The Troll Museum in Bergen is a fun place for both kids and adults
Even though I don’t have kids on my own, as a professional uncle, I have to check every place suitable for parents and their kids. This time, as a birthday present for my teenage nieces, we decided to check out the Troll Museum in Bergen. We also stopped for some burgers at McDonald’s before we went to the museum. And let me tell you, it was a big success.
Table of contents
- Location, opening hours, and price
- What to expect from the museum
- How much time does one need?
- How was our experience
- How to make it better
- Conclusion
Location and price
The museum is centrally located at Øvre Dreggsallmenningen 6, just a minute away from Bryggen. From the 1st of April until the end of October, it’s open from 09:00 to 19:00 (7 pm), and the rest of the year, you can enjoy troll stories from 10:00 to 18:00 (6 pm).
Prices are relatively okay for Norway. An adult ticket is 250 kr, kids 5-12 years go for 130 (below 5 for free). Family of four with two adults and two kids, 5-12, pays 600 kr.
Now it’s a bit tricky for teenagers. There’s a ticket for students and seniors for 170 kr, but I had to clarify on WhatsApp, and I was told that teenagers who go to lower secondary school (or ungdomsskole in Norwegian) and who just turned 16, have to pay 170 kr, too. But then they need to show a student ID, which my nieces didn’t have. When I told a nice employee at the museum that they were 16, she was okay with that. So, in the end, we paid 590 kr for the three of us – myself, Jennie, and Milla.
On the left: the largest troll in the museum. On the right: a room in which a troll tries to break in
What to expect from the museum
After paying for the tickets, you will receive a tablet with headphones. The tablet has an app with stories and various information related to the exhibition. The tablet is a reflection of the exhibition. Basically, there are a few thematic rooms in the museum. You go from one room to another. In each room, there are figurines and museum labels with descriptions and numbers. The number on each of the labels corresponds to a slide in the app on the tablet. So, you have three options to learn something:
- read from the label;
- read from the tablet;
- listen to the audio guide on the tablet.
There are also a few interactive screens on the walls, each with its own headphones. We started by listening to the audio guide and using the screens, but then moved to just reading. By the end of our visit, we were skimming 🙂
On the left: interactive screen. On the right: tablet with the audio guide.
Fairy tales, stories, and most of the information there will be interesting for kids and adults. But I have to say, if you are going with kids who are used to high-paced social media content and not used to reading books, you might go through the whole exhibition very fast. And a bit disappointed in the end. Or let me rephrase it, if you feel bored in a regular museum, you will be bored in the Troll Museum, too.
It’s worth mentioning that the museum has a few languages in the app and on interactive screens: Norwegian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, ruzzian, Portuguese, and Chinese. But only Norwegian and English are on the labels.
All troll figurines are neatly made, and they look exactly like one would imagine the trolls 🙂
As I mentioned, there are a few thematic rooms, and not all of them are directly related to trolls. For example, the first one is about Norse mythology. There’s also a room about witches, a bit about Bergen, and Edward Grieg.
At the end, there’s a big playroom with interactive games and board games. And a pretty cool table with sand, where you can build a mountain or a forest for trolls to walk around. And yes, there will be trolls in there. And some fish in the sea.
Interactive sand table. One can build a beach, a forest, or even a mountain full of trolls walking and fighting
We tried every single board game, and they were fun to play at least once. And we spent some time building mountains for the trolls. There was already a kid who wanted to build the biggest mountain, so Milla and I were helping him, while Jennie decided to build her own small mountain. In the end, everyone had fun 🙂
Board games and interactive games at the museum. There are also Augmented Reality (AR) magnets and cards, which one can try in the museum and buy to play at home.
How much time does one need?
It depends. Right after we came, three more families came to the museum. And they were gone a long time before we finished. We spent a little bit over two hours reading, listening, and playing. I don’t exaggerate. I checked the time when we left and when I paid for the tickets 🙂 But that’s an exception; my nieces really like learning something new, and don’t mind reading or listening to stories. The other three families probably spent around half an hour. I’d say plan to spend 30 to 60 minutes in the museum.
We used the room with a huge troll to rest a bit on the sofas before we continued exploring the rest of the museum
How was our experience
Three of us absolutely loved it! I even learned something new about trolls and Bergen, and I always love learning new things about Bergen (and trolls). With that said, you need to be able to accept it’s a museum, and not a playground. So, read, listen, and learn. The Troll Museum is one of the things I recommend doing in Bergen.
How to make it better
Before going to the museum, we stopped by McDonald’s to grab lunch. Since my nieces don’t have the “luxury” of eating at McD’s often (mainly because of the good parenting), they were happy to eat whatever they wanted from the menu, and that set a good mood from the start. So, I recommend not going to the Troll Museum on an empty stomach, so you don’t rush out because of low blood sugar.
This troll was also pretty big. You can sit on the pillows and take a picture with him 🙂
Conclusion
The Troll Museum in Bergen is a must-see place. It’s moderately priced compared to everything else in Bergen, and you can actually learn something new and interesting. But be ready to process the information, and spend time reading or listening to the audio guide. Recommended!
