Iceland · City break

Reykjavík City Guide

The northernmost capital of a sovereign state feels like a small town with a world-class programme. Colourful tin roofs beneath the concrete church Hallgrímskirkja, Harpa's honeycomb glass at the harbour, whales out in the bay. And nearly every house heated by geothermal energy. Two ready-made routes split the city into old town and harbour on day one, Perlan and the museum shore on day two.

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Our walking tours of Reykjavík

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Reykjavík, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

Hallgrímskirkja, rainbow street & harbour

From the basalt-column church Hallgrímskirkja, 41 years in the building, down the rainbow street into the Laugavegur shopping mile. On the shore waits the Sun Voyager. A dream boat, not a Viking ship. Then the Harpa concert hall, whose glass honeycombs change colour with the light. Finally the Old Harbour, where the boats cast off for the whales.

Hallgrímskirkja. Iceland's largest church looks as if poured from the landscape. Architect Guðjón Samúelsson modelled the facade on the basalt columns that line Iceland's coasts. Building ran from 1945 to 1986, 41 years in all; the architect himself only saw the crypt completed. Before the door stands Leifur Eriksson, a gift from the USA for the thousand-year jubilee of Iceland's parliament in 1930. The lift takes you up the 74.5-metre tower, with the colourful tin roofs below and bay and mountains beyond. The bells ring every quarter hour, loudly. You will notice.
Skólavörðustígur & Laugavegur. Skólavörðustígur runs in a dead-straight axis towards Hallgrímskirkja and has worn its rainbow permanently since 2019. First painted for the Pride festival in 2015, nobody wanted to give it up afterwards. Left and right sit galleries, wool shops and craft stores; at the bottom the street joins Laugavegur, Reykjavík's main shopping mile. This is where you find the yoke-patterned Iceland sweater, the lopapeysa. Ideally where Icelanders shop themselves. In the evening the same mile turns into the city's going-out zone. Two minutes below the church, the scent drifts out of Brauð & Co, the bakery behind the colourful street-art facade. Its cinnamon buns are Reykjavík's best-known food photo. By late morning they are often sold out. And keep your eyes open. Along Laugavegur, international artists painted whole house walls for the "Wall Poetry" project.
Sun Voyager (Sólfar). On the shore road gleams Reykjavík's most photographed sculpture, the Sun Voyager by Jón Gunnar Árnason, unveiled in 1990 for the city's 200th anniversary. Nearly everyone takes it for a Viking ship. The artist expressly disagreed. It is a dream boat, an ode to the sun, to hope and undiscovered land. Árnason himself did not live to see it installed; he died the year before. The stainless steel takes on every mood of light; the spot is strongest late in the evening when the sun stands behind Mount Esja. And in high summer it never gets dark here at all.
Harpa. At the harbour sparkles Iceland's concert hall Harpa, opened in 2011, with a facade developed by Henning Larsen Architects together with artist Ólafur Elíasson. The hexagonal glass honeycombs quote Iceland's basalt columns and change colour with light and weather. Only the south facade carries the true three-dimensional cells; the other sides bear a flattened image of them. In 2013 it won the Mies van der Rohe Award, Europe's foremost architecture prize. The foyer is freely accessible. Stand inside and watch the glass throw coloured reflections across floor and stairs. On the way to the old harbour, by the way, Iceland's most famous snack stand waits on Tryggvagata, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, the hot-dog stand of 1937 where Bill Clinton once queued. You order "eina með öllu", one with everything.
Old Harbour. Between old shipyard buildings and colourful cutters, the boats cast off for Faxaflói Bay. Minke whales, humpbacks and dolphins live right off the city; tours last around three hours and run all year, most reliably from April to October. Puffin trips to the breeding islets offshore, however, only run in their breeding season from May to August. Bring a warm jacket even in summer. Out on the water, Iceland is always a few degrees more honest. If you stay ashore, stroll the quayside to the fish restaurants in the old harbour sheds.

Perlan, Tjörnin & Grandi

Day two starts with a view from Perlan, the glass dome on the city's hot-water tanks, with a walk-in ice cave and all-round platform. Then settlement history at the National Museum, the birdlife on lake Tjörnin with the Iceland relief in the city hall. And finally the Grandi harbour district with life-size whales and the city's most famous ice cream. If you like, add the Grótta lighthouse.

Perlan. Only Reykjavík builds its landmark on hot-water storage. On the wooded Öskjuhlíð hill, six huge district-heating tanks have carried a glass dome since 1991. Four still store hot spring water, one now holds a walk-in ice cave made of over 350 tonnes of real ice, another a planetarium. The "Wonders of Iceland" exhibition explains volcanoes, glaciers and northern lights, and up top the viewing platform circles you right around. An honest note. Full admission is steep. If you only want the view, the platform alone is far cheaper.
National Museum. Eleven hundred years of Iceland in one circuit. The National Museum tells the story from the beginning around 874, when the first settlers hauled their farmsteads ashore. The excavated settlement hall from exactly that period is not here, though, but in its own museum, the Landnámssýningin on Aðalstræti. The showpiece is the Valþjófsstaður door, carved around 1200, a knight slaying a dragon and freeing a lion, complete with runic inscription. Iceland's most famous piece of wood. Add Viking graves, medieval chess pieces and the leap into the present. Compact, well told, doable in an hour and a half.
Tjörnin & City Hall. The city lake Tjörnin is Reykjavík's living-room pond, with swans, ducks and whole duckling convoys in summer, while the colourful houses mirror themselves in the water along the east bank. On the north shore the Icelanders placed their city hall, a concrete building that seems to float on stilts above the lake, moss growing on its walls. Inside, the best part is free, a huge relief of all of Iceland at 1:50,000, cut from millimetre-thin card along the contour lines. Four men spent four years building it. Find your travel route from above before you move on.
Grandi & Whales of Iceland. The old shipyard and fishery area of Grandi has turned into a district of museums, food halls and shops without losing its harbour tone. The biggest magnet is "Whales of Iceland", where 23 life-size, hand-painted models of every whale species in Icelandic waters hang in a darkened hall, a 25-metre blue whale among them. Only beneath its belly do you grasp the scale. Afterwards, ice cream is part of the programme. Valdís on Grandagarður is the city's cult ice-cream shop, with flavours from liquorice to rye bread. In sunshine the queue reaches the street; it moves fast. Out in the quarter, larger-than-life faces look back at you. The Australian artist Guido van Helten painted portraits onto the old industrial facades. And if the weather turns, next door "FlyOver Iceland" simulates a flight across the island. Short but impressive.
Grótta Lighthouse. The closing point for anyone with energy left is at the tip of the Seltjarnarnes peninsula, where the Grótta lighthouse stands on a tidal island. The causeway across is only clear at low tide, and the water returns faster than you think; check the tides beforehand. From early May to mid-July the island is additionally closed altogether, when the Arctic terns breed here and defend their territory in low-level flight. Even from the mainland the spot rewards, with open horizon and sea on three sides. In winter it is one of the best places near the city to see the northern lights.

Planning your visit

Two days fit well. The first route from the Hallgrímskirkja runs three kilometres from the concrete church down the shopping streets to the Sun Voyager by the water, the Harpa concert hall and the old harbour. The second takes in the Perlan viewing dome, the national museum, the town pond and the Grótta lighthouse over two kilometres. Iceland is expensive, but the tap water is the best you can get. Five evening tips are ready, and the Golden Circle fills a day of its own.

Going out & nightlife

Rooftop bars

SKÝ Bar. Bar and lounge on the eighth floor above the centre, with a terrace towards Harpa and the bay. In an expensive city, the long evening happy hour is worth gold. Under a clear winter sky you may with luck see northern lights over the water from here.

Nightlife quarters

Laugavegur. The entire nightlife plays out on and around Laugavegur, following its own ritual called the rúntur, literally "the round". Originally bored youths drove their car laps here; today the word means the pub crawl from bar to bar. It starts late, often not before midnight, and ends at dawn. If you see empty bars at 10 pm, you are simply too early.

Food & restaurants

Dill. In 2017 Dill became the first restaurant in Iceland to win a Michelin star for New Nordic with Icelandic ingredients in a long tasting menu, opened by Gunnar Karl Gíslason. Book weeks ahead. Cheaper and also very good is the Apotek in the old pharmacy building.

Bars & clubs

Kaldi Bar. Taproom of Iceland's first microbrewery, which brews up north in Árskógssandur, with a wide draught selection, a heated backyard and plenty of locals. The afternoon happy hour makes Icelandic beer prices bearable.

Stage & concerts

Harpa. In the honeycomb-glass building at the harbour play the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and opera and concert productions of every kind. Even without a ticket the evening rewards. Come to the foyer before curtain time, when the facade works its magic in the evening light.

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Practical information for Reykjavík

Public transport

Operator. Strætó bs. is the municipal bus company of the Reykjavík capital region (Höfuðborgarsvæðið) and also operates the intercity lines to other parts of the country. Ticketing runs across all channels through the Klapp account and payment system, which combines an app, contactless card payment and rechargeable cards.

Network. Buses only, recognisable by their yellow colour. Pay in the app or with exact change.

Modes of transport. Bus

Operating hours. Strætó does not state a uniform operating time for the entire line network, operating hours vary line by line and can be checked individually in the online timetable at straeto.is. The telephone service center can be reached on weekdays from 7 am to 5 pm and on weekends from 10 am to 2 pm, while the walk-in customer office at Hafnarstræti 7 is open Monday to Thursday from 9 am to 4 pm and Friday from 9 am to 2 pm, closed on weekends.

Night service. On weekend nights, with departures on Saturdays and Sundays according to the operator, five night lines run from the center out to the suburbs, line 101 to Hafnarfjörður, 103 to Breiðholt, 104 to Úlfarsárdalur, 105 to Norðlingaholt and 106 to Mosfellsbær, each with three departures between roughly 1.20 am and 3.45 am with no fixed interval. The buses run only outbound from the center, not back into it. A single trip costs 690 ISK with no discount, payable contactlessly, via the Klapp app night ticket, or with an existing monthly or annual pass.

Buying tickets. There are no ticket machines at the stops. Standard payment is either through the Klapp smartphone app or by tapping a contactless bank or credit card directly on the reader when boarding, both at the same fare. Anyone paying cash pays exact change to the driver, since drivers don't give change. Multi-trip tickets, day, monthly and annual passes, as well as the rechargeable Klapp card or key fob, are purchased at klappid.is or in the app.

App and payment. The official payment app is called Klapp and serves as an account-based ticketing system for the whole Strætó operation. Alternatively, tapping a contactless debit or credit card, or a smartphone, directly on the card reader on the bus is enough, at the identical fare of 690 ISK, with no app installation needed. Both payment routes are tied to an automatic fare cap, the Klapp system limits costs to a maximum of three trips per day or nine trips per week at the adult fare, after which further trips on the same day or in the same week are automatically included.

Which ticket. A single trip costs 690 ISK for adults, payable via the Klapp app or a contactless card, teenagers aged 12 to 17 and seniors from 67 pay 345 ISK, children under 12 travel free. Strætó no longer sells separate 24- and 72-hour tickets, replaced instead by the automatic Klapp cap. Anyone who always uses the same payment method never pays more than three trips a day, i.e. 2.070 ISK, and never more than nine trips a week. All further trips within that period are free. A 10-trip ticket costs 6.900 ISK for adults or 3.450 ISK reduced, exactly ten times the single fare with no extra discount, the only benefit being paying in advance. The 30-day pass costs 12.000 ISK and doesn't pay off, by the numbers, for a two- to three-day stay. For a short stay, it's therefore enough to keep paying with the same card or phone throughout.

Fare zones. A single fare zone covers the entire capital region, so visitors don't need to choose a zone. The airport line 55 to Keflavík lies outside this zone and costs separately, 1.800 to 2.400 ISK depending on where you board.

Tip. Drivers give no change. Without the app you need the exact fare.

Getting there

Main station

Location. Iceland has no railway network. The central hub is the BSÍ coach station.

Long-distance trains. Since Iceland has no rail network, Strætó's intercity lines from BSÍ take on the function of long-distance transport. Line 51 runs to Selfoss, line 52 to Höfn on the south coast, line 50 to Akranes and Borgarnes, line 57 continues to Akureyri in the north, line 56 between Egilsstaðir and Akureyri in the northeast, and line 58 to Stykkishólmur. The connection to the Westfjords via line 62 between Patreksfjörður and Ísafjörður only runs in summer.

Opening hours. Iceland has no railway, BSÍ is purely a bus station. The first Flybus to Keflavík departs at 4.00 am, the last at 10.30 pm, roughly hourly in between. Arriving buses meet every flight, including late at night. The operator does not state fixed opening hours for the hall.

Airports

KEF

Into the city. Flybus takes 45 minutes to the BSÍ bus station. Strætó line 55 runs the same route as a cheaper alternative, no official travel time is given for it.

Frequency. Flybus runs daily from 3.30 am to 11.15 pm, timed to flight arrivals, roughly every 30 to 60 minutes outside peak times.

Local quirks

The weather decides. Four seasons in one afternoon are normal. Check the forecast again each morning, even in July.
A second airport right in the city. Besides Keflavík, Reykjavík has its own domestic airport (RKV) right within the city, from which flights depart to Akureyri, Ísafjörður, Egilsstaðir and other regions, reachable on foot or by bus from the center.
Automatic fare cap on the bus. Anyone paying with the Klapp app or a contactless card pays at most the price of three trips a day and at most the price of nine trips a week at the adult fare, after which further trips are automatically included, with no day or week pass needed.

Good to know

Currency: ISK kr
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: C · F
Time zone: Atlantic/Reykjavik
Driving: right

Speed limits. built-up areas 50 km/h, outside towns 90 km/h on paved roads, 80 km/h on gravel roads, motorway No true motorways. On short sections with structurally separated directions of travel, up to 110 km/h is permitted.

Iceland has no motorway network, and the Ring Road is mostly a single lane per direction. Many stretches switch between asphalt and gravel without warning, with the speed limit automatically dropping from 90 to 80 km/h, and there are also numerous single-lane bridges with a right-of-way rule.

Tipping. Service is included and tipping is uncommon. Nobody expects anything.

Tolls. No motorway tolls. The Vaðlaheiðargöng tunnel in the north is charged.