Where to stay in Ås
Most beds in Ås gather near the centre and the railway, where guest rooms and small hotels stand within reach of Ås hovedkirke and the station that runs trains toward Oslo and the rest of Akershus. The centre suits visitors who want the town and the line on the doorstep. It is the natural base.
Out by the woods to the north, rooms cluster near Tusenfryd, handy for families riding SpeedMonster, ThunderCoaster and SuperSplash across a long day at the largest amusement park in Norway. Those rooms fill in summer. Through the rest of the municipality the country parishes around Kroer kirke and Nordby kirke offer farm stays and quiet holiday rooms, a calmer base for travellers touring the south-western part of Akershus by car, with the Falsenstøtta memorial and the open farmland a short drive off.
Stock thins in the villages. Reserve early in the warm months, when the park and the long northern daylight draw visitors to this part of south-eastern Norway.
About Ås
What is Ås known for?
Ås carries two reputations. Tusenfryd, the largest amusement park in Norway, sits within the municipality and pulls crowds toward the roller coasters that rise above the woods near Oslo. The rides made the name.
SpeedMonster and ThunderCoaster run hard through the trees, while older parish churches such as Ås hovedkirke and Nordby kirke keep the quieter, agricultural face of this corner of Akershus, where the town has long been a centre of farming study and rural life.
What are the main landmarks in Ås?
Tusenfryd stands at the head of any visit to Ås. The largest amusement park in Norway crowds the woods with rides, among them SpeedMonster, ThunderCoaster, SuperSplash and the looping coaster Loopen, the chief draw of the municipality. Quieter sights ring the farmland. Ås hovedkirke, Nordby kirke and Kroer kirke mark the old parishes, each a heritage-listed church, while the Falsenstøtta memorial honours Christian Magnus Falsen and the Drøbak Akvarium lies a short way off toward the fjord.
What is the history of Ås?
Ås grew as a farming parish in the south-western part of Akershus. The medieval church of Ås hovedkirke gathered the early settlement, and the sister churches of Nordby kirke and Kroer kirke served the scattered farms across the rolling land south of Oslo, each later listed for heritage protection. The land made the living here.
Christian Magnus Falsen, one of the framers of the constitution, served as a magistrate in the district, and the Falsenstøtta memorial in the parish keeps his name on the ground he worked. The farms drew study to the place. Agricultural teaching took root in Ås and grew into a centre of rural science, which carried the town through the modern centuries as a quiet seat of learning rather than industry.
In the woods to the north the Tusenfryd park later rose, and the largest amusement park in Norway turned a corner of the municipality into a magnet for visitors from across Akershus and the wider region of south-eastern Norway, setting the rides beside the old fields and churches of the parish.
Where is Ås?
Ås lies in the south-western part of Akershus, in south-eastern Norway, on the rolling farmland that runs south from Oslo toward the inner fjord. Woods and fields frame the town. The old centre gathers around Ås hovedkirke, while the parishes of Nordby kirke and Kroer kirke spread across the surrounding land and the Tusenfryd woods rise to the north.
Low ridges and clay valleys shape the ground. The municipality reaches toward the fjord side near Drøbak, taking in farms, forest and the open country of this part of Akershus.
What is the climate of Ås?
Ås has the cool, humid inland climate of the farm country of Akershus. Winters bring frost and lying snow to the fields around Ås hovedkirke, the cold settling over the clay valleys through the dark months south of Oslo. Summers turn warm and green.
The long northern daylight ripens the grain across the parishes of Nordby kirke and Kroer kirke, while showers off the inner fjord reach the woods of Tusenfryd and the open land of this part of south-eastern Norway through the warmer half of the year.
How do you get to Ås?
Ås sits on the rail line running south from Oslo through Akershus. Trains stop in the town, and the station lies a short walk from Ås hovedkirke and the centre. Many arrive by car.
The main road south carries traffic past the Tusenfryd woods, where families turn off for SpeedMonster and the rest of the rides at the largest amusement park in Norway, while the airports serving Oslo handle the longer journeys of travellers reaching this part of south-eastern Norway from abroad.