Lillehammer

Lillehammer Ski Resort

The 1994 Olympic host city of Lillehammer is Norway’s oldest ski resort and is home to five great ski areas – all of which are a short drive from the centre.

Combined, the city’s ski areas have 45 lifts and around 130km of slopes – more than enough to keep all but the keenest skiers and boarders happy for a week. Snow conditions are usually reliable despite the low altitude and away from the slopes there is loads to do, especially if you’re keen to try out Norway’s national sport of cross country skiing.

Our Lillehammer Resort Ratings

• Beginner ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
• Intermediate ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
• Advanced ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
• Snow Reliability ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
• Fast Lifts ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
• Resort Activities ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
• Après ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
• Value ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Lillehammer Skiing and Snowboarding

Hafjell is the biggest area, covering 44km of slopes and a vertical of 830m. The best beginner runs are on the summit, where a new chairlift has massively improved access this season, with the steeper terrain being towards the base. Kvitfjell hosts an annual World Cup Downhill race on a steep and tricky black – but aside from this most of the terrain is suited to beginners and intermediates, including the new Varden area.

The smaller Skeikampen area has some good beginner facilities, as well as some steeper descents that are fun in good snow. Gala is home to two small ski areas, whilst the fifth area of Sjusjoen is essentially one fast 6-pack serving a network of summit to base runs. At all of the areas, night skiing is popular and there are some excellent terrain parks too.

• Total Pistes: 130km
• Green: 29%
• Blue: 35%
• Red: 23%
• Black: 13%
• Lifts: 45
• Altitude: 178m – 1148m

Lillehammer Piste Map

The Hafjell piste map can be downloaded here. For the other ski areas, click here to access the resort’s website.

Lillehammer Resort

Lillehammer makes for a great base if you want to explore all of the ski areas, just be prepared to drive each morning to the slopes. It is a working city of 28,000 people as well as being a ski resort, so there are lots of eating options and things to see – high on the list must be the 1994 Olympic Museum and the massive ski jumping hills to the east of the centre.

Alternatively you can base yourself at one of the ski areas – we’d suggest staying at Hafjell or Kvitfjell. Staying here will give you fantastic access to cross country trails, tobogganing paths and other activities such as dog sledding. If you’re lucky you may see the Northern Lights during your stay.

How to get to Lillehammer

Lillehammer is an easy two hour drive directly north from Oslo. Just note that if you’re staying in Kvitfjell, add on another 45 minutes to your journey time.

• Oslo airport: 2 hours

Lillehammer Contact Details

• Website: www.lillehammer.com
• Email: Contact via online form
• Facebook: @visitlillehammer
• Instagram: @visitlillehammer
• Twitter: @destLILLEHAMMER