Things to Do in Arendal — Archipelago Island Life & Sauna Experiences
Discover Arendal's island-dotted archipelago, car-free islands, Raet National Park, and a thriving sauna culture on Norway's south coast.
Arendal occupies a special place in the Norwegian imagination. The small city on the Aust-Agder coast is surrounded by an archipelago of skerries, islands, and sheltered inlets that have drawn sailors, artists, and summer visitors for generations. Tyholmen, its historic old town, rises above the harbour on a small peninsula packed with beautifully maintained wooden buildings. The surrounding sea is alive with ferries, kayaks, and small boats from June through August. And in recent years, a genuinely creative sauna scene has grown around the waterfront and islands. Here is everything worth knowing before you visit.
Sauna Experiences in Arendal
Arendal’s archipelago setting gives its sauna culture a character you will not find inland. The cold-water element here means swimming among islands, off wooden jetties, and occasionally in the open sea — which makes the heat of the sauna feel especially earned.
Boat Sauna
Biestø Båt Badstue is exactly what it sounds like — a sauna on a boat, moored in the harbour. This is one of the most distinctively Norwegian sauna formats: a wood-fired cabin aboard a vessel, with the open sea available for cooling down between rounds. Booking is essential and sessions book out quickly in summer. If you only do one sauna experience in Arendal, make it this one.
The Damp Saunas
Damp Kata and Damp Rulvi are part of the Damp collective, which takes its name from the Norwegian word for steam. Both locations offer outdoor sauna experiences with direct water access, leaning into the contrast bathing tradition with a social, inclusive atmosphere. The Damp saunas have helped establish Arendal as one of southern Norway’s most interesting sauna cities.
Island and Neighbourhood Saunas
Hisøy Badstueforening is based on Hisøy, a residential island connected to Arendal by bridge. The bathing association format — a community-run facility open to members and visitors — is one of Norway’s most enduring models for accessible sauna culture, and Hisøy’s version sits in a particularly scenic coastal setting.
Krøgeneslåven Sauna offers a sauna experience tied to the local landscape and community of the Krøgenes area, one of the more scenic districts of greater Arendal.
Sandaa Badstue takes the sauna experience to a quieter corner of the municipality, with a focus on the traditional combination of heat and sea swimming that defines the south coast sauna tradition.
Forest Bathing
Skogsbad Hoyasen brings something different to the Arendal sauna scene — a forest bath experience drawing on both Norwegian friluftsliv (outdoor life) culture and Japanese shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) traditions. A sauna session here is followed not by a sea plunge but by immersion in the surrounding forest environment. It is a genuinely restorative experience and a good counterpoint to the harbour-focused options elsewhere.
Nature & Outdoor Activities
Merdø Island
Merdø is a car-free island a short ferry ride from Arendal’s harbour, home to fewer than 20 year-round residents and one of the most preserved historic environments on the south coast. The island has been inhabited since Viking times and served as a pilot station for ships entering the Nidelva river. Today you can walk the entire island in an hour, visit the small museum in the old pilot’s house, and swim from the rocky shores. There is a simple café open in summer. Ferries run regularly from the town quay.
Sea Kayaking the Archipelago
The labyrinth of islands, skerries, and channels around Arendal is one of Norway’s best sea kayaking environments. The water is relatively sheltered, the distances between landing points are manageable, and the scenery — pine-forested islands dropping into clear blue water — is exceptional. Several operators offer guided tours and kayak rental from the harbour. A multi-day self-supported kayaking trip through the archipelago, with camping on uninhabited islands, is an ambition worth building a trip around.
Raet National Park
Established in 2016, Raet is Norway’s first marine national park and protects a strip of coastal geology formed by the last ice age — a series of underwater and surface ridges (the “raet”) running along the Aust-Agder coast. The park’s waters support rich marine life, and the protected areas include some of the finest snorkelling and diving on the south coast. The national park visitor centres in Arendal and nearby towns provide maps and guides.
Coastal Route Cycling
The Kystveien (Coastal Route) passes through the Arendal area and offers cycling along a stretch of the south coast that combines harbour villages, coastal heathland, and sea views. The terrain is manageable for most fitness levels and the route is well signposted.
Food & Culture
Tyholmen Old Town
Tyholmen is Arendal’s most photographed neighbourhood — a peninsula of wooden houses in yellow, red, and white clustered tightly around the harbour. The architecture dates mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, when Arendal was one of Norway’s most important shipping cities. Walk the narrow lanes, visit the city hall (built in a former warehouse), and sit at one of the harbour-side cafes to watch the boat traffic. In the evening, the old town’s restaurants serve good seafood.
Aust-Agder Cultural History Museum
The regional museum complex covers the history of Aust-Agder from Viking times to the 20th century, with particular strength in maritime history and folk culture. The collections include ship models, traditional craft objects, and documentation of the region’s role in Norway’s 19th-century shipping boom. Worth two hours for those interested in regional history.
Getting There & When to Visit
Getting there: Arendal does not have its own airport but sits conveniently between Kristiansand (approximately 70 km west) and Torp Airport near Sandefjord to the north. The best flight option for most international visitors is into Kristiansand (KRS), from where Arendal is a 45-minute drive or bus journey. Direct trains from Oslo on the Sørlandsbanen run to Arendal in around 3.5–4 hours.
By car: The E18 passes just north of Arendal, making it easily accessible from Oslo (3 hours) and Kristiansand (1 hour).
Best time to visit: Arendal is at its best from late June through August, when the archipelago is fully accessible, boat ferries run frequently, and the outdoor sauna scene is in full swing. The city also hosts Arendalsuka in mid-August — Norway’s largest political and business festival — which fills the town with debate, concerts, and an unusually animated harbour scene. Outside summer, spring and autumn offer quieter exploration of the old town and surrounding nature.
Arendal is a city that gets under your skin — it has the scale and character of a village but the cultural depth of somewhere much larger, and the archipelago around it provides endless exploration. A boat sauna session, a ferry to Merdø, a kayak through the skerries: that is a day well spent. Find all sauna experiences in Arendal on Norwegian Saunas.
