Best time to visit Stavanger
Norway · Europe
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Stavanger
Tap a month for its page
- JanJStavanger in January: avoid
- FebFStavanger in February: avoid
- MarMStavanger in March: avoid
- AprAStavanger in April: sweet spot
- MayMStavanger in May: ok, busy
- JunJStavanger in June: sweet spot, busy
- JulJStavanger in July: sweet spot, busy
- AugAStavanger in August: sweet spot, busy
- SepSStavanger in September: avoid
- OctOStavanger in October: avoid
- NovNStavanger in November: avoid
- DecDStavanger in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
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Things to do in Stavanger
- Stavanger Cathedral Stavanger Cathedral (Romanesque style from about 1125, with later Gothic additions) is the best preserved medieval cathedral in Norway and well worth a visit.
- Gamle Stavanger Gamle Stavanger is a well preserved slice of Norwegian history.
- St. Petri Church Red brick church built in 1866.
- Norwegian Canning Museum Group of museums in Stavanger, Norway
- Storhaug This district immediately east of the city centre used to be the home of the working class.
- Eiganes Traditionally where factory owners, ship owners, and other members of the upper class lived.
Tours and tickets in Stavanger
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Stavanger), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4° | 16d | 80% | 2.6h | avoid | bitter cold: 4C daily max |
| Feb | 5° | 15d | 79% | 4.5h | avoid | bitter cold: 5C daily max |
| Mar | 7° | 15d | 79% | 6.4h | avoid | 7C max, 15 rainy days |
| Apr | 10° | 9d | 75% | 9.9h | sweet spot | 10C max, 9 rainy days |
| May | 13° | 11d | 78% | 11.5h | okbusy | busier than usual |
| Jun | 16° | 13d | 80% | 11.8h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Jul | 17° | 15d | 82% | 11.4h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Aug | 18° | 16d | 82% | 10.1h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Sep | 16° | 17d | 82% | 7.5h | avoid | monsoon: 17 rainy days, 215mm |
| Oct | 12° | 19d | 82% | 4.9h | avoid | monsoon: 19 rainy days, 228mm |
| Nov | 8° | 15d* | 82% | 3.2h | avoid | 8C max, 15 rainy days |
| Dec | 6° | 18d | 82% | 1.9h | avoid | monsoon: 18 rainy days, 184mm |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at the old town and harbour, 12 km from the airport (SVG): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.* Rainy days in November are as the weather station at Stavanger (11 km away) counts them, where it and the model disagree on a wet month (WMO 01415, 2017–2026).
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Stavanger's September days now average 15.6°C, 2.8°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 9 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | 2.6° | 3.0° | 4.4° | 7.1° | 11.8° | 14.0° | 15.5° | 15.3° | 12.8° | 10.4° | 6.6° | 4.2° |
| 2017–26 | 4.2° | 4.8° | 6.6° | 9.8° | 13.3° | 16.5° | 17.5° | 17.6° | 15.6° | 11.8° | 8.0° | 5.5° |
| Change | +1.6° | +1.9° | +2.3° | +2.7° | +1.5° | +2.5° | +1.9° | +2.3° | +2.8° | +1.4° | +1.4° | +1.3° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Stavanger is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Oslo
- from Copenhagen
- from Edinburgh
- from Hamburg
- from Stockholm
- from Amsterdam
- from Manchester
- from Berlin
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Stavanger, flying or not.
Before you go
Type C and F plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Norwegian krone. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Norway: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Visa and Mastercard are taken almost everywhere, usually by tapping, and you can go days without cash; Vipps, the local payment app, needs a Norwegian bank account. Staffed shops must still accept cash for sums up to 20,000 kroner.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not expected: in restaurants round up, and 10% is generous. Taxi drivers do not expect a tip.
Getting around Stavanger
- Apps — Rides: Bolt, Norgestaxi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Messenger.
The most scenic and interesting part of Stavanger for visitors is the waterfront area of town surrounding the inner harbor like a big "U", all of which is quite walkable. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Stavanger, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 112 · ambulance 113 · fire 110.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (19)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/norway/getting-help
- ruter.no/en/about-our-tickets/tourist-ticket
- ruter.no/en/about-our-tickets/single-ticket
- ruter.no/en/about-our-tickets/season-ticket
- ruter.no/en/about-our-tickets/buy-tickets-here
- avinor.no/en/airport/oslo/info/public-transportation
- norges-bank.no/en/topics/notes-and-coins/the-right-to-pay-cash
- bolt.eu/en/cities/oslo
- uber.com/global/en/cities/oslo
- norgestaxi.no
- apps.apple.com/no/app/norgestaxi/id530488364
- sinch.com/blog/most-popular-messaging-apps-by-country
- linkmobility.com/blog/the-most-popular-messaging-apps-across-the-globe
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Oslo
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Norway
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Stavanger in pictures
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This image is a work by Mercy, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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W. Bulach, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Stavanger is like
Stavanger is Norway's fourth largest city, at almost 150,000 residents (2023). It is the largest city in, and the administrative centre of, Rogaland county in West Norway. Stavanger is the centre of the Norwegian oil industry and has the only petroleum museum in Norway. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Stavanger Cathedral (Stavanger domkirke) (south of inner harbour). More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- The seasons control what to do in Stavanger. Stavanger has a maritime climate, with cool summers and mild winters. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Stavanger Airport, Sola (SVG IATA) (a 20 minute drive from Stavanger). Stavanger airport is the third largest in Norway, at Sola, some 15 km from central Stavanger. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- Stavanger is generally considered a very safe city. The local police force are efficient, usually speak good English and have a strong presence in the downtown area at weekends. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Stavanger, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Stavanger
Also in Norway
- Bergen best May, Jun, Jul
- Lofoten best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Oslo best Jul, Aug, Sep
- Svalbard best Jul, Aug
- Tromsø best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Trondheim best May, Jun, Jul
Nearby
- Gothenburg Sweden · 390 km
- Shetland United Kingdom · 409 km
- Aarhus Denmark · 411 km
- Sylt Germany · 478 km
Kind of place
Stavanger is in Norway, Europe. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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