Where do you actually go? The Oslo fjord from the water
Everyone writes "a trip on the Oslo fjord". Few say where. Here are the routes we actually run, how long they take, and what you see along the way.
3 min read · 29. august 2026
"A trip on the Oslo fjord" says about as much as "a drive in Norway". The fjord is a hundred kilometres long. Where you end up depends on how many hours you have, and on the weather that day.
Here are the routes we actually run, with times that hold.
Two hours: the inner harbour
Out from Aker Brygge, past the Opera House and Sørenga, around Hovedøya and Lindøya, and back. Fifteen minutes to the first island.
This is the trip for a party heading on to dinner, or for guests from abroad who should see Oslo from the water. You will not have time to swim or to eat properly, but you will see the city rise behind you — and that is the point.
Four hours: Nesodden and Bunnefjorden
This is our most common trip, and the one we recommend when people are unsure.
South along Bygdøy, past Dyna lighthouse, across to the Nesodden peninsula. Bunnefjorden is the arm running southeast towards Ås, and it is usually calmer than the main channel — you lie in the lee there when it blows from the west.
Four hours leaves time to lie still somewhere for an hour and a half. That is where the day actually happens: engines off, bathing platform down, food on the aft deck. Keep moving the whole time and it is sightseeing. Lie still and it becomes a day.
Six hours: Drøbak and Oscarsborg
Now it becomes a journey. The Drøbak narrows are where the fjord closes to under a kilometre, with the Oscarsborg fortress in the middle of the channel.
An hour and a half each way at an easy pace, faster if you want more time down there. We usually come alongside at Drøbak and let people ashore for an hour — a small town with a quay, an ice cream shop, and people who come to look at the boat.
Six hours is also the shortest we would recommend if you want to swim properly. The water is warmest in August, around twenty degrees inside the bays.
A full day: towards Færder
Twelve hours, and you are out of the Oslo fjord proper and into the archipelago at Tjøme. Færder lighthouse stands at the very outer edge, where the outer fjord meets the Skagerrak, and the landscape changes completely: from wooded hills to bare rock.
This is a different kind of day. It is three hours each way, so you do not do it to fit the most in — you do it to reach somewhere that looks nothing like Oslo.
Beyond twelve hours we move to a daily rate, and then the southern coast opens up. That is its own subject.
What decides the route on the day
A southwesterly is what most often moves us. It leaves the main channel open and choppy, so we go inshore instead. You notice it only as the boat being comfortable.
The skipper decides this, and he decides it in the morning, not when you booked. If there is somewhere you would like to go — a cabin, an islet, a place with a story — say so when you send the request, and we will plan around it if the weather allows.
The short answer
With four hours it is Nesodden and a quiet hour in a bay. With six it is Drøbak. With two it is the city from the water.
And if you have not decided, say so — we have run these routes a few hundred times and are happy to suggest.