AMS

Amsterdam

OSL

Oslo

Norway — A winter week

Wide open spaces, silence and cold light in the depths of winter

Duration

7 nights

Date

February 2026

Temperatures

down to −20 °C

Some trips begin long before departure. This one took shape on a winter evening, when the pull of wide open spaces, silence and cold light worked its way into our conversations. In February 2026, we left Amsterdam for Norway, right in the depths of winter.

For a week, in the Valdres valley three hours’ drive north of Oslo, we found a country where time slows down and the scenery shifts with every turn. Deep snow, vast frozen lakes at the foot of the mountains, sunrises unlike any we’ve seen elsewhere — and a sharp cold you end up rather liking. Going there in winter means accepting the long nights and a budget that stings; it also means seeing landscapes you don’t forget.

✓ Travelled in February 2026

✎ the trip started with a story: our outbound flight was diverted to Denmark for a medical emergency on board, and we sat on the plane for an hour. We reached Oslo far later than planned — which is exactly why booking a night near the airport before hitting the road turned out to be the right call.

The Valdres valley, in February

01Getting there and getting around

We flew from Amsterdam Schiphol with Norwegian Airlines, direct to Oslo Gardermoen. Out on 16 February, back on the 23rd: €486 for two, so €243 each. Easily the cheapest part of the whole trip, and rare enough to be worth saying.

Once there, a car is essential: the distances are long and public transport is close to non-existent as soon as you leave Oslo. We rented an electric Cupra for €630 for the week.

✎ the single most useful tip in this article: rent an electric car. It costs close to half what a petrol car does in Norway, and the country is entirely set up for it — charging points are everywhere, including in remote valleys. And for anyone nervous about EVs in deep cold: at −20 °C we had no trouble whatsoever.

✎ watch out for the tolls — Norwegian motorways run without barriers, reading number plates automatically. Nothing to pay at the time, but it's all charged later, usually after you've come home and through the rental company, with an admin fee on top. Build it into your budget; the invoice comes as a surprise.

02Where we stayed

Gardermoen Hotel Bed & Breakfast

1 night · €79 for two, breakfast included

A buffer night on arrival, booked specifically because our flight landed late. With the unplanned diversion, it proved essential: arriving in the dark and then driving three hours on snowy roads would have made no sense at all.

Mountain cabin, Valdres

6 nights · €1,379 for two

A cabin perched high above the valley, with a wide open view. That's where much of the magic of the week came from: the silence, the snow, and nothing else around. Around €230 a night — the heaviest single cost of the trip.

✎ we'd advise against the wood-fired hot tub. Our cabin had one, and it sounds wonderful on paper. In practice, in Nordic cold, you need a full day of heating before you can get in. Unless you're staying a fortnight you'll never actually use it — a cabin with a sauna is the better bet.

The cabin

03What we did

Full day

Dog sledding

A full day out on the sled, as a musher rather than a passenger. We were the only people booked that day, so the tour became a private one — which made the whole thing genuinely magical. NOK 3,050 per person, around €260.

Half day

Ice fishing

On the same lake as the sledding. The ice was 70 centimetres thick — enough to walk on without a second thought, though it stays a strange sensation for the first few minutes.

Full day

Skiing

At Valdres Alpinsenter, a resort used almost entirely by Norwegians, a short drive from the cabin. Equipment hired on site. The atmosphere is nothing like the big Alpine resorts: fewer people, less noise, and slopes you share with local families.

✎ choosing the right resort. Beitostølen, the big resort in the area, is markedly more expensive — both lift passes and the restaurants around it. Valdres Alpinsenter costs far less for a more genuine experience, and it's where you ski among Norwegians rather than tourists.

✎ the sunrises. That's what struck us most, and it's the one thing you can't book. In February, at that latitude, the sun comes up late and skims the horizon for long minutes. We've rarely seen better anywhere — get up for them, even at −20 °C.

✎ Aurdal, our resupply point. Without planning it, this is the village that shaped our week: the ski resort, the bakery and the restaurant are all there, on the road between Fagernes and our cabin. If you’re staying in the area, that’s where to base your bearings.

Valdres Gjestegard

A former prison

Converted into a restaurant and hotel. The kind of place you don’t go looking for and never forget — you have dinner where people were once locked up.

Bakeriet

Oslovegen, Aurdal

The bakery where we ate the best skillingsboller — Norwegian cinnamon rolls — of any of our trips so far. And we’ve eaten a lot of them.

Hegge Stave Church

A stave church dating from 1216, still in use as a parish church, with its carved medieval portals. The Valdres valley holds six of the twenty-eight stavkirker still standing in Norway — the highest concentration in the country.

Hegge Stave Church

04Dressing for −20 °C

It's the question everyone asks before leaving, and the answer comes down to one word: layers. Here is exactly what we packed, bought entirely at Decathlon, and it did the job perfectly.

Base layer

1 pair of thermal trousers, 2 pairs of thermal leggings, 3 cold-weather base tops. This is the layer that does all the work — don't skimp on it.

Jacket

One that comes down over your backside and up high around the neck. Short jackets let the cold straight in the moment you sit down or bend over.

Gloves — the critical bit

Two pairs, worn together: a thin touchscreen pair underneath so you can use your phone without stripping off, and over the top a pair that resists cold and wet. This matters: gloves that soak through in the snow are no use at all.

Extremities

A neck gaiter, 2 pairs of cold-weather socks, one pair of snow boots.

And the rest

One pair of ordinary trousers and a few normal jumpers, for time indoors — cabin, restaurant, car. No need to pack everything technical.

Rorbu

05The budget

Here's what we actually paid, per person, based on two travellers:

Return flight Amsterdam-Oslo€243

Night near Oslo airport€40

Cabin, 6 nights€690

Car hire, 1 week€315

Charging the car, full week€13

Road tolls€30

Dog sledding, full day≈ €260 (NOK 3,050)

Restaurants€174

Groceries€113

Total per person≈ €1,875

Outside that total sit the skiing, with its lift pass and equipment hire, and the ice fishing.

✎ everything is expensive in Norway, and food most of all. Across a week for two: €347 on restaurants and €225 on groceries. The cooking is good, the fish especially, but it's the line people always underestimate. Cooking at the cabin makes a real difference.

✎ the real surprise in the budget: €25 of charging for the entire week, for two of us. A petrol car would have cost several times that in fuel — and the hire itself would have been close to twice the price. It's the single best call we made on the whole trip.

06Our verdict

The Norwegians struck us as much as the landscapes did: everywhere we went, a plain, unfussy kindness. And in front of the deep snow, the frozen lakes and the mountains, we were left speechless more than once.

One important thing, because it's the question we get asked most: we did not see the northern lights. We were in the south of the country, a few hours from Oslo, where they're far rarer. For the aurora you need to go north — Tromsø, the Lofoten islands, Finnmark. Don't build a trip in southern Norway around that hope.

That said: we'll go back without hesitating. And why not in summer, to see the country's other face.