Some reservations or special activities: Certain experiences may require an additional reservation or fee, so check before you go.

Which Oslo Pass Should You Get

The right Oslo Pass depends on how long you are staying and how much you plan to see.

• 24 hours: Best for a short visit or one packed day of sightseeing.
• 48 hours: A good option for a two-day trip with several museums and attractions.
• 72 hours: Best for a three-day trip when you plan to use public transportation and visit several attractions.

For us, the 72-hour Oslo Pass was the right choice because we were in Oslo for three days and used it quite a lot, from museums and attractions to buses, trams, metro, and ferries.

How to Buy the Oslo Pass

You can buy the Oslo Pass before or during your trip; we downloaded the Oslo Pass app while we were still at home, before leaving for Norway. You can also buy the pass in advance, so you don’t need to wait until you arrive in Oslo. The important part is that validity starts only when you activate the pass, which you do directly in the app.

• Online: Buy your Oslo Pass before your trip.
• Oslo Pass App: Download the app, purchase your pass, and activate it when you are ready to start using it.
• Oslo Visitor Center: You can also buy the pass in person after arriving in Oslo.

We downloaded the app at home and bought our passes before the trip, which made everything very easy. We didn’t have to spend time looking for a place to buy the pass after arriving. We activated it when we were ready to start sightseeing, and the validity period began then.

How to Activate the Oslo Pass

We had the digital Oslo Pass, so we downloaded the app while we were still at home. We didn’t activate it until we arrived in Norway. In fact, as soon as we stepped off the airplane, we opened the app and activated the pass. The whole process took about a minute.

Once activated, you get a live countdown at the top of the app showing how much time you have left on your pass. When you open the pass, you can also see the different sections, including admissions for museums and attractions and public transport, which you can use throughout your pass period.

The important thing is not to activate the pass too early. Your 24, 48, or 72 hours start counting when you activate it, not when you buy it. So buying it at home is fine, but save activation for when you’re ready to start using it.

How to Calculate If the Oslo Pass Is Worth It

Whether the Oslo Pass is worth it really depends on how you plan to spend your time in Oslo. The more attractions you visit and the more public transportation you use, the easier it is to get your money’s worth.

When we compare city passes, we always do the same calculation. We first check how much public transportation would cost us for the number of days we are staying, including any airport transport. If the city pass includes the train or other transport from the airport, we add that value as well. Then we look at the must-see museums and attractions already on our itinerary and add up their individual ticket prices.

Once we have those numbers, we compare the total with the pass price. We also think about how much sightseeing we can realistically fit into the pass period. There is no point buying a city pass just because it includes lots of attractions if you only plan to visit one or two. For us, the calculation is simple: transport + airport transfer + the attractions we actually want to visit = is the pass cheaper?

Our Oslo Pass Usage

This table shows exactly what we used during our three days in Oslo, from the museums and attractions we visited to the airport train and public transportation. It also shows what all of this would have cost us without the Oslo Pass, so you can see how we calculated whether the pass was worth it for our trip.

What We Used	Price Without Oslo Pass	With Oslo Pass
MUNCH	NOK 220	Free
Fram Museum	NOK 180	Free
Norwegian Museum of Cultural History	NOK 200	Free
Holmenkollen Ski Museum	NOK 200	Free
Akershus Castle	NOK 160	Free
Norway’s Resistance Museum	NOK 160	Free
Vy train from Oslo Airport to Oslo S	NOK 124	Free
Public transportation for 3 days	NOK 276	Free
Bygdøy ferry to Fram Museum and back	NOK 140	Free
Total	NOK 1,660	NOK 995 Oslo Pass

For the public transportation calculation, we used the minimum of two journeys per day for three days, so six Zone 1 single tickets at NOK 46 each. The Vy airport train is calculated as a one-way trip from Oslo Airport to Oslo S.

That means we would have spent around NOK 1,660 without the Oslo Pass, compared with NOK 995 for the 72-hour pass. In our case, that saved us NOK 665 per person.

And this is without adding any extra value from the ferries or any additional public transportation journeys we might have taken. So for our three-day itinerary, the Oslo Pass more than paid for itself.

Our Experience With the Oslo Pass

Using the Oslo Pass was easy from start to finish. Buying it was simple, activating it took about a minute, and once it was active, we basically didn’t have to think about tickets anymore. We could open the app, check the pass when needed, and go.

That was especially convenient because we used public transportation a lot. We waddled around a lot, but whenever we needed to get somewhere faster, or the weather suddenly decided to turn on us, we could hop on a tram, bus, or metro without stopping to think, Do we need another ticket for this? When it started raining, having the pass meant we could jump onto the nearest public transport and keep going.

We also used the ferry, which was one of our favorite parts, and visited several museums and attractions covered by the pass. Having everything in one place made the whole trip feel much more relaxed. We weren’t constantly calculating ticket prices or standing at machines trying to work out what we needed next. For us, that convenience was a big part of why the Oslo Pass worked so well.

One thing we really liked was the Oslo Pass app itself. It wasn’t just there to store the pass. You could browse all the included attractions, open a map to see what was nearby, and click on places to learn more. The app also had a clear menu where you could access the pass, check how to redeem it, view the list of included attractions, and explore the different sections of the app. We used the map a lot while exploring Oslo, especially when we were already in an area and wanted to see what else was nearby.

Good to Know Before Using the Oslo Pass

The Oslo Pass is easy to use, but there are a few little things we wish we had known before our trip.

• You cannot simply scan the QR code at the museum entrance. Even though the Oslo Pass in the app has a QR code, you still need to go to the ticket counter first. Staff scan your active pass, then give you a small admission ticket to use to enter the museum. You have to do this separately at each attraction. So don’t walk straight to the turnstiles and expect to scan your phone and walk in. This was probably the one thing we found less convenient than the Lisbon Card, where you can often scan and go. VisitOSLO also confirms that you should show the Oslo Pass at the ticket office, where staff will scan it.
• Your pass needs to stay valid for the entire airport train journey. When using the Oslo Pass on the local Vy train to Oslo Airport, make sure it is still valid when you reach the airport. It cannot expire halfway through the journey. So don’t leave the airport trip until the very end of your pass if your remaining time is tight. VisitOSLO specifically says the pass must remain valid for the entire journey.
• Different QR codes are for different things. The app has a QR code for attractions and a separate transport section for public transportation. On the ferry we took to the museums, we were asked to show the admission QR code, not the transport one. It was one of those small things that wasn’t immediately obvious, so it is good to know before you start clicking through the app wondering which code you are supposed to show.

These are small details, but knowing them in advance makes using the Oslo Pass much smoother. Once you know which QR code to use and where to go, the whole system is pretty straightforward.

When Is the Oslo Pass NOT Worth It

• You visit only one or two paid attractions. The individual tickets may cost less than the pass.
• You mainly walk. If you rarely use public transportation, you lose part of the pass’s value.
• You spend most of your time outdoors. Parks, viewpoints, and free sights won’t add much to the calculation.
• You have a slow itinerary. If you only visit one attraction per day, the pass may not pay for itself.
• Most of your attractions are not included. Always check the attraction list before buying.
• You are staying longer but sightseeing less. A 72-hour pass isn’t automatically better just because you are in Oslo for three days.
• You don’t use the airport train. This removes another useful part of the pass’s value for some travelers.

Oslo Pass Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Free entry to many attractions	Not every attraction is included
Public transportation included	Can be expensive if you don’t visit enough attractions
Ferries included	Some attractions may require reservations
Convenient	You need to plan around the validity period
Can save money	Less useful for slow travelers

Oslo Pass: Is It Worth It?

Penguin Approved: YES! For us, the Oslo Pass is definitely worth it. It is not a cheap city pass, so you should do the math before buying one. But after using it ourselves for three days, visiting several museums, taking the airport train, and using public transportation throughout the city, we found that it paid for itself.

As with the Lisbon Card and Copenhagen Card, we recommend doing the math before your trip. Add up the attractions you already know you want to visit, the public transportation you expect to use, and any included airport transport. Then compare that total with the pass price.

For us, the numbers worked. Beyond the savings, we really appreciated the convenience of hopping on a bus, tram, metro, or ferry without having to buy another ticket. So yes, the Oslo Pass gets our penguin seal of approval.

Buy Us a Ko-fi

After testing city passes in several cities, we always do the math before buying one. The Oslo Pass worked for us, just like the Lisbon Card and Copenhagen Card, and definitely earned its place in our travel toolkit.

Travel Bold. Eat Well. Waddle Wild.

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