About 15 kilometres north of Lillehammer you will see a 14-metre troll sitting by the road. That is Hunderfossen, Norway's fairytale theme park.
The park opened in 1984 and has become one of Norway's most visited attractions, with over 275,000 visitors each summer. It is built around Norwegian folk tales - the stories collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe in the 19th century that every Norwegian child grows up with. Askeladden, the trolls, the princesses, the White-Bear King Valemon - they are all here.
The giant troll weighs 70 tons and guards the entrance to Ivo Caprino's Fairytale Cave. Caprino was Norway's legendary stop-motion animator, famous for puppet films like Karius og Baktus. But his masterpiece was Flåklypa Grand Prix from 1975 - the most watched Norwegian film ever, with 5.5 million tickets sold to a population of 5 million. Inside the cave you can watch his films and try to spot the 150 trolls hidden in the scenery.
The park has over 60 attractions. There is a 37-metre fairytale castle, family rafting on a half-kilometre artificial river, the Troll Drop, swimming pools, and a roller coaster called Il Tempo Extra Gigante - named after the famous race car from the film.
If you do not speak Norwegian, most of the park works fine. The rides, rafting and pools need no translation. But some storytelling attractions like the Fairytale Castle have Norwegian narration - ask at the entrance if English audio is available. The Caprino films are visual enough that children enjoy them regardless, though you will miss some cultural context if you do not know the characters.
Right next to the theme park is the Olympic bobsled and luge track from 1994 - the only one in Scandinavia. You can actually ride it. In winter, the taxibob takes you down the ice at 120 kilometres per hour with 5G pressure. In summer, there is a wheelbob version reaching 100 kilometres per hour.
The same area is also home to three free museums run by Statens vegvesen. Norsk vegmuseum, the Norwegian Road Museum, covers 4,000 square metres of indoor exhibitions plus a large open-air section with a reconstructed 1950s country store, a 1700s inn, a 1930s blacksmith and road station, and a 1960s campsite with a vintage Mobile petrol pump. Next door, Norsk Kjøretøyhistorisk Museum displays over 80 historical vehicles and 60 bicycles, with a focus on cars actually built in Norway: the Bjering from Gjøvik, the Troll from Telemark, Mustad's six-wheeled Giganten, and the electric pioneer Think. And the Fjellsprengningsmuseum, the Blasting Museum, features a tunnel blasted purely for museum purposes. All three have free admission.
The park is open from late May to early September, with a Winter Park operating February to mid-March. If you are travelling with children, plan at least half a day.
