Reykjavik’s commonest hen, the joke goes, is the constructing crane. Development initiatives are all over the place, reworking Reykjavik from an outsized fishing village to a global metropolis with all its issues.
To first-time guests, the capital tends to be hotter than anticipated (winters are like New York) and unfold over a wider space (twice the dimensions of Paris). Listed here are some key issues to know earlier than you go.
Please drink the water
Faucet water is all the time secure to drink. There’s completely no cause to purchase bottled water until destroying the Earth with plastic waste is your motivation. The federal government not too long ago launched an online campaign, in English, urging guests to drink kranavatn – the Icelandic phrase for ‘faucet water.’ Skál!
Playing cards are king
In Iceland, the three teams of society nonetheless utilizing money are criminals, 5-year-olds and vacationers. Bank card funds are the default possibility in retailers and eating places. In Reykjavík, a small however rising variety of companies are card-only.
Money can nonetheless be helpful, resembling to pay for a scorching canine or a guided strolling tour. ATMs are extensively discovered. Money-to-cash forex alternate is feasible at most banks within the metropolis middle. (Given worldwide transaction charges, money may also be cheaper for small purchases.)
Etiquette on the public swimming pools
Listed here are methods to culturally offend an Icelander: Check with the petit Icelandic horse as a “pony”. Go to a neighborhood church wearing mountain gear. Enter a personal residence with out eradicating footwear. Haggle with a shopkeeper. Learn “Impartial folks” and publicly dislike it.
All these acts are delicate, and a few may not even think about them offensive. However the one factor Icelanders universally conform to be grossly inappropriate habits, practiced by a surprising variety of first-time guests, is poor hygiene on the public pool.
The outside geothermal swimming pools, often known as sundlaugar, will be present in each Reykjavík neighborhood. Women and men, younger and outdated, vacationers and locals, frequent the baths to soak in scorching water and meet up with buddies.
Earlier than getting into – I repeat, earlier than – guests should bathe, head to toe. Due to the abundance of scorching water, the swimming pools are low on chlorine and most of the people wish to maintain it that means. One other rookie mistake is leaving the towel within the locker, after which moist the whole room on the way in which out. So, use the towel racks by the bathe and have a great day.
Worldwide flights arrive outdoors of Reykjavík
Keflavík Worldwide Airport is the purpose of entry for all business arrivals to southern Iceland and at landing the pilots are likely to say: “Welcome to Reykjavík.” In actuality, the airport is 50-kilometers (31mi) away. Virtually welcome however not fairly.
The gap is nice to remember when renting a automobile. Examine if the corporate relies on the airport or the city of Keflavík, to keep away from a bus journey into the town. Airport buses are pricey, however comparatively clean. The three principal corporations, operating a 24-hour service, are Fly Bus, Airport Direct and Grayline, with costs starting from 3000 – 3500 Krona (US$23-27).
In the meantime, Reykjavík Metropolis Airport (RKV) is absurdly near the town middle.
The ‘Capital Area’ just isn’t the identical as Reykjavík
When accommodations and Airbnb listings declare to be in “the Capital Area” it normally suggests a location in considered one of 5 municipalities surrounding the Metropolis of Reykjavík.
To outsiders, cruising the capital sprawl residence to some 65 p.c of Iceland’s inhabitants, the borders of those neighboring cities are arduous to note and meaningless. However watch out to not inform residents in Kópavogur, Hafnarfjörður, Garðabær, Seltjarnarnes or Mosfellsbær that they dwell in Reykjavík!
Reykjavik is balmy, besides when it isn’t
On a Celcius scale, month-to-month temperatures in Reykjavík are surprisingly regular all year long – from 3° in January to 14° in July – due to the nice and cozy Gulf Stream. However look nearer, on the wind power, for the total image. A robust breeze can simply make the mid-temperature days really feel freezing.
One other tip price contemplating when weighing the forecast forward of arrival, is that Reykjavík climate is a poor illustration of Iceland usually: this southern nook tends to be the warmest, but additionally the wettest (wind virtually all the time follows rain, so umbrellas are hardly ever usable).
What number of days are good in Reykjavik?
In the future in Reykjavik is sufficient to trek the whole downtown – from the Outdated Harbour to the Hlemmur meals corridor – masking most retailers and landmarks alongside the way in which. Two days can embody indoor visits just like the Hallgrímskrikja tower and the Nationwide Gallery. Three days provides you time to enterprise past the middle, to any of the eighteen sundlaugar public swimming pools and the vista at Perlan. Day quantity 4 is all about recovering from an evening out.
The typical vacationer spends three nights in Reykjavík, based mostly on business knowledge. But, the quantity is inflated by the quantity of individuals utilizing the town as a hub for day-tours round southern Iceland, such because the well-known Golden Circle. Compared, the general common size of keep throughout summer time is ten nights.
Well being and security in Reykjavik
Reykjavík is among the many world’s most secure capital cities with regards to crime and violence. Police patrols are unarmed and no neighborhood is taken into account unsafe, or much less secure for that matter. Pickpocketing may be very uncommon however petty theft is by some measures a rising downside – it will be unwise to depart a motorcycle or a automobile unlocked.
As elsewhere in Iceland, nature poses the most important danger and the southwestern area masking Reykjavik is hit by an earthquake each few years. The final one was in 2021, when a magnitude-5.6 earthquake reached the town from close by however left no injury. Avalanches stay Iceland’s most deadly pure disasters and people trekking Esjan, the “mountain of Reykjavík”, ought to observe native recommendation in heavy snow.
The native emergency quantity is 112 (which is the Nordic model of 911).
