Parks and the outdoors in Kristiansand

15 parks, gardens, beaches and walks in and around Kristiansand.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

See
Agder Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden
and Gimle Gård are two museums, located at Gimle, east of river Otra. In the natural history museum and botanical garden you will find a collections of flora, examples of the fauna and minerals of South Norway in very lifelike exhibitions and rich minerals deposits. Gimle gård is a former mansion, now a museum.
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Badelandet Aqua Park
Connected to Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park
A waterpark, outdoor or indoor (separate ticket required). Water slides, bubble baths, coral reefs, wave pool and swimming pools. The season lasts from April to October. 129 kr.
Do
Baneheia
A wooded area with outstanding views of the city, very nice and idyllic ponds and lakes, jogging/hiking trails, lighted tracks and opportunities for freshwater swimming in the summer season. The forest area has an extensive bird life. Note:The best viewpoint is Drageknatten, magnificent views of the city center, the harbor and parts of the archipelago.
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Bystranda
A nice sandy blue flag beach with swim pier, sun deck and palm trees - ideal for children.
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Hamresanden
approx. 9 km east of town
A 3-km-long, sandy, blue flag beach that can be crowded on warm summer days. There is also a water slide open in the summer months. If swimming is not tempting, there is also a scenic strolling route along the beach.
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Høllen
An old outport, 20 minutes drive along E39 west of the city centre. Take a walk in the outport and Åros beach nearby, or try your luck at fishing, and even take the sightseeing boat all year round to the even moore picturesque outport of Ny-Hellesund where there is also a rare restaurant and guesthouse.
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Høyt & Lavt Kristiansand
Climbing park
Kristiansand's climbing park is by lake Grotjønn in a hiking area.
100 to 310 kr, depending on height
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Høyt & Lavt Odderøya
Indoors activity park, Xland Adrenaline Park
Inside this indoors park there are 110 different items, low and high-altitude obstacle trails, climbing walls, climbing grids, zip-coaster, zip-lines, free fall-offs and more. Attractive on rainy days.
Every day 10:00-22:00
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Kristiansand Dyrepark
Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park
Has a wide selection of animals in, for the most part, natural habitats. The main attractions are lions, tigers, wolves, red pandas, and a reptile house. Other activities here include a log run, a large play area, and a pirate castle with Norway's favourite pirate, Kaptein Sabeltann (Captain Sabretooth). During the summer, there are pirate shows late at night. There's also a kind of toy town called Kardemomme by (Cardamom town) which is based on a book by Norwegian children's writer Thorbjørn Egner.
Adults kr 130-kr 340, children kr 110-kr 270 (depending on season) Once inside, all activities are free
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Myren Mansion
Myren Gård
A former mansion with houses in the best Swiss style, now a public park in English style, known for plants and trees from the more southern parts of the world, especially for the large rhododendron collection. View of the western port.
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Odderøya
An island to discover next to the city center/fish market] (Connected with the city center by several bridges), filled with outstanding history, abandoned cannons, remarkable culture, nature, forest, forest trails, birds and wonderful views over the city and the archipelago. Sundays: try the waffles in the cafe at the southern tip! Several nice beaches, opportunities for swimming and fishing and great picnic locations. Concert venues. Odderøya Lighthouse on the west side also offers coffee, muffins and soup in the weekends from mid June to throughout October. See also Xland indoor climbing centre below..
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Ravnedalen
(Ravens' Valley) is a lovely park just outside the city centre. It is surrounded with steep cliffs and presents the visitor with lush flower gardens and manicured laws perfect for picnics. If you forgot your picnic basket, there's also a café here. The peaceful idyll is usually disturbed only by an extensive bird life. But there are sometimes music performances in the summer.
See
Sørlandet's Art Museum (SKMU)
2 minutes walk from the cathedral
An art gallery with permanent and changing exhibitions. Varied works of art, own children's club.
See
The Boardwalk
Strandpromenaden
The boardwalk alongside the seafront in the town centre leads you through beautiful parks and passes Norway's second-largest fountain park (Otterdalsparken, also known as the Nupen Park), Christiansholm fortress from the 17th century (see above), playground for children and a public beach: Bystranda, the City Beach. The boardwalk continues along the western river bank of the river Otra (Otra elvepark) as a 40-km-long path for nature and culture.
See Not mapped
Posebyen
This is what's left of Kristiansand's old town. It still occupies several blocks on the eastern part of the town centre. Here you can still see small, white, single-storey, wooden houses occupy a whole block. Very peaceful just a few minutes' walk from the busy shopping streets.

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Kristiansand (CC BY-SA 4.0).