Where to stay in Oslo: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Karl Johans gate is Oslo's spine. It starts at Central Station, passes the cathedral and the Parliament, runs alongside a park that turns into an ice rink in winter and climbs to the Royal Palace. The National Theatre, the main shops and most of the big museums are within a few blocks, and the harbour at Aker Brygge is ten minutes' walk.

This is where the city's most traditional hotels are. The grandest of them, in the very centre and 500 metres from the harbour, has hosted Nobel Peace Prize winners for generations. Others, just as storied, sit 150 metres from the main street or steps from the Parliament. For a first visit, this is the easy answer.

Bjørvika is the Oslo of the last fifteen years. The white marble Opera House slopes into the fjord and invites you to climb on to its roof. Next door, the MUNCH museum towers over the water, and floating saunas bob along the quay. All of it is a few minutes from Central Station, where the airport express arrives.

Hotels here are about convenience with a view. One, in the former headquarters of a transatlantic shipping line, is a stylish boutique a short walk from the Opera and MUNCH. Another, beside the station, looks out over the fjord and the opera house; a soaring tower hotel stands ten minutes' walk from the waterfront. Ideal for a weekend when every hour counts.

Between the centre and the water lies Kvadraturen, the grid of streets laid out in the 17th century, and above it Akershus Fortress, whose ramparts have the best free view in town. Round the harbour is the twin-towered City Hall, and beyond that Aker Brygge, a former shipyard now lined with seafood restaurants, bars and a boardwalk that catches the evening sun.

It's a good-looking, grown-up place to stay. A design hotel in Kvadraturen has spacious rooms close to the fortress and the harbour; another, by the Parliament, is steps from the main street and the quay; a third sits beside the winter ice rink. Ferries for the museum peninsula of Bygdøy leave from the pier in summer.

West of the palace, Oslo turns genteel. Frogner is a district of fine old apartment buildings, embassies, bakeries and small galleries, and its park holds the city's most visited sight: more than two hundred of Gustav Vigeland's strange, tender sculptures of human life, laid out along a grand axis.

The hotels are small and personal. One charming boutique in quiet surroundings includes breakfast, afternoon cake and a light evening buffet in the rate, a real saving in a city where dinner is not cheap. Another is a design hotel that started the trend here. Closer to the centre, near the National Gallery and the Royal Palace, there's a hotel of old-fashioned character.

Follow the Akerselva river north from the centre and you reach Grünerløkka, the neighbourhood that made Oslo cool. Old workers' housing and factories now hold independent boutiques, coffee roasters, vintage shops and bars, and on sunny days the parks are full by lunchtime.

Vulkan, on the riverbank, is a redeveloped industrial site with a food hall, and has a contemporary hotel about 15 minutes' walk from Karl Johans gate. Around Youngstorget, between here and the centre, simpler hotels put you close to the clubs, and one near the main street is surrounded by bars, jazz cellars and cafés. Come for the evenings.

The hills behind Oslo are the edge of a forest that goes on for miles. Holmenkollen, with its famous ski jump, is the gateway: in winter the metro carries cross-country skiers up from the centre, and in summer the same trails are full of walkers and mountain bikers.

Staying up here is a different kind of city break. One lodge-style hotel has ski-in, ski-out access, an indoor pool and a sauna, five minutes from the ski jump. Another sits high above the city with sweeping views and a restaurant built around Nordic ingredients. And for pure indulgence, a spa hotel on the outskirts has six indoor and five outdoor pools.

Oslo Airport is well out of town, but the express train makes light work of it, reaching the city centre in about 20 minutes. Two hotels are connected directly to the terminal, one by a covered walkway, so a dawn departure need not mean a dawn taxi.

Others are a five-minute shuttle ride away and usually a little cheaper. They are modern, soundproofed and efficient, with gyms and restaurants. Nobody comes to Norway to stay at the airport, but before a ski trip or a connection north, it is the sensible call.