A Guide to Reykjavik: What to Do and Where to Stay

Europe’s northernmost capital, Reykjavik is a charmingly low-rise city with a friendly, youthful vibe and a stunning location on deep Faxaflói Bay. Start your visit off with a stroll around the old centre, harbour and mid-town districts, where bustling shops, cafés and restaurants sit amid eye-catching modern architecture and brightly painted buildings of corrugated iron. You could easily spend a day taking in the city's museums alone, though be sure to leave time to sample some local Icelandic specialities and to explore further afield: swimming in a geothermal pool, whale watching, and island excursions are all feasible from your Reykjavik base.

The best neighbourhoods to visit in Reykjavik

The old centre

Tjörnin, “The Pond”, is a square kilometre of shallow water home to eider ducks, greylag geese, whooper swans and seagulls (Photo: Getty Images)

Reykjavik was settled back in Viking times, but there was little more than a farm here until the eighteenth century. Kick off a city tour on Aðalstræti, the city’s first street, where the low-slung wooden house at Aðalstræti 10 dates to 1762, Reykjavik’s oldest building. It was once the home of Skúli Magnússon, who pioneered the weaving industries that helped turn this farming hamlet into the nation‘s capital.

Nearby is the engrossing Kolaportið Flea Market, open at weekends, or browse through the Museum of Photography’s historic images. For an interactive immersion in the Viking age, head back down Aðalstræti to the superb Settlement Exhibition (Landnámssýning), which explores the excavated remains of a tenth-century longhouse. Parts of the structure date right back to 871, the era of Reykjavik’s Norse founder, Ingólfur Arnarson. 

For an introduction to Iceland’s wilder side, head to Tjörnin, “The Pond”, a square kilometre of shallow water home to eider ducks, greylag geese, whooper swans and seagulls. Check out the enigmatic statue here of “The Unknown Bureaucrat”, then head over a footbridge to City Hall (Ráðhúsið), which houses a seven-metre-wide, three-dimensional topographical map of Iceland showing volcanoes, intricate northwestern fjords, gigantic central icecaps and long glacier tongues.

Crossing busy Hringbraut, make your way to Iceland’s National Museum (Þjóðminjasafn), whose star attractions include a Viking-age burial, complete with sword and hoard of coins, a tiny bronze figurine of the Norse god Þór, and mediaeval church doors carved with scenes from the tale of The Knight and The Lion.

A fine way to fuel all this exploring is with a local delicacy. Two of the best dishes to try are rich langoustine bisque and the soupy lamb stew called kjötsúpa. Keep an eye out for them both on restaurant menus.

The harbour

Sun Voyager – an abstract sculpture of a Viking longship – is a remarkable addition to Reykjavik's shoreline (Photo: Getty Images)

Some of the best things to do in Reykjavik are around the harbour area, where the national whaling fleet once moored up. Now whale-watching tours head out to sea from here, though it’s also the focus of the annual Seamans’ Festival (Sjómannadagurinn) on the first Sunday in June. These days the harbour area is home to a collection of excellent museums. Just back from the water you’ll find the city’s showpiece Harpa Concert Hall, a magnificent building with a rainbow-tinted glass facade. Conveniently enough, one of the best places to stay in town – the stylish Reykjavik EDITION hotel – awaits right next door. 

Head up Geirsgata from here and you’re at the edge of the old harbour, where you can still see fishing trawlers being repaired in dry dock. Five minutes further up Mýrargata – check out the building-sized murals along the way – lands you at the Saga Museum, whose waxworks bring to life the vast scope of Iceland’s early history: the almost undocumented Irish monks who first colonised the country, Settlement under the Vikings, the Norse discovery of America, and the medieval civil wars which ended the Saga Period and placed Iceland in Norwegian hands.

Around the corner and right on the seafront is the Maritime Museum, whose main appeal is guided tours around the Óðinn Coast Guard Vessel moored outside; while opposite at Whales of Iceland you can get an idea of the sheer size of the world’s largest mammals through skeletons and realistic life-sized models. If you’re in Reykjavik during the winter you might well see the real northern lights flickering across the skies, but you can experience the next-best thing at Aurora Reykjavik: the Northern Lights Center through virtual-reality headsets and a wide-screen film of the glowing green curtains lighting up wild locations around Iceland.

In good weather it’s worth stretching your legs by walking east from Harpa along seafront Sæbraut, keeping an eye open for curious seals which sometimes follow pedestrians. Don’t miss the polished steel Sun Voyager, an abstract sculpture of a Viking longship which points out seawards towards the flattened heights of the Esja plateau. Another few minutes will bring you to Höfði, an unassuming white wooden townhouse which hosted a crucial summit between Ronald Regan and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

The mid-town 

The unmistakable architecture of city landmark Hallgrimskirkja is inspired by volcanic rock formations (Photo: Getty Images)

Just a minute’s walk from either ION City Hotel or 101 Hotel Reykjavik a Member of Design Hotels, Laugavegur cuts through the heart of Reykjavik’s shopping district. With adventures beyond the city in mind, this is the neighbourhood to pick up weatherproof and stylish outdoor gear. It’s also perfect for some simple people-watching as you enjoy a coffee.

The small but fun Punk Museum on Bankastræti, suitably located underground in a one-time public toilet, gets the balance between information and grunge just right, and encourages you to try your hand at drums and guitar. More mainstream contemporary art awaits you at the Culture House (Safnahúsið) on Hverfisgata, while up the hill at Hallgrímstorg 3 the brutalist weatherproof exterior of the Einar Jónsson Museum hides a fantastic, imaginative collection of the artist’s sculptures and paintings.

Right at the top of the hill, there’s no mistaking the rocket-like form of Hallgrímskirkja’s steeple rising 73 metres over Reykjavik, elegantly ribbed in columns inspired by volcanic rock formations. In keeping with Iceland’s Lutheran faith the interior is fairly spartan, graced only by an enormous organ with some five thousand pipes. Take the lift to the top of the tower for outstanding 360 degree views of the city. Out the front of Hallgrímskirkja, don’t forget to take a look at the statue of Viking explorer Leif Eiríksson, sword at waist and axe in hand. Son of infamous Eirík the Red, Leif sailed westwards from Iceland in about 1000 AD to discover “Vinland“, now identified as Newfoundland in America.

Öskjuhlíð

Offering interactive exhibits on Iceland's natural phenomena, the domed Perlan sits atop a picturesque wooden hill (Photo: Getty Images)

Where to go next? A brief drive south from downtown Reykjavik lies Öskjuhlíð – a 61m-high wooded hill – which is covered in walking tracks and picnic spots, its wealth of trees a fairly unusual sight in Iceland. Right on top and visible from miles away, the bright dome of Perlan – The Pearl – offers a host of interactive exhibits on natural Iceland, including an ice cave and another immersive aurora show. There’s also a viewing platform on the top for a panoramic view of the city. Head down to Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach at the south side of Öskjuhlíð to indulge in the Icelandic pastime of bathing in outdoor hot springs; there’s also a white-sand beach and, for the fit and fearless, cold water swimming in the sea.  

Eastern Reykjavik

Extending eastwards from the city centre, Reykjavik's suburbs have a number of hidden gems that are worth visiting (Photo: Getty Images)

For such a small city (the population stands at around 136,000), Reykjavik’s suburbs sprawl impressively eastwards, and the scattered sights again are best reached by car. Closest to town, there’s the Olympic-sized Laugardalslaug outdoor pool, another popular geothermally heated experience where you can swim laps, leave the kids on the slides, or relax in hot tubs (a great experience on a snowy day). A short walk from here, Laugardalur is a sprawling green space whose botanic gardens offer free guided tours on Fridays through the summer; there’s also a small zoo of farm animals and native species (usually including arctic fox and reindeer).

For a hit of intrinsically Icelandic art head to the Kjarvalsstaðir museum, where the textured, slightly surreal landscapes of Jóhannes Kjarval, the country’s most popular and distinctive painter, are displayed in their modernist gallery. If it’s sculptures you’re after, don’t miss Ásmundarsafn, whose garden of statuary graces the lawn surrounding a distinctive “Mediterranean-inspired” building, all the work of pioneering Icelandic sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson. Alternatively, travel back in time at Árbær Open Air Museum, a collection of traditional Icelandic houses, full of period furnishings. Heading back towards town, Kringlan was the country’s first shopping mall with over 180 businesses selling, amongst other things, Icelandic-designed furniture and outdoor wear.

Viðey island, Faxaflói bay and Seltjarnarnes peninsula

If you're fortunate when visiting Faxaflói bay, you might see both whales and the aurora borealis in one trip (Photo: Getty Images)

Make the most of a sunny day by visiting the attractions that await out in the bay off Reykjavik. On flat, grassy Viðey island – reached in minutes by ferry from Skarfabakki pier, a short taxi ride east of the centre – you’ll find plenty of seabirds, pleasant walks, and the Imagine Peace Tower in memory of John Lennon (not really a ‘tower’ but a high-power light beam aimed at the heavens, turned on nightly). Reykjavik harbour is the departure point for whale-watching tours in Faxaflói bay, which go in search of harbour dolphins, minke whales and, if you’re lucky, giant humpbacks. Not quite offshore – it’s connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, submerged at high tide – Grótta Lighthouse sits on a tiny dot of land right at the tip of Reykjavik’s Seltjarnarnes peninsula, about 4km by road from the harbour. Its bracing seascapes and black-sand beach are a beautiful complement to the more urban atmosphere of central Reykjavik.

Go deeper

The sheer length of some Icelandic words is impressive – to say the least – but, broken down, their pronunciation is manageable. Use standard British pronunciation for vowels, except for the following:

ó – like the vowel sound in 'pound'
ö – 'uh' sound
ú – as in 'tool'
ý – ee as in 'meet'
æ – i as in 'fight'
á – ou as in 'shout'
í – ee as in 'feel'
é – like the vowel sound in 'fate'

For consonants, bear in mind that Ð and ð are pronounced like the 'th' in 'the'; Þ and þ like the 'th' sound in 'thing'; and 'hv' like the 'kf' in 'thankful'. Double L 'll' is pronounced 'tl', and j is pronounced like a soft y.

An example: Eyjafjallajökull, ice-cap source of the ash-laden 2010 eruption, is pronounced Ay-ya-fyatla-yur-kutl.

Published: December 29, 2022

Article Tags:  Reykjavik