Norway’s Dyreparken Opens a Halloween Hotel

Kristiansand Dyrepark, the largest zoo in Norway, will turn one of its overnight villages into a themed hotel run by a fictional undertaker this autumn. The park announced Glambeks hvilested, roughly “Glambek’s resting place,” on August 17, 2026, and booking is already open.

It runs from September 25 through October 11, 2026, with an additional weekend from October 16 to 18, during the park’s annual Skumle dager, or “Scary Days,” season.

What is actually being opened?

Juliusskogen, a village of 120 cabins in the forest directly behind the park’s Abra Havn pirate harbor, is being dressed for the season as a pop-up hotel. The proprietor is Glambek, a money-grubbing funeral agent from the Estragon books by the Norwegian author Gaute Heivoll. Guests check in. Whether they check out is presented as an open question.

The park is leaning into the joke rather than the gore. There is an optional coffin measuring, kistemåling in Norwegian, so that Glambek can size a guest for eternal rest, and the cabins are dressed to match.

“Vi ønsker å gi de som besøker oss en helhetlig opplevelse under Skumle dager. Ved å ta i bruk Juliusskogen og flette det sammen med Gaute Heivolls fantastiske og småsprø univers, har vi skapt et overnattingstilbud som er både gøy, gyselig og grådig spennende.”

In English: “We want to give those who visit us a complete experience during Skumle dager. By taking Juliusskogen and weaving it together with Gaute Heivoll’s fantastic and slightly crazy universe, we have created an overnight offering that is fun, gruesome and greedily exciting.” That is Anniken Bjørnstad Schjøtt, marketing and communications director at Dyreparken, in a statement translated from Norwegian.

She added, of the hotel’s proprietor: “Her sjekker du inn på eget ansvar. Glambek ser på hver enkelt gjest som en potensiell fremtidig kunde i sin opprinnelige bransje, så du skal ikke føle deg altfor trygg når du legger hodet på puten.” In English, again translated from Norwegian: “You check in here at your own risk. Glambek sees every single guest as a potential future customer in his original line of business, so you should not feel too safe when you lay your head on the pillow.”

Who it is for

Dyreparken has aimed it at families with children aged eight and up, which is a deliberate line to draw. Eight is old enough to enjoy being scared on purpose and young enough that the park has to keep the scare comic rather than genuinely frightening. Places are limited, and the park did not publish prices in the announcement.

More Skumle dager announcements are coming in the following weeks, the park said, without saying what they are.

Why an American reader should care about a Norwegian haunted hotel

Because the economics are the same everywhere, and Europe is arriving at an answer North American zoos found first. Seasonal overlays are how a zoo earns revenue in the months when general attendance falls off, and the format has spread from evening trails to full overnight stays. The Bronx Zoo runs Boo at the Zoo on the same calendar logic, and SeaWorld Orlando splits its autumn between a daytime Spooktacular and a nighttime Howl-O-Scream for exactly the age-banding reason Dyreparken is applying here.

What is different is the source material. An American park would license a horror property or invent one. Dyreparken has gone to a Norwegian children’s author, which makes the whole thing legible to its domestic audience in a way an imported franchise would not be, and unrepeatable anywhere else.

Kristiansand Dyrepark sits on Norway’s southern coast and combines a zoo with themed attraction areas including Kardemomme by and Kaptein Sabeltanns Verden.

Source: Kristiansand Dyrepark, August 17, 2026.