Around the time autumn starts setting in, most of us find ourselves googling temperatures in the Med from our desks, desperate to chase after a last burst of sun. But if a tan top up is low on your agenda, consider a trip to Iceland over the coming months; just two and a half hours’ flight from London, the views and the culture will provide some of the best escapism money spent on short haul flights can buy. A return flight to Reykjavik during October and November can set you back as little as £60 return from WOW Air and EasyJet.
During winter months, daylight hours are slim (as little as four in December) and icy weather means you have to wrap up. However, there’s still plenty to do in Reykjavik and the surroundings areas. Most obviously, September to April are the best months to see Iceland’s famous aurora borealis, aka the Northern Lights, one of the country’s biggest tourist attractions. Best seen in the dead of night, there are even hotels that will wake you up if they appear (but more on that later).
Then there’s the fact that Icelanders are so accustomed to cold weather, most of their activities involve somehow warming yourself up. A trip to Iceland is not complete without an evening spent drinking Viking beer in a cosy bar, or morning spent in an outdoor hot tub at one of Reykjavik’s many public pools. And an added bonus: many hotels and tourist attractions lower their prices during winter.
So, whether you want to make like a tourist or a local, ahead we’ve laid out where’s good to stay, what’s good to visit and how to make the most of a trip to Iceland over the winter months. Click through the slides for a run down.
Kex
If you're looking for a fun place to stay in Reykjavik, Kex is an affordable hotel-cum-hostel which offers private rooms and dorms, as well as a bakery, bar and barbershop. The bar is always busy, and an excellent place to meet people. Although, if you want to party elsewhere, Kex is just a stone's throw from "downtown", where there are enough bars and restaurants to please anyone's taste (more on that later though). Kex is set within a disused warehouse which used to produce a type of Icelandic biscuit called – you guessed it, "Kex", and the decor and design is something to marvel at – think vintage furniture and beautiful wood flooring. A spot in a big dorm starts from £23 a night, and a private room will cost you around £90.
Hotel Rangá
Just over an hour's drive from Reykjavik, Hotel Rangá is an impressive ranch with panoramic views of Iceland's stunning landscape. It might be a little remote, but this place has everything you need when you get there; a restaurant serving Icelandic delicacies like smoked puffin, tender lamb and artic char, outdoor hot tubs for star gazing, and incredibly friendly staff. It also offers a range of different themed suites with design cleverly based on continents around the world, from the South America Suite to the Antarctica Suite. Kim and Kanye stayed here when they visited Iceland, as did Justin Bieber. Which makes it good enough for us. But if you're still not sold, this is the perfect spot from which to see the Northern Lights, and hotel staff will keep watch on your behalf all night, waking you up should they appear. Prices for a standard double start at around £225.
Airbnb
If you want an authentic experience in Iceland, why not stay in an Icelandic person's home? Since Game of Thrones – famously shot in Iceland – has encouraged a tourism boom in the country, more and more Icelanders have taken this as an opportunity to put their homes up on Airbnb. Prices vary, but start around £60 a night for a room. The good news when it comes to Airbnb is that Icelandic people tend to be very design conscious (much like their Nordic counterparts in Sweden). This means that many of the homes available to rent are slicker than your average (see right). And if you venture outside of Reykjavik, you might just find some unusual architecture – think unusual lake houses and eco-friendly cabins.
Swim outdoors
One of the most relaxing things to do in Iceland – and that's saying something, because it's a pretty relaxing place – is to visit an outdoor pool. With cheap admission and an atmosphere welcoming to tourists, the various public pools dotted about Reykjavik are the perfect place to sit and reflect, among locals doing the same. Almost like places of worship, even when these places get busy, they stay relatively quiet and calming, so try to observe the atmosphere. Oh, and there are other typically Scandinavian rules; everyone must shower totally naked before entering, for example.
Photo: Via Four Square.
See the Northern Lights
For the uninitiated, the Northern Lights are a natural phenomenon that occur when particles charged from the sun collide with gaseous particles in the earth's atmosphere. If that sounds confusing, then think of them as beautiful, dancing stars, spread across the sky in bursts of pink, green and luminous purple. A trip to Iceland won't guarantee you a sighting of them, but it's worth doing everything in your power to spot them if you are in the country. For starters, time your visit for winter, head out to the sticks (since the light pollution in Reykjavik can cloud your view) and keep an eye on the lights forecast. You can also book an excursion or tour, where an expert will do their best to steer you in right direction for the Aurora.
Go whale watching
Don your anorak and book a whale watching tour in Iceland and you could be in with a chance of seeing humpback whales, porpoises, killer whales or white-beaked dolphins. Trips cost about £60 and have around a 75% success rate when it comes to actual sightings, varying from company to company. Our money is on Elding – a family-run company who have been running whale tours for decades. They warn that conditions at sea can be vicious during winter months, but they vary their tours accordingly, changing up the departure point and route according to weather. Sounds like a safe pair of hands.
A local bar
Along the street of Laugavegur, you can find some of Reykjavik's coolest and most eclectic bars; there's Lewbowski bar – a bowling alley-style bar inspired by the eponymous film, Kiki Queer Bar – a kitsch gay bar and pub, and Prikid – a dark and cosy boozer that plays mostly hip hop. All of these bars have happy hours on weekdays and some on weekends, and there's even an app that will tell you when they're happening.
To the west of Laugavegur, is another area with a bunch of good Reykjavik bars. Check out Microbar on Vesturgata, well known for its local beer and ale selection, or Nora Magasin for a good vibe and great bar snacks.
A room with a view
In Reykjavik, the most important tourist spot to have a drink is probably SKY lounge and bar, part of the SKY hotel, which lays claim to a hypnotising view of Faxafloi Bay and the dramatic mountains that lie behind it. The view is almost 360, and also gives you a good vantage point from which to check out Reykjavik's famous Harpa Concert Hall. They even do a happy hour, from 4 - 6pm, meaning that drinks, notoriously expensive in Reykjavik, become a little more reasonable.
Outside the city, around a two hour drive away, is another famous Icelandic bar with a view. Hotel ION's glass-walled Northern Lights Bar is only for guests of the luxury design hotel, but it's worth making the splash for a stay if you like the idea of having dinner and a drink with a floor to ceiling view of Iceland's lunar-style landscape.
Geysir and Gullfoss
Iceland's famous "Golden Circle" is the country's ultimate tourist "must-do". Made up of a series of landmarks on a 300km route, it allows you to squeeze a lot into one day. There's Gullfoss, a mighty waterfall that often conjures its own rainbow, and Geysir, the hot spring that gave us the British word "geyser", and then there's the beautiful national park Þingvellir, a UNESCO world heritage site and a great spot for low-key hikes. You can book a bus tour with an established operator for around £70, which should last up to around eight hours and is be a nice way to meet other travellers. Alternately, you can hire a car and drive the route yourself. The weather can be treacherous in the winter, with thick snow, but the roads on this route are long, straight and easy to drive – meaning even a cautious drivers should be OK in a 4x4.
Photo: Via @hotelranga.
The Blue Lagoon
You'll doubtlessly have heard of Iceland's Blue Lagoon. One of the "25 wonders of the world", it's a serene and crystalline set of pools that are naturally heated by geothermal energy. The pool complex offers a sauna, waterfall and help-your-self silica mud for the skin. Standard entry will fetch you around £35, depending on the exchange rate, but you can upgrade with add-ons like algae face masks and bathrobes. There's also a spa on site, plus a restaurant and a hotel, if you want to make a weekend of it. And the good news is: prices are cheaper in the winter.
Vík
In the snowier months of Icelandic winter – which tend to be from December through to April – most visitors to Iceland won’t want to stray too far from Reykjavik unless their rented 4X4 comes complete with a shovel. However, 180km southeast of the capital, the village of Vík is a relatively safe bet to reach by road. It only has a few hundred inhabitants, but its beach makes it stand out on the map – expect black sand, dramatic cliff edges and crashing Atlantic waves. Your Instagram feed will thank you.
Seafood
Reykjavik is a harbour, meaning the seafood comes super fresh and in all varieties. You can buy top notch lobster rolls to go from stands around the city. You can eat fresh salmon or calamari in a simple and modern restaurant like the much-loved and reasonably-priced Bergsson. You can experiment with cusk or lumpfish at Nordic cuisine specialist Dill. Or you can go to town with a slap-up surf and turf dinner somewhere fancy like Grillmarket. The seafood options are truly endless.
dillrestaurant.is/
grillmarkadurinn.is
Hot dogs
Back in 2004, Bill Clinton ate a hotdog at Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur hotdog stand on Tryggvagata, and since then Iceland has been famous for the things. Pick one up at a little stand, which are dotted around the city. Or at a gas station (no, seriously). The trick is to ask for "remolaði" aka remoulade – it's tradition.
Photo: via @maisto.
Traditional Icelandic Cuisine
And finally, for the adventurous, Iceland plays home to a few unique delicacies – namely reindeer and puffin. Locals will insist they don't eat these all too often, but if you're interested then check out Perlan (translating as "the pearl"), which does reindeer meatballs, while the aforementioned Grillmarket serves reindeer mini burgers. The latter also has puffin on the menu, best experienced when it's smoked. And for a final tip, don't miss out on the lamb in Iceland (we recommend a cute bistro called Snaps on this front), because seriously, the lamb in Iceland is the most tender in the world.
snaps.is
Photo: via @hasselbroad.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
The Twentysomething's Guide To Surviving A Family Holiday