Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics and the town is never going to let anybody forget that. The whole town is beautifully branded with this fact, and you’ll see reminders of the Olympics everywhere; on banners, monuments and buildings. Olympics 1994, they all read.
The Olympics legacy lives on and Lillehammer continues to benefit economically from the infrastructure set up for their first Olympics, a feat not many cities manage to accomplish. From ski resorts for locals and global winter sports tourism enthusiasts to sports schools, Lillehammer has carved out a niche for themselves. Little wonder that the city went on to host the 2016 Youth Olympic Games. I think Lillehammer will likely host another Olympics someday.
We took a ski trip to Lillehammer this Easter, and I got to try out my ski legs yet again this year. Joy!
On this trip I got to ski along a more difficult slope, and it was hair-raising on the trip back down-slope but fun nonetheless.
I watched an episode of Top Gear a little over a week ago in which they made a car ski down the Ski-jump slope in Lillehammer. It was quite a thing – marvelous! That rocket-powered Mini skiing down the slope amused me so much, I later looked up the Top Gear episode on YouTube to show the husband. Imagine my excitement at seeing the ski-jump slope in person a few days later!
Stay
We stayed at the Scandic Hafjell, which was close to the skiing slopes we wanted to try out. The hotel rooms have a sports theme, in keeping with the region’s attraction. They’re quite busy during peak months, Easter time being one of them. Nearly everyone in Norway flocks to the ski slopes during the Easter period. The hotel is family-friendly, in addition to being a very short drive from the ski slopes. The only downside is that our room did not come with a kettle or cups, which is pretty important to me. Tea/coffee was freely available in the lobby, however, but it’s still a bother having to walk all that way for a cup of tea then bring it back to the room. Other than that, our room was lovely.
Do
- Ski or simply take the ski lift up to the top of the slopes and enjoy the view.
- Explore Lillehammer town – it’s a beautiful town to walk around
- Visit Lysgårdsbakken Olympic ski jump
- Visit Maihaugen open-air museum
- And a lot more.
