Reykjavík, the classic and the new

Grand hotels, old and new

Hotel Borg opened on Austurvöllur in 1930 as Iceland’s first luxury hotel, built by a man who had made his fortune as a circus performer in America, in the hotel’s own words. Hotel Holt followed in 1965 with what it calls Iceland’s largest private art collection.

The new city has gone to the water and into the sky. The Reykjavik EDITION opened beside Harpa with 253 rooms and a rooftop over the harbour, and Tower Suites keeps eight suites on the 20th floor of the Höfðatorg tower.

Where to stay in Reykjavík →

The harbour reborn

Harpa, opened in 2011, gave the harbour a glass concert hall. To the west, the fish sheds of Grandi now hold Whales of Iceland, Aurora Reykjavík, the Saga Museum and the Grandi Mathöll food hall beside the working fish market, and the city’s new cruise terminal, Vör, was named Europe’s Best Cruise Terminal 2026.

At the table

Three Icelandic restaurants hold One MICHELIN Star in the 2026 guide: DILL and ÓX on Laugavegur, and Moss at the Blue Lagoon. Matur og Drykkur reworks the old Icelandic kitchen by the harbour, and Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur has sold its lamb hot dogs since 1937.

The best restaurants in Reykjavík →

Pools and lagoons

The geothermal pool is the city’s living room: eight are in the Reykjavík City Card. On the shore at Kópavogur, Sky Lagoon’s seven-step Skjól Ritual walks you through Icelandic bathing culture, and out on the Reykjanes peninsula the Blue Lagoon steams among the lava.

Pools, lagoons and spas →

Music and stage

The Iceland Symphony Orchestra plays at Harpa; a new national opera has been established at the National Theatre; and every November Iceland Airwaves fills the city’s venues.

Fire and ice a day away

Þingvellir, where the Alþing met from about 930, Strokkur and Gullfoss make the Golden Circle; the south coast has Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and the black sands of Reynisfjara; Snæfellsnes has its glacier and Kirkjufell. Check the roads and the weather every morning.

The Golden Circle →   The south coast →   ULTIMATE Helsinki →

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