The Best Hotels in Iceland, From Rural Lodges to Reykjavik Boutiques
It’s no secret by now that Iceland is one of the world’s greatest destinations. First-time visitors drive jaws agape around the Ring Road, marveling at the primal landscapes being molded in front of their eyes, ancient to us but younger than most other countries on Earth. Repeat visitors delve into the hidden corners of the country, immersing themselves in the small towns that cling to precarious coastlines, undertaking epic multi-day treks, and discovering that every fjord, valley, and mountain holds something wondrous.
What is universal for everyone visiting this island in the North Atlantic is the feeling of awe that journeys through the country bring about. With such drama and adventure on the outside, the hotels sprinkled across the country are suitably relaxed and luxurious, offering peaceful refuges from the elements. From cushy country lodges to sophisticated Scandinavian hideaways, these are the best hotels in Iceland.
Kvosin Downtown Hotel
Located inside a historic building in the middle of downtown Reykjavik, Kvosin Hotel is a charismatic boutique property with fantastic apartment suites. It’s a hotel that hits all the boxes for an extended stay in Reykjavik: a blend of urban and Nordic style, helpful staff, and a fantastic central location. The typical Icelandic building is over 100 years old, a grand old place in keeping with its note-worthy neighbors such as the Icelandic Parliament, City Hall, and the old cathedral.
Inside, Kvosin is another story altogether, taking inspiration from a more modern-day Reykjavik. The renovated interiors are updated and modish, providing a comfortable home base from which to explore the capital. Ducking outside the hotel, within minutes you can be sipping on a local craft beer, catching a live gig, or enjoying a leisurely stroll around the city’s central pond, Tjörnin. Stumbling home after experiencing Reykjavik’s feisty nightlife, you’ll find the rooms welcoming and fashionable, with swanky leather chairs, sleek kitchenettes, and handsome desks for journaling.
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Stefan LierbermannHotel Rangá
Upon entering Hotel Rangá in Iceland’s south, guests are greeted with Hrammur, a towering 10-feet-tall taxidermy polar bear who had the unfortunate fate of washing up onto Iceland’s shores on a piece of ice that floated over from Greenland. It sets the tone for your stay at this hotel, which straddles the line between luxury hunting lodge and adventurous country manor. This log-style cabin is a wonderful refuge in the middle of Iceland’s south coast; all you need do is turn your gaze inland to spy out the twin glaciers Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull and you’ll feel the pull of adventure coaxing you out the front door.
After a day of exploring—perhaps snowmobiling on the glacier, or a private super jeep tour into the secretive Thórsmörk Nature Reserve—Hotel Rangá is warm, inviting, and convivial. Evoking the feeling of an Icelandic summer house, there’s a real homey feel to the rooms here, while shared spaces are adorned with local artworks and Icelandic quilts. A highlight are the seven high-end suites, each paying homage to one of the world’s seven continents from Africa to Antarctica. Of course, there’s the prerequisite hot tub for an evening soak, and an outstanding observatory, complete with a local astronomer and northern lights photographer to guide you through the skies and how best to capture the dancing aurora borealis.
Courtesy The Retreat at Blue LagoonhotelThe Retreat at Blue Lagoon
Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2021The Blue Lagoon is one of Iceland’s most illustrious attractions, with a constant stream of visitors enjoying a dip in the steamy blue water bordered by black lava on Reykjanes Peninsula. Its popularity also splits Iceland travelers firmly into two camps: those who want to stay away from the well-trodden tourist attractions, and those who embrace them wholeheartedly. Should you visit the Blue Lagoon, or give it a miss? That is the question.
Perhaps an easier question to answer is whether to stay at the upscale new hotel attached to Iceland’s famed hot spring. Enigmatically named The Retreat, this hotel takes all the geothermal wonder of the Blue Lagoon and instils it into an uber-luxurious wellness establishment. The sleek and minimalist suites mirror the mossy-covered lava fields outside, while floor-to-ceiling windows welcome in the ethereal light of the Reykjanes Peninsula, inciting the stark grey and subdued black interiors into a heady and otherworldly Icelandic spectrum. Inside, all roads lead to the underground spa, a cavernous space offering the patented Blue Lagoon Ritual, a wellness cleanse using the silica, algae, and array of minerals all found in the geothermal waters. Access to a more exclusive section of the Blue Lagoon is also included, and there’s a world-class restaurant to boot.
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Nikolas KoenighotelReykjavik Edition
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Hot List 2022The newest arrival to the hotel scene in downtown Reykjavik, the Reykjavik Edition is a breath of fresh air in a city which lives and breathes style and creativity. As a part of the coveted Edition brand of hotels designed by Ian Schrager and Marriott, this establishment puts Reykjavik in the same league as destinations like Manhattan, Barcelona, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
Each hotel in the group is unique to its destination, and Reykjavik’s Edition is no different. The interiors feature splashes of Nordic creativity in the décor tempered by a clean and effortless design, with materials like basalt, lava, warm oak, and concrete capturing the youthful and vibrant feel of Reykjavik perfectly. This all gives way to the warm and inviting rooms, with Italian furnishings made from ash wood and floor-to-ceiling windows that either frame the fjord and Mt. Esja or views of downtown Reykjavik. Gracefully wedged between the Harpa Concert Hall and Reykjavik’s Old Harbour, the location couldn’t be better. Add in a rooftop terrace for viewing the northern lights, a restaurant run by Iceland’s first Michelin Star chef Gunnar Karl Gíslason, and a cushy speakeasy-style bar, and this is the hotel to beat.
Courtesy Ion Luxury Adventure HotelhotelION Adventure Hotel
$$ION Adventure Hotel might have one of the most picturesque and otherworldly settings not just Iceland, but the entire Northern Hemisphere. Jutting out from a set of rugged cliffs above a field of jet-black lava, this hotel sits amid swirling sulfurous steam inside the UNESCO-listed Thingvellir National Park. If the setting is a tad dramatic, the interiors are by contrast an oasis of warmth and tranquillity. The elegant design incorporates driftwood and other natural materials from the surrounding landscapes, creating a blend of high-end luxury with low-key Icelandic sensibilities, an homage to the beauty of the scenery outside.
A highlight is the Northern Lights Bar, elevated over the lava field with huge windows for watching the shimmering aurora unfolding across the night sky. The onsite Silfra Restaurant serves up fantastic dishes, from fresh Arctic Char to glazed lamb shank, while a heated plunge pool is artfully exposed to the elements, letting you experience the drama of Iceland’s weather from the warmth of the steamy water. The hotel also acts as a great base for deeper explorations of the Golden Circle. Reception can organize everything from snorkeling between tectonic plates at the nearby Silfra fissure to super-jeep tours on the glaciers and expeditions into nearby lava caves.
Courtesy Deplar FarmhotelDeplar Farm
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Gold List 2019 Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2021Those travelers looking to escape the Ring Road into Iceland’s remote regions, the Tröllaskagi Peninsula is a splendid choice. One of the most mountainous places in the country, a single road traces the rugged coastline, taking in views of the dramatic Northern Atlantic Ocean and connecting several fishing towns dwarfed by the gargantuan surroundings. Inland, the fog-kissed mountains are cut with several valleys, one of which is home to Deplar Farm. Sitting in a grassy meadow surrounded by the imposing peaks, this turf-covered farmhouse is so quiet and unassuming that the odd traveler who does pass by wouldn’t have a clue that it is in fact one of Europe’s most isolated and luxurious mountain lodges.
Run by the high-end and exclusive Eleven Experience, Deplar Farm offers adventurous travelers the whole experience. From heli-skiing in the winter to mountain biking and salmon fishing in the summer, there’s a gamut of adventures to enjoy with the hotel’s team of expert guides. Waiting for you when you return is world-class food prepared by a team of star Icelandic chefs, a heated pool with a swim-up bar, and cozy, elegant rooms that overlook the peaceful meadow.
Hotel Egilsen
The town of Stykkishólmur on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula might just be one of Iceland’s most picturesque; a shimmering harbor surrounded by rocky cliffs, prim antique houses each painted a different color, and mountains rising in the background dusted with snow. Strolling around town, it’s easy to imagine the trading ships of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway sailing into the harbor; this town was, after all, one of the country’s most important harbors during the richest era of trade in Scandinavia, from the 17th until the 19th century.
Hotel Egilsen is a relic of that time, located inside a historic home dating to 1867, the work of a wealthy Icelandic businessman and merchant. The cheery red exteriors are easy to spot, holding inside a beautiful and nostalgic boutique hotel loaded with homey Nordic comforts. Expect mismatched antique furnishings and welcoming rooms inspired by the sea and fishing industry. The hotel is also big on literature, with an alluring library of old Nordic folk tales and Icelandic poetry. Guests are encouraged to jot down their own tales during their stay (published on the hotel’s website), most of which will be inspired by the mind-bogglingly beautiful Snæfellsnes Peninsula.
hotel101 Hotel
$$Reykjavik has creativity running through its soul, and for the artful travelers looking to experience the height of the country’s design scene, a stay at 101 Hotel comes highly recommended. An exalted member of the Design Hotels group, 101 Hotel offers refined and sophisticated interiors that are unabashedly fashionable and self-assured. The striking black and white interiors play backdrop to a collection of contemporary Icelandic artwork, with tasteful furnishings selected to bring about that effortless designer style.
Rooms are quite warm and personable, with rugs thrown across wooden floors, heavenly beds, and a picturesque view of Mt. Esja across the water. There’s a restaurant on-site with a devout local following, and a chic bar for cocktails after a day of wandering around Reykjavik, with chairs gathered around tree-trunk tables and a cozy fireplace. All this is nestled a short walk from Laugavegur, the city’s main thoroughfare.
Hotel Flatey
From Stykkishólmur, travelers can also jump onto the Westfjords ferry, plodding its way through the thousands of rocks, skerries, and islands in the fjord Breiðafjörður before calling into port on the southern edge of Iceland’s least-visited region. But along the way, the ferry makes a mysterious stop at Flatey, the only populated island in the fjord, a wistful place dotted with a handful of colorful houses. Time moves differently here; stay at the island hotel even for just an evening and you’ll feel yourself slipping into the off-kilter rhythm of an Icelandic summer. Hazy golden light falls across the rocky shores and surrounding seascapes, birds cry out as they wheel in the air, and long grass shimmers and waves in the wind as you stumble around in a daze, wondering as travelers so often do in Iceland: is this place real?
The humble Hotel Flatey opens only in the summer (in winter the population of the island is around five people), offering comfortable rooms across several 19th-century homes. The interiors are poetically Scandinavian, with a clean and uncluttered design pulled straight from the pages of a magazine. The hotel restaurant serves as the island’s pub and lounge, where locals and summer blow-ins gather in the evening to swap stories and enjoy a warm meal. The entire experience feels like being welcomed into the home of a distant Icelandic relative.
Courtesy Hótel BúðirhotelHótel Buđir
$$One of Iceland’s greatest draws is the isolation you can find, the feeling of being alone in the middle of an incredible landscape, intimidated, insignificant. The soul-stirring nature so often leaves us shaking in our hiking boots, in awe at the overwhelming beauty of it all. It’s the reason why Iceland is now one of the most popular destinations in the world; it makes us feel things we don’t often get to feel.
The best hotels in Iceland embrace that quality, elegant backdrops that let the location do all the talking. Hotel Búðir is one such place, marooned on a remote beach on the southern shores of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Originally a Danish trading outpost, on all sides the arresting Icelandic landscapes capture your gaze, from the views across the bay to the moody glacier at the center of Snæfellsnes National Park. A dreamy place, the interiors match the mood of the outside perfectly, nothing overdone, everything cozy, soothing, and sophisticated. The vintage-style furnishings add a timeless appeal to the entire property, while the restaurant is famous with Icelanders around the country.
This gallery was originally published by Conde Nast Traveller U.K.
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