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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 museum's most treasured artefact is a beautiful 13th-century church door, carved with the touching story of a knight and his faithful lion!
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National Stadium
The country's passion for football (soccer) is huge. However, the Icelandic league is on a tiny scale and matches are generally played at suburban sports grounds. One of Reykjavík's biggest teams is KR, who play in Newcastle United strip! Their home ground is KR-völlur. Cup and international matches are played at the National Stadium in Laugardalur; see the sports sections of Reykjavík's newspapers for fixtures, and buy tickets directly from the venue.
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National Theatre
The most important of several venues in the city, the National Theatre has three separate stages and puts on around 12 plays, musicals and operas per year, from modern Icelandic works to Shakespeare.
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Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach
The dinky Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach on the edge of the Atlantic should by rights be visited only by seals and seagulls. However, it's packed with happy bathers in summer, thanks to golden sand imported 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 (around Ikr200 ), and canoes and rowing boats for hire on Thursday. Get there on bus 16.
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Norræna Húsið & Gallery
Close to Reykjavík University, Norræna Húsið is a Scandinavian cultural centre with a gallery, a library of Scandinavian literature, a pleasant café, and regular Nordic-themed concerts, lectures and films. The gallery features works by contemporary Nordic artists.
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Old Wash House
Just north of the Reykjavík Botanic Gardens you'll find the Old Wash House - sadly, rather graffitied - where washerwomen once scrubbed the city's dirty laundry in sulphurous pools. A small open-air exhibition of old photos brings the past to life.
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Old Whaling Ships
The rusting old whaling ships Hvalur 6 , 7 , 8 and 9 are moored directly opposite the whale-watching companies. Ladders and gangplanks enable visitors to climb aboard for a closer look.
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Perlan
Looking like half of Barbarella's bra, Perlan is a tourist complex based around the huge hot-water tanks on Öskjuhlíð hill. It's about 2km from the city centre (take bus 18 from Hlemmur). The main attraction at Perlan is the Saga Museum.
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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 café, with free internet access for customers and an intimate view of the ducks.
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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 while it's all pristine!
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Reykjavík Art Museum
The Reykjavík Art Museum is split over three sites - Hafnarhúsið, Ásmundarsafn and Hafnarhúsið. One ticket admits you to all if you visit on the same day.
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Reykjavík Botanic Gardens
Reykjavík Botanic Gardens contains over 5000 varieties of subarctic plant species, colourful seasonal flowers, a summer café serving coffee and waffles, and lots of bird life (particularly grey geese and their fluffy little goslings).
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Reykjavík City Theatre
The other important theatre in Reykjavík, this venue is behind Kringlan shopping centre. It stages at least six plays and musicals per year, showing at around from Thursday to Sunday. The Icelandic Dance Company is in residence here.
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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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SAFN Gallery
Reykjavík has many small contemporary art galleries. SAFN Gallery is one of the best: this tall wooden building contains three floors of conceptual art - beer cans in perspex and floating teacups - created by home-grown and international artists.
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Saga Museum
The endearingly bloodthirsty Saga Museum, at Perlan, 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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Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum
The Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum is a peaceful little place showcasing the varied works - portrait busts, driftwood totem poles, 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 café. On Tuesday from mid-July to August there are classical concerts at . Buses 12 and 16 pass close by.
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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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Sun-Craft
Reykjavík is littered with fascinating statues and abstract monuments, but it's Jón Gunnar Árnason's shiplike Sun-Craft sculpture that seems to catch visitors' imaginations. Its situation - facing the sea and snow-capped Esja - may have something to do with it.
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Sundhöllin Geothermal Pool
Reykjavík's oldest pool (with a definite 'municipal baths' feel) is close to Hlemmur bus station and is the only indoor pool in the city.
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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.
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Vesturbæjarlaug Geothermal Pool
Within walking distance of the centre (or take bus 15), Vesturbæjarlaug has a basic 25m pool and three hot pots.
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Víkin Maritime Museum
Based appropriately in a former fish-freezing plant, the small new Víkin Maritime Museum celebrates the country's seafaring heritage, focusing on the trawlers that transformed Iceland's economy. Much of the information is currently in Icelandic only, but silent film footage of trawler crews in action is worth a look.
