Oslo Airport

A lot of walking here which can be a bit of a hassle particularly on arrival with a lot of hand baggage. There is now duty free on arrival with a fairly decent selection of goods. Something nice to do while you wait for your luggage!

Perfectly nice airport in terms of aesthetics and layout but I do have one gripe- the SAS lounge (for international flights) was overheated and had virtually no food on a Sunday evening. Now I know it was quiet but pasta salad that looked like it had been lying out for hours and a couple of pieces of fruit is absolutely pathetic. I have been in Star Alliance airline lounges in many cities in Europe USA Asia and Australasia and while the lounge had pleasant amenities what is wrong with providing some decent food? Take a leaf from Air New Zealand's domestic koru club lounges- a selection of fruit fresh salads meat cake and even hot food - all for passengers flying no longer than say 1.5 hours or so. The Heathrow London Lounge has more food as well. This lounge was for international flights including long haul although I was only on a flight to London (which barring business class requires one to pay for a sandwich).

Oslo airport is a torture for smokers. They have not designated any smoking area inside (there are no law against it) and the passengers have to go outside or use the lavatories. This is one of the reasons why many passengers from other places in Norway prefer CPH as the foreign hub for connections to outside Scandinavia. Especially if you have a long wait for connecting flights.

To be honest they could have laid out the airport a little better. Checkin desks were at the other end of the airport from the railway station from which most people arrive and no seperate desks for Club Europe on BA. This is a no smoking airport so if you want one you have to go back out through security. I agree that the BA Terraces are a little hard to find but WOW that's what I call relaxing with a fountain in the middle and help yourself to a large selection of drinks - again no smoking in here. Aside from that nothing really to set it apart from the rest it can just be a pain to get around sometimes - especially if your gate is right at the other end of the airport and you have to go through immigration it will take at least 15 minutes.

While it is aesthetically quite agreeable Oslo Gardermoen isn't exactly the most user-friendlyairport I've used. Situated some 45 km out of town you can either use the SAS Flybussen (14 euros o/w) or train (20euros o/w) neither of which are cheap. I found it a bit odd that BA check-in desks were a bit of a free-for-all and that there was no seperate Club Europe desk. However if you've hand luggage only there are several self check-inmachines but you need to have the credit card used for the ticket purchase. A modest but comfortable BA Terraces lounge is available after security check but I guarantee you will go round in circles looking for it. Located on the domestic departures side it is very poorly signposted as the lounge attendant has probably been told 100s of times. Take the spiral staircase on your left after security and continue to the end of the corridor. DO NOT go to international departures after security as you won't be allowed to step back into domestic even though there's no barrier between the two. Instead you will have to exit at gate 42 go thru customs and back into the departures hall - really annoying. Overall by no means unpleasant but not a patch on it's neighbour in Copenhagen.

OSL Gardermoen is a pretty efficient airport that reminded me of Vantaa in Helsinki. The biggest disappointment (and one that seems to be shared with other travellers) is that it is a long long walk from one part to another - arriving from LHR required a walk of nearly a kilometre to arrivals with no moving sidewalks. Return to LHR also was from the far end of the airport - could this be because of Schengen? - but trollies are available in the departures area which was a nice plus. Getting from OSL to Oslo city centre couldn't be easier via the SAS Flybus just outside the arrivals hall. In all OSL is just another example of how things can be run well in a Scandinavian country with the understanding that everyone will meet the same high expectations.

Oslo airport though a clean one is unfunctional and an unpleasant experience. It is built in one long line meaning that one has to walk a very long distance from one flight to another or to exit the airport. In addition the security system is a bit strange - the laptop computers need to be taken out of their bags in the security control the security gates with metal alarm are so sensitive that everybody who has shoes with even smallest parts of metal have to take the shoes off and walk in socks through the sensor gate. After such a control one would expect that the restaurants in the transit area are not allowed to use metal knives and forks but this is not the case.

To avoid the very expensive prices on the airport express train take the local train to Oslo which will cost less than half the price but takes some more minutes to its destination. These trains run every hour ask at the NSB ticket counter.

Lost my backpack when I was re-checking in my bag at the transfer counter at the arrival hall (right hand side after coming out from customs). I was the only customer at the counter at that time. A few meters behind me was the busy arrival hall. The backpack was on the trolley next to me. When I removed my single bag to the weighing belt the backpack was still there. A few seconds later with my boarding pass at hand I turned back and the backpack was gone! The counter lady didn't see anything (although she was facing me most of the time) and the people around also had no clue. Wallet ATM cards student ID important keys camera etc. were gone! Fortunately the airport police and the staff at the Lost & Found counter were very polite & helpful. This provided some relief to my stressed hours. Thank you to these people! Learning: I thought I had travelled abroad many times and knew how to take care of my belongings. But a few seconds of letting down my guard did cause me a handful of stress. One cannot be too careful when it comes to the safety of his/her belongings.

The architecture is really nice and the airport is very functional. However it is located too far from the city centre and it is expensive. Oslo Gardemoen airport opened (well opened as the main airport of Oslo) when Fornebu was closed in the late 90's. Fornebu was too small and there were no opportunities to enlarge it but it was only 8 km from the city centre which was excellent. When winds came from the west one could see the entire city centre on approach to the airport. The new airport is like 45 km north of the city centre. Going there is very pricey the express train is ridiculously expensive the bus not much cheaper and we shouldn't even think about the cost of taking a cab. Otherwise the airport is enjoyable to use