Is There a Zoo in Oslo? Where to See Animals In and Near the City

Yes, but only one, and it is a specialist: Oslo Reptilpark, Norway's only reptile park, is the one zoo in Oslo on Wikipedia's list of Norwegian zoos, with around 60 species. For sea life, Drøbak Akvarium is a bus ride down the Oslofjord, and for tigers, wolves and moose there is Kristiansand Dyrepark, which holds Norway's largest collection of animals about 310 km from Oslo.

Which venue to choose

The choice comes down to how far you will travel and what you want to see. Stay in the city and you get reptiles, spiders and small monkeys. Take the bus to Drøbak and you get the fish, crabs and sharks of the Oslofjord. For big mammals, the venue in this guide is Kristiansand Dyrepark, well outside the Oslo area.

Oslo Reptilpark: the zoo in the city

Featured location Oslo Reptilpark Oslo, Norway The reptile collection opened in January 2002 at Storgata 26 and moved to its present site in the autumn of 2007. Animals on show include slanger, øgler, skilpadder, fisk and edderkopper.

Oslo Reptilpark calls itself a different kind of wildlife in the middle of Oslo, and that is a fair description: snakes, lizards, turtles and tortoises, fish, spiders and monkeys rather than big mammals. Among its roughly 60 species are marmosets, green iguanas, bearded dragons, a spectacled caiman and several kinds of python. It is privately owned, and it is the only park of its kind in Norway.

Drøbak Akvarium: the Oslofjord under glass

Drøbak Akvarium shows the wildlife of the Oslofjord up close in more than 50 tanks, from 30-litre aquariums to a 25,000-litre pool. Say hello to Hugo, a large Atlantic wolffish and the aquarium's mascot, in the first pool you reach, then look for the small-spotted catsharks. Children can gently feel starfish, shore crabs and small flatfish in the touch pool, and there is a children's tunnel and a jellyfish tank too.

Staff feed the big pool every Monday and Thursday at 12:00, so time a weekday visit around midday. The aquarium has been open since 1995, draws about 35,000 visitors a year and is designed with children in mind.

Kristiansand Dyrepark: the big zoo, 310 km away

If by "zoo" you mean big animals, this is the park to plan for. Kristiansand Dyrepark holds the country's largest collection: more than 100 species, alongside an amusement park and a water park, open 365 days a year. The Nordic wilderness area has wolves, wolverines, Arctic foxes, lynx and moose, and a presentation in the Tiger's Kingdom brings you close to Amur tigers. There are animal presentations every day of the year.

Make time for the wolf presentation at feeding time. The wolves have so much space that you may not see them at all on an ordinary walk through the Nordic wilderness, but at feeding they usually come close.

The park is celebrating its 60th anniversary, with photo opportunities with characters from its themed worlds. It is not a day trip from Oslo in any practical sense: it lies about 310 km from the capital, and many guests stay two, three or even four days.

Getting there

Oslo Reptilpark is easy to reach on public transport: take bus 37 to Nordahl Bruns gate, the metro to Stortinget or Nationaltheatret, or the tram to Tinghuset or Tullinløkka.

For Drøbak Akvarium, at Havnegata 4 in Drøbak, take Ruter bus 500 from Oslo Bus Terminal. In summer you can go by boat instead: route B22 runs between Aker brygge and Drøbak, and in 2026 its summer timetable ran from 30 May to 30 August. Ordinary Ruter tickets are valid on the boats, but Drøbak is in zone 4, so buy a ticket that covers every zone you cross.

For Kristiansand Dyrepark, Vy runs about 15 buses a day from Oslo to Kristiansand, and the bus stops near the park's main entrance. If you are already in Kristiansand, local AKT buses take 10-15 minutes from the city centre and stop outside the entrance.

Tickets and saving money

Oslo Reptilpark costs about NOK 235-265, as of September 2026: NOK 265 for adults, NOK 250 for students and NOK 235 for children and seniors. Entry is free with a valid Oslo Pass, so if you are already carrying one, the visit costs you nothing extra.

Drøbak Akvarium costs about NOK 80-160, as of September 2026: NOK 160 for adults, NOK 80 for children aged 4-14, and nothing for children up to 3. If you will come back, the NOK 1,100 annual card covers two adults with their own children or grandchildren.

Kristiansand Dyrepark's prices vary by season, and in high season, from late June to early August, entry tickets are dynamically priced: the price depends on how far ahead you book and how many tickets have sold for that day. Buy early and buy online, which saves NOK 50 per ticket compared with the gate. Staying longer? An extra consecutive day costs from NOK 150 per ticket, and children aged 0-2 go free.

All three admit a companion free for visitors with a Norwegian companion card (ledsagerbevis). Kristiansand Dyrepark also hires out manual and electric wheelchairs, which you can reserve in advance, and its "Vis hensyn" wristband lets someone who cannot queue for long go to the front on most activities with one companion.

Best time to visit

Oslo's daylight runs from more than 18 hours at midsummer to around 6 hours in midwinter, and the venues' hours follow the seasons. Oslo Reptilpark opens 10:00-18:00 every day from April to August, but from September to March it closes on Mondays, except in the autumn, winter and Easter school holidays, when it opens daily. It closes on 1 January, 17 May, 23-26 December and 31 December. Drøbak Akvarium opens every day of the year, until 18:30 from May to August but only until 16:00 from September to April, so start early on a winter day.

Weekends at Oslo Reptilpark are busy enough that it asks large groups to come on weekdays. If you can, do the same.

This autumn, Oslo's school holiday runs from Monday 28 September to Friday 2 October 2026. Oslo Reptilpark is open every day through weeks 40 and 41, and Kristiansand Dyrepark runs its Halloween event, Skumle dager, in parts of the park from 26 September to 11 October and over the weekend of 16-18 October.

At Kristiansand, a September weekday means many activities, eateries and shops are closed, with a little more open at weekends. In the summer season you choose an entry time when you buy online, on the hour from 09:00 to 14:00.

Other wildlife nearby

If you want Norway's own animals and cannot get to Kristiansand, the Natural History Museum at Tøyen is a useful stand-in, though its animals are museum dioramas, not live ones. Its Norwegian Animals exhibition has more than 50 dioramas of Norwegian habitats and the animals that live in them. From 25 September 2026 until June 2027 the museum also shows BIRD CLIFF, an art exhibition about seabirds. All metro lines stop at Tøyen station, a six-minute walk from the museum's southern entrance.