I thought living in London made you think that everywhere else was fairly cheap, but Oslo is definitely an exception. It was madly expensive, think £3 for a can of Fanta in a supermarket!!! £10 for a cheap drink in a pub!!! Oh dear.
We knew it was going to be expensive, we guessed it would be slightly more than London, when in trying to find accommodation, it was £40 for a hostel room, and the Lonely Planet guidebook suggested 140 Euros per person per day as a BUDGET travel budget, but I don't think we were quite prepared for just how much everything would quite cost.
However, we did end up spending around £200 for 2 people for a weekend and had a great time!
Here are some recommendations....
Sleep
We stayed in the Anker Hostel: http://www.ankerhostel.no/en/ it looks like a hospital room, but is in a great location, has comfy beds, really good showers and friendly staff. We could easily cope with clinical looking rooms in exchange for all of this, and for around £40 per night.
Eat
We had breakfast in the convenience stores, where a coffee/tea and pastry was only 25NOK (£1.90). Lunch was hot dogs, for around 30NOK, and then for dinner, we found a local pub, where dinner and drinks was only £50!!! (Mad anywhere else for a pub but cheap for Oslo and tasty food!!)
See
We went on a free walking tour with http://freetouroslo.com/ which was really interesting, and then did just wander everywhere. Oslo is quite a small city so it is really easily covered entirely on foot. The only time we got the T-bane was when we went out to Holmenkollen to see the amazing ski jump, which is definitely worth a visit.
The big spend was on a fjord cruise which was 269NOK and well worth the money. The views out in the fjord are stunning and it's unlike anywhere else I've ever been.
All in all we really enjoyed our weekend in Oslo. It was a clean, peaceful, interesting city, and everyone we spoke to was really friendly. I would definitely recommend it as a weekend break, but only when you're feeling fairly well off!!
