Tonsberg is a town of about 50,000 on the Vestfold coast, an hour and a half south of Oslo, and IT IS THE OLDEST TOWN IN NORWAY. The traditional founding date is 871, before the unification of the kingdom, and Snorri Sturluson names it in the sagas.
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One honest note about the photographs. THE SLOTTSFJELLET TOWER AND THE VIKING MATERIAL ARE WHY TONSBERG IS DIFFERENT FROM EVERY OTHER NORWEGIAN TOWN OF ITS SIZE, AND NEITHER IS IN THE SET. What exists is the waterfront, by night and by day, and kayakers off the rocky shore, which is what a Tonsberg summer actually looks like. The history is described below rather than shown.
What Is Here
SLOTTSFJELLET is the castle hill above the town, the site of Tunsberghus, once the largest fortress in Scandinavia, destroyed in 1503. What stands now is the ruin plus SLOTTSFJELLTARNET, a stone tower built in 1888 as a lookout, which is the image on every postcard of the town and is not in these photographs. The climb takes about ten minutes and the view runs over the fjord and the islands.
THE OSEBERG SHIP WAS FOUND HERE, and the original is not. The 9th century ship burial was excavated at Slagen just outside Tonsberg in 1904, holding two women, a ship, carts, sledges and textiles, and it is THE RICHEST VIKING AGE FIND IN NORWAY. The ship itself is in Oslo at the Museum of the Viking Age, which is closed for rebuilding at the time of writing. What Tonsberg has is the SAGA OSEBERG, a full scale sailing replica launched in 2012, moored in the harbour and sailed in summer.
The waterfront is the town's living room, in the second image here: the brygge lined with restaurants, the Saga Oseberg usually at her berth, and the whole of it busy from May to August and quiet otherwise.
The Vestfold coast and the islands are the reason Norwegians come. Nottero and Tjome run south from the town towards VERDENS ENDE, "the world's end", a rocky point with an open tipping lighthouse, and the water between is sheltered kayaking, which is the third photograph.
Tonsberg has the Oslofjord weather rather than the west coast weather, which is a real difference: drier, warmer in summer, colder in winter, and this is among the sunnier corners of Norway.
When to Go
Late June to mid August is the season, when the waterfront is full, the islands are open and the Saga Oseberg sails.
May and September are quieter and cheaper, with the castle hill and the museums open and the restaurant terraces hit and miss.
Winter is cold and dark and the town turns inward, though the Christmas market and the castle hill in snow are both worth the trip for anyone already in Oslo.
The Tonsberg medieval festival runs in June and fills the town, so book ahead if those dates matter either way.
Getting There
By train, about an hour and twenty from Oslo S on the Vestfold line, which is the easiest way.
By car, roughly an hour and a half from Oslo on the E18, with a toll.
By air, Torp Sandefjord is twenty minutes away and takes low cost flights from across Europe, which makes Tonsberg one of the easier small Norwegian towns to reach directly.
By bus, the long distance coaches run the E18 corridor.
Norway's driving rules include one limit framed in a way that makes it immediately clear and two that catch visitors by surprise. ON ALCOHOL, the FCDO says that if you are found to have A QUARTER OF ENGLAND'S LEGAL LIMIT of alcohol in your system you may get a fine and possible imprisonment, and that THERE ARE FREQUENT ROADSIDE CHECKS. In practice that is one drink too many, so the working rule is none. ON TYRES, winter tyres with a MINIMUM 3MM TREAD are required if there is snow or ice on the roads, and studded tyres or chains may also be needed. And the two a visitor simply would not know: KEEP YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON, DIPPED, DURING THE DAYTIME ALL YEAR ROUND IN ALL PLACES, and ON ROADS NOT MARKED WITH A PRIORITY SIGN, THE YELLOW DIAMOND, YOU MUST GIVE WAY TO TRAFFIC COMING FROM THE RIGHT. That second one is the genuine hazard, because a car emerging from a side road on your right has priority and will take it. Driving offences carry on-the-spot fines of up to 10,000 Norwegian krone.
Reaching the islands and Verdens Ende needs a car or the summer bus, and the distances are short.
Is Tonsberg Safe for Women?
Tonsberg is a small, prosperous, very safe Norwegian town and nothing here is a crime concern. Norway's advisory describes the conditions a packing list has to answer, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. THE WEATHER CAN CHANGE QUICKLY, PRODUCING ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER ON EXPOSED MOUNTAIN TOPS. THE WINTER IS LONG AND CAN LAST WELL INTO APRIL. TEMPERATURES CAN DROP TO MINUS 25C AND BELOW. THERE IS ALSO A HIGH WIND CHILL FACTOR, PARTICULARLY IN UNSHELTERED AREAS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES. Three things follow from that and they are not the same thing as owning a warm coat. A long winter means the shoulder seasons are winter, so an April trip is a winter trip. Wind chill rather than air temperature is what you dress against, which makes a windproof outer layer worth more than a thicker insulating one. And conditions changing quickly on a mountain in summer means carrying the layer you do not currently need, which is the entire argument for base layers that pack to nothing and do not hold damp.
The water is the hazard, and it is colder than it looks in July. The Oslofjord warms to perhaps 18 to 20 degrees in a good August and is far below that in June, so a long swim or a capsize is a cold water event. Kayak with a buoyancy aid, close to shore, and tell someone the plan.
The rocks at Verdens Ende are polished granite sloping into deep water and are slippery wet, with no railings, which is the normal Norwegian arrangement and catches visitors out.
The Slottsfjellet path is steep and the ruins are unfenced in places.
Ice on the pavements from December to March is the most likely cause of an injury here across the whole year.
Two Norwegian rules exist that a visitor is likely to break by accident and neither is about driving. POLICE ENFORCE BANS ON CAMPFIRES IN MANY HIKING AREAS DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS, which sits oddly beside Norway's famous right to roam: you may legally camp in a great deal of open country and still not be allowed to light anything. And DRONES require registration as an operator in Norway or an EU or EFTA country plus LIABILITY INSURANCE, with no-fly zones in force, so a drone packed for the fjords is a licensing question before it is a photography one.
The Tonsberg Packing List
A coastal town with a short hot summer, a long wet shoulder and real ice in winter.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women covers the shoulder months and the evenings, which drop sharply beside the water even in July. From October to April a heavyweight merino base layer is the right weight, because the Oslofjord side gets genuinely cold rather than merely damp.
A Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket for the shoulder seasons and a warm insulated layer for winter.
Merrell Moab 3 waterproof hiking boots for the castle hill, the coastal paths and the island rock, with Darn Tough merino socks.
Kahtoola MICROspikes from December to March. Tonsberg's winter pavements freeze and thaw repeatedly.
Not linked and worth packing: SWIMWEAR AND A QUICK DRY TOWEL from late June, because the fjord swimming is genuinely good in August; GRIPPY FLAT SHOES for the polished granite at Verdens Ende, where sandals are the wrong footwear; a WINDPROOF LAYER, since the coast is exposed even when it is warm; and a REFILLABLE BOTTLE. Norway is card based throughout and Tonsberg is cheaper than Oslo without being cheap.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Tonsberg
Emergency numbers: Norway uses three direct numbers and the distinction matters more here than elsewhere, because 112 IS THE POLICE NUMBER rather than a general router: 112 for police, 113 FOR AN AMBULANCE and 110 for the fire service. For a medical emergency, 113 is the faster call. All three work from any phone including a locked mobile and operators speak English. For a non-urgent medical problem, 116117 reaches the out-of-hours doctor service. And the one specific to this country: in the mountains and at sea, remember that the FCDO states EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE AND SEARCH AND RESCUE ARE LIMITED across the half of Norway inside the Arctic Circle, so the call connects quickly and the help may still be a long way off.
The water is the hazard rather than the town. The Oslofjord reaches perhaps 18 to 20 degrees in a good August and is far below that in June, so a capsize is a cold water event: kayak with a buoyancy aid, stay near shore and tell someone your plan. THE ROCKS AT VERDENS ENDE are polished granite sloping into deep water with no railings and are slippery wet. THE SLOTTSFJELLET PATH is steep and the ruins are unfenced in places. ICE ON THE PAVEMENTS from December to March is the likeliest cause of injury here in the whole year. Note that THE ORIGINAL OSEBERG SHIP IS IN OSLO and not in Tonsberg, and the Oslo museum is closed for rebuilding at the time of writing: what is here is the sailing replica Saga Oseberg.
US State Department travel advisory: the Norway advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/norway, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: Tonsberg has one. Sykehuset i Vestfold, Tonsberg, is the county hospital with a full emergency department, which makes this an unusually well covered small town by Norwegian standards. Norway is in the EEA rather than the EU, and that distinction does not cost you anything here: a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which in Norway means paying the same patient contribution a Norwegian pays rather than nothing. Travel insurance sits on top of it, and in Norway it should specifically cover SEARCH AND RESCUE AND AIR AMBULANCE, because the terrain rather than the medicine is what makes a Norwegian incident expensive. A pharmacy is an APOTEK, they handle minor problems without an appointment, and the larger towns have one open late. TAP WATER IS AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD and buying bottled water here is purely a waste of money. There are no required vaccinations and no endemic tropical disease. TICKS occur along the southern coast and in the south east, carrying Lyme and, in a narrow coastal band, tick-borne encephalitis, which is a reason to check after walking in long grass. The real medical risk in Norway is environmental rather than infectious: cold, wet and exposure, which is what the clothing on this page is for.
Official health authority: Helsenorge, the Norwegian public health service portal. covers Sykehuset i Vestfold and the regional health service
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Oslo.
Official tourism authority: Visit Norway, the official travel guide. publishes the Slottsfjellet and Slottsfjelltarnet opening arrangements, the Saga Oseberg sailing schedule and the Vestfold island routes
Takeaways
This is the oldest town in Norway, 871 by tradition, and the sagas name it.
The Oseberg ship is in Oslo. Tonsberg has the sailing replica.
Climb Slottsfjellet first. Ten minutes for the whole fjord.
The fjord swims well in August and badly in June. It is colder than it looks.
Solo women safety assessment: Tonsberg is as safe as a town gets. Norway has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, this is a prosperous county seat of about 50,000 with a university campus, English is universal, and a woman walking the brygge alone at midnight in July is entirely unremarkable. NORWAY'S EMERGENCY NUMBERS ARE SPLIT RATHER THAN POOLED: 112 IS THE POLICE, 113 the ambulance and 110 fire. THE RISKS HERE ARE WATER AND ICE AND NOTHING ELSE. THE WATER FIRST, because it is the one most likely to be misjudged: the Oslofjord reaches perhaps 18 to 20 degrees in a good August and sits far below that in June, so a long swim or a capsize off the islands is a cold water event rather than a summer dip. Kayak with a buoyancy aid, stay within reach of shore, and tell someone the plan, which matters more alone than in company. THE ROCKS AT VERDENS ENDE are the specific place people get hurt: polished granite sloping straight into deep water, slippery when wet, with no railings anywhere, which is the normal Norwegian arrangement and consistently surprises visitors who expect a barrier. Grippy flat shoes rather than sandals. THE SLOTTSFJELLET PATH is steep and the ruins are unfenced in places, which is worth knowing in the dark or in rain. AND ICE IS THE REAL ANNUAL HAZARD: from December to March the pavements freeze and thaw repeatedly, and a fall on them is the likeliest injury in Tonsberg across the entire year, which is what the microspikes are for. The FCDO warns that Norwegian conditions can change quickly and produce ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER on high ground, which is a west coast and mountain warning rather than a Vestfold one, though the coastal wind here is real.
Reading On
Tonsberg is the south east coast, an easy trip from the capital. The Oslo packing list covers the city an hour north and the Telemark packing list the county inland. West, the Bergen packing list, Flam packing list and Aurland packing list cover the fjords, with the Trolltunga packing list and Geiranger packing list for the famous hikes and viewpoints and the Olden packing list for glacier country. North, the Alesund packing list, Lofoten packing list, Tromso packing list and Svalbard packing list run to the Arctic. For the country the Norway travel guide for women and the Norway packing list carry the transport, the weather and the practical material in full. For why wool is the only fibre that works damp, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
