Best way from Hanover to Oslo?

Hi, "neighbor"! Since you want to travel within Norway after you get to Oslo, a four-country (Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) Eurail Selectpass would work well for you. The 6-day Selectpass - Youth costs $376. If you book now on this site you can get a 7th day free. IMO, your best route would be to travel overnight. Leave Hannover (note spelling) at 23:00, connect at Bielefeld to a CNL night train to Koebenhavn (Copenhagen), connect at Göteborg (Gothenburg), and arrive in Oslo at 21:45. See the German Rail site for detailed timetables. You will need to pay a supplement for sleeping accommodations on the night train. You can book it on the German Rail site and pay only €35 for a bunk in a four-person couchette. Start a specific booking for Bielefeld-Koebenhavn, select the "Book only extra charge" link in the lower right-hand corner, and then continue to complete the booking. No reservations are required for any of the other legs so you won't have to pay extra for any of them.

A railpass doesn't seem the best, or the cheapest way. If you book quickly, you can go Hannover- Kobenhaven for 59 euros -- a daytime 6/7 hour train. Then you can get an overnight Kobenhaven-Oslo ferry, a nice ship with plenty of places to lay down comfortably without spending much. Check it out.

Luke, Depending how much time you have, you could do the Germany to Oslo trip by a train-ferry combination. I would get there this way: take the ICE from Hannover Hbf to Hamburg Hbf, transfer trains to Kiel Hbf. From Kiel to Oslo there is a ferry connection. I've done this train route a few times but not the ferry connection as yet. This way you need not go through Denmark.

BTW, define "best" for us. Cheapest? Quickest? Least transfers?

The cheapest fare on the Koebenhavn-Oslo ferry is €133. So if Luke gets a €59 fare for Hannover-Koebenhavn, he will spend €192 to get to Oslo. Adding in the cost of point-to-point tickets for his train rides within Norway may bring the total cost to more than that of a railpass plus the supplement for a couchette bunk on the night train - or it may not. It all depends on where he goes in Norway.

Thanks so much for all of the recommendations!! really appreciate it! Best = quickest, followed by cheapest, then easiest/least transfers.

Quickest would be to fly, but there are no direct flights. You would need to make a minimum of one connection. See the search engine www.skyscanner.com for all your route options.

Cheapest may be to fly also. There are cheap air carriers that fly all around Europe. I haven't flown out of Hanover but Hamburg isn't far away and should have flights to just about any city in Europe. Personally, I'd rather get there quick and cheap and spend my time site-seeing around Oslo than lose a lot of time, and probably money, using slower transportation.