Iceland · Capital Region
Plan your Reykjavík trip
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01Your itinerary
02Where to stay
101 Downtown
Best for first-timers and short staysThe old centre between the harbour and Hallgrímskirkja, holding almost every restaurant, bar, shop and museum a visitor wants. Walkable end to end, and genuinely lively — which cuts both ways at weekends.
A boutique hotel near Skólavörðustígur
The rainbow street up to the church is the prettiest address downtown and one block off the noisiest stretch of Laugavegur.
€€€€A guesthouse near the old harbour
Walkable to everything, quieter at night than the bar strip, and closest to the whale-watching departures.
€€€Vesturbær
Best for quiet, and a longer stayThe residential west side beyond the pond — low houses, the university, and the neighbourhood pool locals rate highest. Fifteen minutes' walk from downtown and much calmer at night.
An apartment near Vesturbæjarlaug
Self-catering makes a real difference to an Iceland budget, and having the best neighbourhood pool at the end of the street is not a bad arrangement.
€€€Laugardalur
Best for families and driversThe green sports and recreation valley east of the centre, with the biggest pool in the city, the botanic garden and the campsite. Twenty minutes by bus or forty on foot from downtown.
A family hotel near the Laugardalur pool
Parking is easier out here than downtown, and the fifty-metre pool with its hot pots is the neighbourhood's centre of gravity.
€€Near Keflavík airport
Best for very early flights and lagoon stopoversNot Reykjavík at all — a functional cluster of hotels forty-five minutes from the city, next to the airport and the Reykjanes peninsula. Purely tactical.
An airport hotel near Keflavík
Worth it only for a dawn departure or a lagoon visit on the way out; do not spend a real night of your trip here.
€€Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.
03Tickets & tours
Hallgrímskirkja
The 74-metre concrete church on the hill above downtown, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson to echo the basalt columns of Iceland's lava flows, and…
Tip Pay for the tower lift. The view over the coloured rooftops toward the harbour and Mount Esja is the best in the city, and it takes fifteen minutes.
The Settlement Exhibition
A Viking-age longhouse excavated where it was built, dated by the volcanic ash layer beneath it to before the year 1000, with the exhibition…
Tip Small, and the best hour of history in Reykjavík. Do it before any day trip to Þingvellir — it makes the settlement story far more concrete.
Laugardalslaug and the neighbourhood pools
Geothermally heated outdoor pools with graded hot pots, open early to late all year for a few euros.
Tip Shower naked with soap before entering — it is compulsory and enforced. Go on a cold evening; sitting in forty-degree water in falling snow is the point.
Harpa concert hall
The glass-and-steel concert hall on the harbour, its honeycomb facade designed with Olafur Eliasson, which was completed after the 2008 crash rather…
Tip Free to walk into and wander the foyers, which is where the facade does its work with the light. Check the programme — concert tickets are cheaper than you would guess.
The old harbour and Grandi
A working harbour where whale-watching and puffin boats leave from, with the former fish-processing warehouses of Grandi now holding restaurants, a…
Tip Whale watching runs year-round but summer is far better for both sightings and sea conditions. Puffins are only there from roughly May to August.
Sun Voyager (Sólfar)
Jón Gunnar Árnason's steel sculpture on the waterfront path, a skeletal abstraction of a ship pointed out to sea — an ode to the sun and to discovery…
Tip It is a five-minute stop on the seafront walk between downtown and Harpa. Best at sunset, or at three in the morning in June, which is the same thing.
Perlan
A glass dome built on top of the city's geothermal hot water tanks on Öskjuhlíð hill, with a 360-degree observation deck and exhibitions including a…
Tip The observation deck alone is worth it on a clear day. Walk up through the birch woods on the hill rather than taking the bus if the weather allows.
Sky Lagoon, Kópavogur
A geothermal infinity pool on the coast twenty minutes from downtown, looking out over the Atlantic, opened in 2021 as the close-to-town alternative…
Tip Book a slot in advance and go late in the evening for the light. Considerably less driving than the Blue Lagoon, and less crowded.
Day trips from Reykjavík
The Golden Circle
The standard first day out and deservedly so: Þingvellir, where the Icelandic assembly met from 930 and where the North American and Eurasian plates…
Day tripThe south coast
A longer and, for many people, better day: the waterfalls at Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, the black-sand beach and basalt columns at Reynisfjara,…
Day tripReykjanes peninsula and the Blue Lagoon
Lava fields, geothermal vents and the famous milky-blue silica lagoon, all between the city and the airport, which makes it a natural arrival or…
Day tripSnæfellsnes peninsula
Sometimes called Iceland in miniature: a glacier-capped volcano, black churches, basalt sea stacks and fishing villages, about two hours north.
Day tripEverything to do in Reykjavík
Skip-the-line tickets, guided tours and day trips, all in one place on Booking.com.
04Getting there & around
Getting around
Downtown Reykjavík is small. The area most visitors care about, the 101 postcode, runs from the old harbour up to Hallgrímskirkja and along Laugavegur, and you can walk from end to end in twenty-five minutes.
Flights
Compare fares into Reykjavík and pick dates that suit the days you planned.
Airport transfers
Book a private or shared ride from the airport so the first evening starts at your door, not at a ticket queue.
Car hire from Reykjavík
Only worth it for day trips beyond the city — in town, the plan above works on foot and public transport.
Affiliate notePostcardRoute is reader-supported. Some links to Booking.com (stays, flights, car hire, tickets and tours, airport transfers) are affiliate links, tracked through CJ Affiliate: if you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend places we would send a friend.