Things to do in Reykjavík

Landmark · Central Reykjavík

The concrete expressionist church on the hill above the centre, with the best view over the coloured roofs to the sea and the mountains.

Local tip: The tower lift is worth the fee once, on a clear day, and the church's design is meant to evoke basalt columns rather than anything ecclesiastical. Walk down Skólavörðustígur afterwards rather than back the way you came.

Nature · Every neighbourhood

Outdoor geothermal swimming pools with hot tubs, open year-round, in essentially every district — Laugardalslaug is the largest, Vesturbæjarlaug and Sundhöllin the most loved.

Local tip: This is the actual social institution of Icelandic life, not a tourist attraction. The showering rules before entry are strict, unsigned in places, and taken entirely seriously — wash thoroughly and without a swimsuit, or expect to be told. A monthly or annual pass costs a fraction of the single entry.

Nature · The peninsula tip, 30 minutes' walk west

A lighthouse on a tidal island at the end of the peninsula, with a hot foot bath, seabirds and open North Atlantic.

Local tip: The causeway floods at high tide and people get stranded every year — check the tide table before walking out. It is one of the best places inside the city to see the northern lights, because the municipality dims the streetlights there for exactly that reason.

Nature · About 45 minutes east, near Hveragerði

A geothermal river in a steaming valley, warm enough to lie in, reached by an hour's uphill walk.

Local tip: The walk is genuinely uphill and the weather turns fast — this is a real hike, not a stroll, and people underestimate it in trainers. Go upstream past the first duckboards, where the water is hotter and the crowd thins.

Culture · Waterfront

A concert hall of glass honeycomb cells on the harbour front, with the fishing docks, whale-watching boats and the best fish restaurants alongside.

Local tip: Harpa was half-built when the banks collapsed in 2008 and the state finished it because stopping would have been worse — Icelanders' feelings about the building are still complicated. The foyer is free to walk into and the light through the cells changes completely with the weather.

Nature · The wooded hill south of the centre

A forested hill of hot water tanks with wartime bunkers in the trees, and a geothermally warmed beach with white imported sand at its foot.

Local tip: Nauthólsvík is an artificial beach where geothermal water is pumped into a lagoon to make North Atlantic swimming survivable, and locals use it all winter. The woods on the hill above hide British and American wartime installations that almost no visitor knows are there.