Long story short, I’m going to be in Germany for a couple of weeks in September. As I refuse to fly Air Canada and Transat doesn’t go directly to any airports in Germany, I booked with Icelandair. I have less than an hour transfer on the way there, but for the trip home, I took the option of a longer layover. I figured I have no idea when I’d get the chance again, and it’s one more off the bucket list. Thing is, I arrive late afternoon on the Friday, and assuming that custom, luggage and trekking into town from Keflavík will eat up much of the rest of that evening, I’m left with one full day in the capital before flying back to Toronto on the Sunday.
So my question is for anyone with Reykjavík experience is…what should I try to see? Are there enough tours and museums within the city to fill my day? I do want to actually see the city, but if I take even one of the shorter bus tours out of town to a volcano or something, will everything be closed by the time I get back?
Are you going to spend the night? If you have a full day you can book a tour to see the Golden Circle, 3 quite lovely natural sites (geyser, waterfall, tectonic plate divide).
If you are just in the city for layover during the day there’s enough to keep you busy. The Penis Museum is always a crowd pleaser. The Hallgrimskirkja church is beautiful and has a great view. The main street and waterfront is quite nice with shops and bars/restaurants (food is expensive). A side trip to the Blue Lagoon is touristy but fun. Harpa has concerts, movies, and exhibits.
It’s worth it if you’re flying through, for sure. Keep in mind, everything is expensive.
ETA - I re-read your OP. Take the Golden Circle tour on Saturday. See Hallgrimskirkja as soon as you arrive on Friday.
And definitately have a hot dog. But stay away from the fermented shark; I think the Icelanders invented that as a joke to see what they could get tourists to eat.
Yep, that would be one of my top suggestions if you’ve got a swimsuit handy. Going to the pool is a fun cultural experience, and it’s way cheaper than the Blue Lagoon. (Be sure to follow all the rules about showering, shoes, and other pool etiquette, which they will explain if you say you haven’t been there before.)
Also, lobster soup and a fish skewer at Saegreifinn, if you like seafood.
Completely agree, we had more meaningful conversations with locals in one pool session than the rest of the trip. Keep in mind that Icelanders are very confortable with naked bodies.
Blue Lagoon was also fun, but it is expensive and it is only for tourists.
The ride from the airport to downtown is maybe 45 minutes. The airport, unique to Iceland AFAIK, is the cheapest place to buy alcohol.
In a longer trip, it is worth:
seeing or hiking the beautiful geysers, glaciers
enjoying natural geothermally heated lagoons
seeing the Northern Lights
enjoying the quaint downtown shops and bars
seeing the old churches (13th century?)
enjoying saunas with the locals
avoiding tourist foods: fermented shark, puffins
meeting the very individualistic people
museums on ships, northern lights, Vikings, etc.
learning a complex language, all speak English
In a very short trip, you have to choose. The geysers and glaciers are cool but a long drive. The lagoons are fun but like relaxing in a pool, the popular ones expensive and hard to book (didn’t do it, did a cheap one and to me not worth the $, you do you). The Northern Lights are not visible every day, but are exceptional (there were three reported “good viewing nights” the week I went).
The local gyms all have saunas and are great, and possibly the best way to meet locals. The museums were all fairly good, none were exceptional. Prices of everything are high since everything is imported and tourists will pay (worth reading about the history of Iceland, a comedian and former mayor wrote an entertaining book about its many idiosyncrasies).
Icelanders love to read, workout (many CrossFit champions, capital only 350,000 people) and hot tubs (any gym includes hot tubs, usually three or four at different high temperatures) so there are some nice bookshops with cafes. Icelanders like to drink, so booze was virtually outlawed until the 1990s and is still expensive, as our restaurants, but the fresh fish is very good. I understand some Game Of Thrones was shot there; impressive smoking rocks, black sand volcanic beaches, icebergs and waterfalls and caves and cool geology.
Thanks everybody for your suggestions. I suspect I may save the big excursions for a future trip. With only one full day of activities, and not wanting to lug around a huge amount of wet/cold weather gear for the two weeks of my vacation that unfords before I even get there, I imagine I can cram three or four museums (a bit worried about what Canada Customs will have to say about souvenirs from that one) and a bus tour into my time in the city.
The museums are okay. The Northern Lights museum a passable alternative to the real thing, but not at all awe inspiring. So few things inspire awe, so it is worth prioritizing the Northern Lights. Like weather reports, they publicly predict which nights are most suitable, so hopefully you get lucky (various apps are available to better record them). I personally liked the historical museums better than the more novel ones. If very gungho, consider reading (kindle?) the book Gnarr! or seek out the crude cartoons of Icelandic artist Dagsson (being fairly warned Nordic humour, particularly in Iceland, can be quite dark).
A bus tour might be limited, and involve a few hours of driving, but the stuff you see is pretty unique. Renting a car is expensive and only worthwhile if driving around the coast, which takes days. I would personally prioritize geology over museums or art galleries. But I’m not you. if you exercise a lot, visit a local gym and bring a swimsuit.
You can also do a tour of Reykjavik, by foot or Segway or whatever. Less driving, still very interesting, but (some of) the natural stuff is literally awesome.
Iceland is not particularly cold. No special clothing is needed much of the time. Check. But a sweater or light coat may well be sufficient.
I heard a comedienne discussing her shows in various countries. She said the only country she didn’t like was Iceland, which she called “Hawaii without the perks”. At a gourmet dinner, she thought the waiter was asking her if “this was the first time she had eaten well?”. She thought to herself, a bit angrily, “I’m on vacation!”. But he was talking about mink well… “Can’t go to heaven after you’ve eaten that!”.
Well, I thought it was a unique and interesting place…
My cousin and her husband were in Reykjavik recently, but you don’t want to see what he did, the inside of one of the best hospitals in the country. He had a heart issue flare up.
But out the window of his room he could see the smoke and steam, from twenty miles off, of that new volcanic fissure.
So I made that stopover in Reykjavik. I sadly didn’t make it outside the city limits so I couldn’t partake in any of the Blue Lagoon stuff or volcano excursions. My flights were at horribly inconvenient times as well…I landed late afternoon, and by the time the shuttle from Keflavik dropped me off at the depot in the city centre, and I made it to my AirB&B in the suburbs(ish), it was late-evening. So I really had one full day of touristing. I did the hop-on-hop-off bus tour and partook of the hopping-off a lot, so I did the whole circuit but also saw most of the sites on it. I liked the Hallgrimskirja (and the pulled-lamb hot dog I bought at the base of it), and the Perlan Centre was pretty terrific. I spent much of the rest of the time agog at the prices; with the exchange rate being almost exactly kr100 to the CAD$, conversion was easy, so realizing that those fanny packs there are $115 each or that paperback of the ancient sagas is $40 was depressingly quick. It’s the one thing that makes me think I may not go back…I’m more of a city slicker anyhow, so trekking out in the rain and muck is rarely on my to-do list. I can check off Iceland…I did the capital.
I’m going through the process of finding places to stay on my Ring Road trip. It’s a bit of a shock to find 3 star hotels for CAD$500/night, breakfast extra!
The only good thing about the menu prices, is that they are tax inclusive and no tipping so that ISK3500 is really only like a CAD$27 burger here and not $35.