Oslo rarely wins the beauty contest against Norway's postcard towns like Bergen and Tromsø, but the capital has quietly assembled a strong case for itself: serious museums (including the Munch museum, home of The Scream), maritime and Viking exhibitions, leafy green spaces and a short drive to glassy fjords and mountains. For Condé Nast Traveller's editors, the smartest way to experience it is not a design hotel but a private rental — and they've shortlisted seven Airbnbs they say are worth booking in 2026.
The picks are sorted by traveller type, which makes the list genuinely usable. Couples are pointed towards an artistic apartment in Grünerløkka, the city's buzzy, café-lined east-side neighbourhood. Families get a colour-drenched, quirky flat on Ormøya, an island in the Oslofjord that puts water at your doorstep without leaving the city. Big groups can go big with a historic Art Nouveau castle in Bærum, just outside the centre — the kind of listing that turns a trip into an occasion.
Design lovers get two entries to consider: a concrete-and-wood home in Gamle Oslo, the old town quarter east of the centre, which doubles as the editors' pick for the best view of the lot. Rounding out the range are cosy studios with private rooftops and a lovingly restored century-old sea cabin, so there's something from budget-adjacent to splurge.
The vetting matters here. Every listing was filtered on Superhost status, guest ratings and reviews, amenities, location and decor — so you're not scrolling through hundreds of mediocre options yourself. All are independently selected, though booking through the article's links earns the magazine an affiliate commission.
Why bother with Oslo at all? Because it compresses two holidays into one. A weekender here covers Scandinavian city culture — galleries, shopping streets, waterfront architecture — and then swaps it for fjords and forested hills within a short drive. And choosing an Airbnb over a hotel puts you in residential neighbourhoods like Grünerløkka or Ormøya, where you'll eat, shop and walk like a local rather than queueing with tour groups. If your trip is part of a wider Nordic loop, the same editors have parallel guides to Copenhagen, Icelandic hotels and Northern Lights stays further north.
For anyone planning a 2026 city break that doesn't feel like every other European city break, this shortlist is a solid starting point — pick by group size and taste, then let the fjord do the rest.
