The borough covers eastern Kristiansand on the east side of the Topdalsfjorden and the Varodd Bridge.

The borough (originally the parish) is named after the old Oddernæs farm (Old Norse: Otruness).

[5] European route E18 is the main road and a highway, it goes through Oddernes from the neighbor municipality and county Lillesand, Aust-Agder.

E18 goes past the zoo and Sørlandsparken, then between Hånes and Søm before exiting the borough on the bridge Varoddbrua to Lund.

Norwegian National Road 41 comes from Birkenes municipality and enters Kristiansand north in Tveit.

County road 401 goes from E18 at Rona and through Søm and Randesund before exiting Kristiansand to Høvåg in Lillesand.

[8] Randesund is a popular vacation area with a lot of cabins for rent at small islands or on the mainland.

The industrial shopping park includes Norway's largest mall Sørlandssenteret with over 195 stores.

The mall includes a fitness center, dentist, pharmacy, grocery store and a hair salon.

The Tveit area and large parts of Randesund are more agricultural, while the districts of Søm and Hånes and the neighborhoods of Tømmerstø and Hamresanden are all in the urban zone.

Randesund includes large parts of the Southern Norway archipelago.

Aside from the suburban areas in Tømmerstø, Randesund is mostly agricultural as one approaches Lillesand.

Søm only has 10% non-Norwegian citizens and is one of the areas in Kristiansand with the lowest percentage of immigrants, despite being the most populated part of Oddernes with 9,000 people.

Other than that, Hånes has a wide range of apartment buildings and typical Norwegian neighborhoods.

Tveit is the largest part of the borough by area, but it also has the smallest population of only about 1,000 people.

Tveit is home to most of the farms in Kristiansand and only a few residential neighborhoods like Hamresanden, Brattvollsheia, and Solsletta.