What to do in Reykjavik. Activities in the capital of Iceland

How long?

Most travellers agree that to see the essential parts of Reykjavík it takes just half a day; this is true if you'd rather spend the rest of your holiday enjoying the wild rural areas of Iceland. However, it can easily take two to three days to appreciate fully what the capital has to offer.

Where to sleep?

The city is full of hotels and guesthouses, and with the growing popularity of Iceland as a travel destination, most places are booked out throughout the year. We recommend you book your accommodation well in advance. Check out the popular website airbnb.com if you wish to rent a room or apartment. For more information on the cost of housing in Iceland, see our article here.

Where to eat?

The eating choices are vast, and most restaurants are located in the city centre. Fast food (Icelanders are fond of!), Cafes, gourmet restaurants, Icelandic specialties, French, American, Italian, Mexican, Thai, there is something for everyone and the prices vary! For breakfast, we recommend trying Grái Kötturinn, the buffet at Icelandair Hotel Marina or the Laundromat. For lunch, Café Haiti, Saegreifinn or Bergsson Mathus are delicious choices! For a snack during the day (meaning a piece of cake and a hot drink),

Reykjavík has a bunch of really cool cafes. C for Cookie, Stofan, Babalú are among my favorites. For dinner, Þrir Frakkar, Fiskmarkadurinn or Fiskkompani are excellent choices and are expensive. Sushi Samba, Iceland, and Old Islenski Barinn serve good quality food at reasonable prices. For a drink in the evening, Kaffi Barinn, Hurra, and Dillon are good options -for older and more sophisticated customers, try Café Rosenberg, which is also a live music venue.

What to see?

The famous Hallgrímskirkja church is at the top of the exclusive street Skolavordustigur. Its organ is beautiful, and a must see -you can also walk up to the church tower for a breathtaking view of Reykjavík city. You can continue your walk to Perlan and Oskjuhlid and if you feel wish do a sea dive followed by a hot bath at the geothermal beach Nauthólsvík. Back in the city center, a visit to the beautiful Harpa concert hall is necessary; the building which houses concerts and events is an architectural highlight. In addition to your tour, a visit to Lake Tjörnin is a favorite activity.

What to do?

A stroll through the shopping street Laugavegur will without a doubt keep your day busy. If you want to know more about Reykjavík city and discover the best places to visit according to the locals, you can join a guided tour of the city. The city walks vary in price ranges, and some tours you donate what you wish and can afford. Visit the harbor and the surrounding area, why not join a boat trip to go whale watching?

There are dozens of public swimming pools in Reykjavik - check them out! Vesturbæjarlaug is the darling of Iceland's city center and is walking distance to the famous ice cream shop Ísbuð Vesturbæjar. From there you can go for a pleasant long walk or cycle along the shoreline at the end of Hofsvallagata and journey around the Seltjarnarnes peninsula.

Many museums are available around Reykjavík if you wish to learn more about the history and culture of Iceland. The D'Árbær museum consists of over twenty buildings that form a central square, a village and farm, and aims to show the Icelandic way of life at different time periods. D'Árbær is the only outdoor museum in the capital, but there are dozens more interesting ones to visit.

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Þríhnúkagígur - Inside the volcano

Iceland’s Þríhnúkagígur volcano is thought to be the only place in the world where you can safely explore a volcano’s magma chamber…from the inside. Talk about an experience of a lifetime!

Lowered in a small skyscraper window washer’s pulley lift through a four metre wide hole, down, down, down nearly 150 metres (double the height of Hallgrímskirkja) onto a floor the size of a football pitch in a cavern 150,000 cubic metres by volume, which was once filled with pressurised molten lava waiting to explode upwards. Welcome to Þríhnúkagígur.

The volcano is the only place on earth where the magma chamber is accessible and currently safe to explore. The size of its chamber is enormous; the ground space is roughly the size of a football pitch. The distance from top to bottom is about 150 meters (450 ft.). Þríhnúkagígur last erupted over 4000 years ago.

This Icelandic volcano hasn’t erupted for 4,000 years, so you’re probably safe being inside it. But the frisson of danger is nevertheless pervasive and basely attractive.

Summer 2012 was the first time the crater was open to tourists – and even then only until mid-August. But if you’re lucky you might manage to get onto one of the 5-6 hour tours again in summer 2013, between 15th May and 10th September.

Plans to run the tours for a second summer were late to be revealed and there is no way of knowing if they will run in 2014 or not. Even if they don’t, there are plans afoot to tunnel directly – hopefully discreetly – into the crater and erect a viewing platform in coming years. While this would remove the thrill of the descent, it would allow more people to see the amazing site, and for a less exorbitant price. 

The Volcano is only approximately 30 minutes drive from Reykjavík. Once there, travelers must walk for 40 minutes across a lava field to reach the summit. Then they will take an open cable lift 120 metres down to the bottom of the crater before beginning the hour-long tour with a team of expert guides.

CNN rated Þríhnúkagígur number 13 on its 27 Must See Places Before You Die list…so it must be good!

Peter, June 2014
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