Day and 1/2 in Oslo Suggestions on Plans

First of all, be aware that the Viking Ship museum is closed until 2027 for renovations. As one who has visited Oslo more than 20 times, I speak as one who has seen and done everything in the Oslo area. Vigeland and Frogner Parks are not worth your limited time in my opinion and I think the changing of the guard is ho hum. There are better ways to spend your time in that city. My recommendations are, in order: (1) The Resistance Museum at Akershus. The display signs are in Norwegian but you can use the translator on your phone. (2) The Munch Museum, if you like impressionist art. (3) The Natioinal Museum, which has the original Munch painting The Scream. (4) As time permits, The Fram and the Folkemuseum which are at the same place. Bear in mind it is a long bus ride out to the island, so if you are going there to see the Folkemuseum and the Fram, that will require a full day. For anything you plan to visit in Oslo, check in advance not only the opening times for the days you plan to be there, but also whether the site is even open this summer. Closing thought: the best things to see in Norway are not to be found in the Oslo area.

I would plan to see the Norsk Folkemuseum on Sunday when you’ll have the several hours it takes.
The bus ride from downtown Oslo takes you past a lot of interesting sites on the way. I think it passes the Royal Palace on the way. The Norsk Folkemuseum is one of the best attractions in Oslo— along with the Akershus Fortress.

The afternoon when you arrive. you can take your walking tour to Akershus Fortress, City Hall, Nobel Peace Center, and Karl John’s Gate. On Sunday, with any remaining time, the National Museum is well worth the time with its Edvard Munch “Scream” paintings and other works of his on display. Munch personally chose the paintings on display in the gallery today as what he thought were his best works.

I agree that Frogner/Vigeland Park is located too far away from the rest of your list and is way too large to see in the little amount of time you have available. I would skip it and use the time elsewhere. Same for keeping 1:30 pm open to see the changing of the guard at the Palace. It’s going to cut your day in half and force you to eliminate other possibilities.

My flight arrives at 11:00 AM and I have a private transport to my
hotel Amerikalinjen.

Take the train instead, it will save you both time and money

My plan is to quickly catch the changing of the guards at the Royal
Palace at 1:30, but unsure I would make it there on my day of arrival.

Probably. Assuming your flight is on time, you take the train to Oslo and check in goes smooth at the hotel.

I agree that the National Museum is wonderful and would make a visit there if you have time. When we went it was free on Sundays, tho I have just googled and it seems this is no longer the case.

I seem to recall that we took a boat to the Folkesmuseum. I think that the kon-tiki museum is right there also.

This may not be your cup of tea; but the most fun thing we did in Oslo was swim in the fjord. There is a place just in front of the Opera house. You can just get in. There are also options with lockers, showers and saunas. This would be a real wake up after a long flight. Life changing. No joke.

Safe travels.

Yes, the boat will still be running in Sept when I am there.

Actually, those were not Chat GPT suggestions, just me plotting things out on google maps and checking distances. I'm thinking now that I might come up with a good weather option and bad weather option. I'm also going to rethink Frogner. I'm getting very mixed opinions from several sources on whether or not I do that this time. It is the most far out and I would need to Taxi. I typically find that I cover more than I think on the first day because I walk and walk and try to stay up as long as possible to adjust to the time. The ferry will still be running when I'm there in mid-Sept. I've seen changing of the guard in so many countries, that I wanted to cover it here, but as many have said I may be placing too much on that. Maybe I could do muesums and the Fortress on Day 2 and just cover the main city sites on Day 1 - my 1/2. Thank you so much for the thoughts.

The tram goes to Frogner Park. No need for a taxi. There should be time in the evening when other places are closed. Maybe take a picnic dinner there and have a stroll? I love the Vigeland sculptures. I also really enjoyed the modern art museum, mostly for the building and location.

We visited Oslo a couple of years ago and purchased the Oslo Pass from the Visit Oslo website. It’s an app, easily purchased online. It covers most of the attractions mentioned as well as all public transport. We found it quite economical and a good way to see the highlights of a number of museums.
We hit the Fram museum on opening, I think it was 9.30, then Kontiki and then the Maritime Museum (probably could have skipped that one), followed by the Stave Church and a wander around the Folk Museum and were done by early afternoon.
We also visited the Historical, National and Resistance Museums, but we had longer than you.
The Munch Museum was open later one evening, so that was easy and we used the tram to go to the Frogner Park.
The admission prices are all listed in the information on the Oslo Pass website so you can see if it’s worthwhile for you, but we felt we saved quite a bit of money, and also felt like we could just pop into places briefly if we wanted to rather that having to get our ‘money’s worth’ at each place. The included public transport was very easy to use along with Google Maps.