Sights in Reykjavík
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Laugardalslaug Geothermal Pool
Laugardalslaug Geothermal Pool is the largest pool in Iceland, with the best facilities: an Olympic-size indoor pool, an outdoor pool, four hot pots and a whirlpool, a steam bath, and a curling 86m water slide. Take bus 14.
Reykjavík's heavenly pools (and beach) are the heart of the city's social life: children play, teenagers flirt, business deals are made, and everyone catches up with the latest gossip. Volcanic water keeps the temperature at a mellow 29°C, and most of the baths have heitir pottar (hot pots), Jacuzzi-like pools kept at a toasting 37°C to 42°C. Admission usually costs around Ikr280/around Ikr120 for adults/children aged 6 to 15, and towels and swimming…
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Tjörnin
Tjörnin is the placid lake at the centre of the city. It echoes with the honks, squawks and screeches of over 40 species of visiting birds, including swans, geese and artic terns; feeding the ducks is a popular pastime for the under fives. Pretty sculpture-dotted parks line the southern shores, and their lacing paths are much used by cyclists and joggers. In winter, hardy souls strap on ice skates and turn the lake into an outdoor rink.
For a self-guided art tour round Tjörnin, buy the brochure 'The City Statues' (around Ikr200) from the tourist office.
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Reykjavík 871 +/-2
The city’s newest exhibition, Reykjavík 871 +/-2, is based around a single 10th-century Viking house but shows what miracles can be achieved when technology, archaeology and imagination meet. Through 21st-century wizardry, a fire leaps from the hearth, while around the walls ghostly settlers materialise to tend crops, hunt, launch a boat, and bury their dead. Go and marvel!
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Reykjavík Art Museum
The excellent Reykjavík Art Museum is split over three sites: Ásmundarsafn, Hafnarhúsið and Kjarvalsstaðir.
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Árbæjarlaug Geothermal Pool
It's a step out of town, but the slickly designed Árbæjarlaug Geothermal Pool is well known as the best family pool: it's half inside and half outside, and there are lots of watery amusements (slides, waterfalls and massage jets) to keep the kids entertained. Take bus 19.
Reykjavík's heavenly pools (and beach) are the heart of the city's social life: children play, teenagers flirt, business deals are made, and everyone catches up with the latest gossip. Volcanic water keeps the temperature at a mellow 29°C, and most of the baths have heitir pottar (hot pots), Jacuzzi-like pools kept at a toasting 37°C to 42°C. Admission usually costs around Ikr280/around Ikr120 for ad…
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National Museum
Displays at the National Museum are well thought out and give an excellent overview of Iceland’s history and culture. The strongest section delves into the Settlement Era, with swords, silver hoards and a great little bronze model of Thor on display. However, the most treasured artefact in the museum is a beautiful 13th-century church door, carved with the touching story of a knight and his faithful lion! Upstairs, you really get a sense of the country’s poverty over the following 600 years. Simple, homey artefacts utilise every scrap: check out the gaming pieces made from cod ear bones, and the wooden doll that doubled as a kitchen utensil.
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Víkin Maritime Museum
Based appropriately in a former freezing plant for fish, the small Víkin Maritime Museum celebrates the country’s seafaring heritage, focusing on the trawlers that transformed Iceland’s economy. Much of the information is in Icelandic only, but silent film footage of trawler crews in action is worth a look. Your ticket also allows you aboard the coastguard ship Óðinn, a veteran of the Cod Wars (of the 1970s when British and Icelandic fishermen quite literally came to blows over fishing rights in the North Atlantic), as part of guided tours at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm (2pm and 3pm only at weekends in winter, closed January and February).
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A-Hús
Building houses from scraps didn't mean that artistic impulses were squashed - check out A-Hús, from 1906, one of the city's finest examples of wood-and-tin architecture. Its tall turrets are topped by swirling arabesques, and the wooden struts supporting the balconies are carved with whales.
The old town's mid-18th-century houses demonstrate the Icelandic talent for adaptation. In a country devoid of building materials, most are made from driftwood (which floated from Siberia and South America) and covered in sheets of corrugated tin to protect them from the elements.
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Family Fun Park & Zoo
The Family Fun Park & Zoo is the city’s only attraction especially for (youngish) children. Don’t expect lions and tigers; think seals, foxes and farm animals with slightly dismal enclosures, and tanks of cold-water fish. The family park section is jolly, with a mini-racetrack, child-size bulldozers, a giant trampoline, boats and kids’ fairground rides. The Family Fun Park is in the middle of a large park area, so buses don’t go directly to the door, but buses S2, 14, 15, 17 and 19 pass within a few hundred metres.
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Hallgrímskirkja
Reykjavík’s most attention-seeking building is the immense concrete church Hallgrímskirkja, star of a thousand postcards and visible from 20km away. However, in a scandal that shook the city, it was discovered that the original builders cut corners by skimping on quality materials, and that Reykjavík’s iconic symbol was falling apart. The whole thing was just repaired. You can get an unmissable view of the city by taking an elevator trip up the 75m-high tower.
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Culture House
Creeping into the darkened rooms of the Culture House is a true thrill for saga lovers. A permanent exhibition covers saga history: from a Who’s Who of Norse gods to a fascinating account of Árni Magnússon, who devoted his life to saving Icelandic manuscripts, and died of a broken heart when his Copenhagen library went up in flames. Two hushed display rooms contain the original vellums; if you’re interested in seeing more, contact the Árni Magnússon Institute.
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Stórnarráðið
For an Icelandic joke, at the beginning of Bankastræti look north towards the detached building Stórnarráðið, which contains the prime minister's offices. The statues outside are of Hannes Hafstein, leader of the first home-rule government, and King Christian IX presenting Iceland with its constitution. If you get the right perspective, you can recreate a shot from the cult movie 101 Reykjavík - the king stuffing the constitution up Hafstein's rear.
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Ráðhús
Reykjavík’s waterside Ráðhús is a postmodern construction that divides all who see it into ‘hate-its’ or ‘love-its’. Concrete stilts, tinted windows and mossy walls make it look like a half-bird, half-building rising from Tjörnin. Inside there’s a fabulous 3D map of Iceland – all mountains and volcanoes, with flecks of nothing-towns disappearing between the peaks. There’s also a pleasant cafe, with free internet access for customers and an intimate view of the ducks.
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National Gallery of Iceland
Surreal mud-purple landscapes are intermingled with visions of trolls, giants and dead men walking at the National Gallery of Iceland. Iceland’s main art gallery, overlooking Tjörnin, certainly gives an interesting glimpse into the nation’s psyche. As well as a huge collection of 19th- and 20th-century paintings by Iceland’s favourite sons and daughters (including Ásgrímur Jónsson, Jóhannes Kjarval and Nína Sæmundsson), there are works by Picasso and Munch.
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Fríkirkjan í Reykjavík
The old town's mid-18th-century houses demonstrate the Icelandic talent for adaptation. In a country devoid of building materials, most are made from driftwood (which floated from Siberia and South America) and covered in sheets of corrugated tin to protect them from the elements. Even churches, such as the Fríkirkjan í Reykjavík, were made the same way. By happy chance, this light construction method also makes the buildings pretty earthquake-proof.
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Þingvallakirkja
Behind the Þingvallabær farmhouse, Þingvallakirkja is one of Iceland’s first churches. The original was consecrated in the 11th century, but the current wooden building only dates from 1859. Inside are several bells from earlier churches, a 17th-century wooden pulpit, and a painted altarpiece from 1834. The Independence-era poets Jónas Hallgrímsson and Einar Benediktsson are interred in the small cemetery behind the church.
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Saga Museum
The endearingly bloodthirsty Saga Museum is where Icelandic history is brought to life by eerie silicon models and a soundtrack of thudding axes and hair-raising screams. Don’t be surprised if you see some of the characters wandering around town, as moulds were taken from Reykjavík residents (the museum’s owner is Ingólfur Arnarson, and his daughters are the Irish princess and the little slave gnawing a fish!).
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Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach
The dinky Blue-Flag Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach, on the edge of the Atlantic, is packed with happy bathers in summer, thanks to golden sand imported all the way from Morocco and an artificial hot spring that keeps the water at a pleasant 18°C to 20°C. There are sociable hot pots on shore and in the sea, a snack bar, changing rooms (Ikr200), and canoes and rowing boats. Get there on bus 19.
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Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum
The Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum is a peaceful little place showcasing the varied works – portrait busts, driftwood totem poles and abstract football players – of sculptor Sigurjón Ólafsson (1908–82). A salty ocean breeze blows through the wooden rooms, which also contain Reykjavík’s only shoreside cafe. On Tuesday from early July to August there are classical concerts at 8.30pm. Buses 12 and S5 pass close by.
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Árbæjarsafn
Quaint old buildings have been uprooted from their original sites and rebuilt at the open-air Árbæjarsafn, a kind of zoo for houses, 4km from the city centre. Alongside the 19th-century homes are a turf-roofed church, and various stables, smithies, barns and boathouses – all very picturesque. There are summer arts-and-crafts demonstrations, and it’s a great place for kids to let off steam. Take bus 12.
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Hafnarfjörður Museum
Hafnarfjörður Museum is divided over several buildings. Pakkhúsið is the main section, with three storeys of exhibits. The ground floor may interest English visitors. It deals with the British invasion of (neutral) Iceland in WWII – how many of us were taught that in history lessons?! Upstairs, there are displays on the history of Hafnarfjörður, and a small toy museum in the attic.
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Alþingi
Iceland’s first parliament, the Alþingi, was created at Þingvellir in AD 930. After losing its independence in the 13th century, the country gradually won back its autonomy, and the modern Alþingi moved into the current basalt building in 1881; a stylish glass-and-stone annexe was completed in 2002. You’re welcome to attend sessions when parliament is sitting.
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Volcano Show
Eccentric eruption-chaser Villi Knudsen is the photographer, owner and presenter of the fascinating Volcano Show, a film show that captures 50 years of Icelandic volcanoes. Although some of the footage is a bit old and wobbly, you’re still left reeling by images of the town Heimaey being crushed by molten lava, or the island Surtsey boiling its way out of the sea.
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Reykjavík Museum of Photography
Despite its grand name, the Reykjavík Museum of Photography is really just an exhibition room above Reykjavík City Library. It’s definitely worth dropping in, though – its quintessentially Scandinavian exhibitions are free and usually thought-provoking. If you take the lift up, walk down the stairs, which are lined with funny old black-and-white photos.
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Austurvöllur
At the heart of the city, grassy Austurvöllur was once part of first settler Ingólfur Arnarson's hay fields. Today it's a favourite spot for lunchtime picnics and summer sunbathing, and is sometimes used for open-air concerts and political demonstrations. The statue in the centre is of Jón Sigurðsson, who led the campaign for Icelandic independence.
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