Fram Museum

The Fram Museum in Oslo showcases Norway’s rich history in polar exploration, featuring the original Fram ship and exhibitions on explorers like Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen. Visitors can board the ship, view its cabins, and experience interactive displays. The museum also houses the Gjøa ship, the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, and offers a 4D polar flight simulator for an immersive experience. Located on Bygdøynesveien 39, it’s easily accessible from central Oslo by bus or ferry. Nearby attractions include the Kon-Tiki Museum and the Norwegian Maritime Museum.

Planning your visit

The Fram Museum is built around a single ship, and it is the right one. The Fram was designed by Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen with a rounded hull that would rise rather than be crushed when the ice closed on it — Nansen deliberately froze her into the Arctic pack in 1893 to drift with the current toward the Pole. She later carried Roald Amundsen to Antarctica for the 1911 expedition that reached the South Pole first. She is the strongest wooden ship ever built and has been further north and further south than any other vessel.

The museum encloses her whole, and visitors board and move through the decks, cabins and galley, seeing exactly how thirteen men lived through Arctic winters. Exhibitions around her cover Nansen, Amundsen, the race to the poles, and polar science, including a 4D simulator.

The Gjøa, the small sloop in which Amundsen first navigated the Northwest Passage, is in an adjoining building.

It sits on the Bygdøy peninsula, reached by bus or, better, the ferry from the City Hall quay. Bookable options include skip-the-line private tours with tickets and Oslo highlights tours combining the museum with Vigeland sculpture park. Current availability is shown below.