Travel Guide Books

[2024 update] Lonely Planet guide books changed ownership a couple of years ago and their new guidebooks are close to useless. So my information about them in this post is now outdated. I'd avoid buying them.

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There are plenty of guidebooks for travel to Norway and Scandinavia. Here’s an overview of some of the better ones that will be useful to either give you ideas before your trip or to assist you during your journey. 

Lonely planet  and Rough Guides are the two big names. Both are fairly comprehensive and are worth browsing through before your trip to give you ideas of where you might like to visit. Rough Guides tend to be stronger on culture while Lonely Planet has better maps and practical information. I would give the edge to traveling with Lonely Planet unless it’s an older edition.

Moon travel guides are not as popular or as glossy as the above two, but they have excellent straight forward information and are fairly comprehensive.  They make some unorthodox sightseeing recommendations, which is refreshing as most travel guidebooks tend cover the same sights.

Rick Steves guide books have a more focused approach than the others. Rick limits his coverage to those places he feels are central and he likes. He has a wide following of independent travelers in the mid price range. His walking tours are very well done. The maps and practical information are not as strong as Lonely Planet’s but this is a good choice if you are in sync with Rick’s travel philosophy.

Insight Guides have great pictures and inspiring text but are not good on practical information. So I would read these before your trip and not bring them with you.

DK Eyewitness travel guides have the best visual illustrations I’ve seen. They are great for dense urban areas packed with sights or navigating through a large museum. As much as I like them, I think they are better suited for a visit to London or Paris than travelling around Norway

If you can’t decide between two guidebooks, buy the one that is the most recent. Also be aware that there’s often a year between when books are researched and when they are published, so some information can be outdated.

You’re usually best off buying a Scandinavia guidebook if you’re combining your trip to Norway with a visit to Denmark and or Sweden. The Norway section in those books will be close to what you’ll find in a Norway only guidebook.

The Little Mermaid and Fearless Girl in Oslo

Oslo has two well known sculpture parks, the Vigeland Park and the Ekeberg Park . Less known are two famous statues that can be found in Oslo: The Little Mermaid and the Fearless Girl.

The Fearless Girl gained international attention in 2017 when it was placed in juxtaposition to Wall Street's Charging Bull in NYC. Initially, it was only to be displayed for one week as part of an advertising campaign for an investment company, but for many it quickly became a symbol of the resiliency of women. The removal of that statute became a political issue and the current mayor of NYC wants it to stay. 

A replica of the Fearless Girl can now be seen in front of the Grand Hotel in downtown Oslo. She stands there mostly unnoticed.

The Little Mermaid has become the symbol of Copenhagen. But you can see exactly the same sculpture by the Folketeateret in Oslo (both are copies of the original). Granted the Copenhagen setting, placed on a rock in the harbor, is more dramatic, but you can touch the one in Oslo and there aren't hordes of tourists blocking your view.

Oslo 2020

Oslo has been going from strength to strength in recent years. In 2008, the  Oslo Opera House quickly became an icon for the city with it's sloping, marble clad roof that visitors can walk up. In 2012, the Renzo Piano designed Astrup Fearnley Museum  of contemporary art opened in Tjuvholmen, an old dockyard in Oslo's central harbor. And in 2013, an eclectic collection of statutes dispersed through a forest was given to the city to establish the  Ekeberg Sculpture Park .

Oslo will take another big leap forward in 2020, when three new landmark buildings will open. Located a block from the City Hall, the new National Museum will be a new major sight in downtown Oslo. The over 6,000 works of art in the permanent collection will present Norwegian and European art from antiquity to the present, with Edvard Munch paintings being the biggest draw for tourists.

While the new National Museum will have one room dedicated to Edvard Munch, the new Munch Museum will need 12 stories to show some of the 28,000 art works that Munch donated to the city when he passed away. Located behind the new Opera House, the Munch Museum will be another major sight in Bjørvika, Oslo's new harbor side area. The video below shows an excellent preview of the new museum - click to full screen to see all the details.

The last of the new landmark buildings is the new Oslo Public Library, located directly across from the Opera House. It will make for an impressive start of the new Bjørvika area for those coming from the central railway station.