Reykjavik

Iceland air offers a no-fee layover in Reykjavik, so we took a couple days there on our way to Canada. While I would probably recommend a summer layover instead, Christmas was a nice time to visit and enjoy some Scandi Christmas vibes with a slightly different flavour. Here are some of the touristy sights:

And here are some of the less touristy ‘local flavour’ observations

Iceland air is one of the cheaper airlines to get from Vancouver to Stockholm, and also involves the shortest airtime. In case anyone plans a layover on the way to see us, here are some thoughts:

We stayed at Hótel Frón. It is right downtown on a pedestrianized street, so the perfect location for walking around to the major sights. Our room had a kitchenette and there was a grocery store nearby. The included Nordic breakfast buffet was great, with a nice array of Skyr (some Brits were HORRIFIED at the lack of plain black English breakfast tea, so mileage may vary.) No parking and not easy to drive to, so if you are planning on a driving visit other hotels might be better.

There is easily two days of walking and visiting in Reykjavik without needing to drive anywhere. The town is compact but very cozy/cute, reminding of other Atlantic towns built on codfish: St John’s and Bergen come to mind. There has been so much tourism growth the last decade and a half and folks have embraced it; it is very easy to navigate and get service in English but it has the ‘international-youth’ vibe of many resort towns (Whistler?), where a lot of seasonal service industry labour comes in from other places, so that the typical interaction is maybe a bit less ‘Icelandic’ than you might expect.

There is good food to be had, but it is pricey. A restaurant meal will cost a lot no matter what, so the key is to find something that is actually good and not conveyor-belt tourist food. We had forgettable fish n chips at Reykjavik Fish, but the real star I would recommend is Mama Reykjavik at the bottom of Bankastræti. This is a values-driven vegetarian restaurant that cultivates relationships with local producers and has the vision of a more sustainable local food system. They also have an event space for concerts and courses and yoga classes, you’d need to check the website about what’s happening while you are there. The bulletin board had some very familiar hippy vibes, and luckily the food was also really good. The space is lovely and the service welcoming and unpretentious; they have a reading coffee nook and zero ‘turnover energy’ so there were some folks nursing a tea hanging out and reading or chatting the whole time we were there. Strongly recommend!

We also really liked the coffee at Reykjavik Roasters – I think this would satisfy even coffee snobs and there are lots of good cozy spots to sit down. Their food seemed meh so I thought I was doing a real ‘.is hack’ by buying excellent baked goods from a bakery adjacent to their Kárastígur location… so we arrived with some really excellent croissants from Brauð & Co to find a sign saying ‘no outside bakery items’ (they were wise to my schemes). If its a nice day one could take it all to go and have a picnic on the seawall looking at the ‘Sólfarið’, but it was cold and I wanted to have a warm-up and a ceramic cup, so we had the coffee in and kept the croissants in our bag for later. Both these places were good, the bakery also has loaves of sourdough rye which would be great with jam and cheese and maybe some skyr from the nearby Kjörgarður Bonus grocery store if you were heading out on a road trip.

Hot springs feel mandatory on a trip to Iceland. Blue Lagoon is the most famous, but it is located a loooong way out on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which was actively bubbling up lava while we there, involving a lot of road closures and spa closures while we were planning. We instead went to Sky Lagoon, which is not far from the city centre. It took us under an hour to walk there (in the dark, through the snow, we felt we needed some exercise to balance out all the plane sitting). We took a cab back to town. I think Sky Lagoon is a good choice anyway because it is cheaper, it is waterfront and there are ocean views from the hot spring spas and the saunas. The photos and videos on the website really show it to advantage, but be warned that you will not have the peaceful solo experience that woman is enjoying – there will be dozens of other folks with their PHONES AND SELFIE STICKS making videos for their followers and posing for steamy hot spring photos. They do have a device-free sauna, so there is some respite from the terminally-online. We planned for a sunrise visit, although it was very cloudy and actively snowy which was nice in its own way. Some folks plan dark-time visits to see the aurora; in retrospect that might have been a good choice because there would have been fewer people (with phones).

Things I would go back for: Icelandic horse riding! I’d rather do this when there is more daylight, although no matter what time of year one needs to plan for inclement weather. It rains/mists all times of year, and it is effing windy so even if you think a sweater will be fine at 5 or 10 degrees, keep in mind that it is blowing minimum 30k off an icy ocean ALL THE TIME. Wet feet suck, so bring lots of warm woolly socks and waterproof footwear.

Rick Steves is great, and has lots of videos about Reykjavik and Iceland. We did watch a video from one of his colleagues before going, and I think it was helpful (if a bit nerdy, but you know what you’re in for with Rick Steves). I especially liked the language and pronunciation guide 🙂

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