Truly fantastic seasonal coffee, hot chocolate, pastries, and more.

You might be surprised when you walk into this two-story restaurant that looks more like a bar on its lower floor. However, it has a wonderful dining area that offers superb food.

A cool brewpub showing off the best that the local Einstök brewery has to offer.

A cozy restaurant on Iceland’s west coast situated in an old building (1885) with wood-paneled walls and beautiful views of the coast around Borgarnes. They serve delicious locally-sourced food.

Steðji is a neat brewery in an old western Iceland farmhouse. It’s a working brewery so expect long wooden tables in and a dark, stark environment with great music overhead from the owner’s iPhone. It features some unique and truly odd beers.

Located right above Húsavík harbor, Gamli Baukur is a great stop before or after your whale watching trip. This cozy restaurant with driftwood décor serves fresh food from local sources, along with a full bar and varied beer and wine lists.

While this restaurant is inside of the Icelandair Marina Hotel, it’s a happening place in Reykjavik. It offers up great cocktails and a menu that changes every few weeks.

Set in the small town of Húsavík, this restaurant serves up good pizza, light meals, snacks, and local beers on tap.

When you’re exploring Myvatn take a break at Vogafjós restaurant. It’s located inside of a cowshed (you can choose to sit at a table with a window overlooking them) with sweeping views of the lake.

A neat bar with a extremely local vibe. Visit to get away from the tourists and for a whiskey or draft beer.

One of the best deals for quality food in Reykjavik, Icelandic Fish & Chips provides fresh seafood made with local ingredients.

A neat brewpub in Vík, offering the brewery’s own local beers and a tasty and reasonably priced food menu.

This restaurant is a French food meets Icelandic food smorgasbord. It also serves up great wine and cocktails. You can make a reservation on the phone or online before 18:30.

Grab a casual dinner on the lake in Rekyjavik. It offers great food, coffee, and cocktails.

Iceland’s national dish is hotdogs, so obviously you must partake while visiting. There are a few hot dog vendors in Reykjavik, but Baejarins Beztu Pylsur is the most famous and very tasty.

A cozy restaurant in Vík offering tasty meals and desserts. It has a bright cheery atmosphere in this building attached to the tourist center (don’t be alarmed).

An acceptable dining option near Skogafoss. The food was decent though not the most imaginative. The restaurant itself is in an old abandoned barn. The dairy on the menu comes from the 70 grass fed dairy cows on the property, and most of the menu contains ingredients farmed from the surrounding area.

Located in Akureryi, this ice cream shop is the perfect place to get dessert or a mid-afternoon ice cream cone.

Located near the Settlement Exhibition in Reykjavik, Skúli Craftsbar is a great location to try craft beer.

A nice stop on the Ring Road between Hofn and the Eastfjords. Set in a historic building from 1790, it’s part restaurant, part museum. The coffee options were wonderful and we highly recommend having one with a pastry.

This quaint restaurant on the site of the Glaumbaer Farm and Museum boasts homemade local cakes, breads, and sandwiches. The dishes are decently priced and quite good.

Located at the bass of the incredible Skogafoss waterfall, this restaurant is charming. It has large windows looking onto the nearby falls. The food is decent though not spectacular. They serve local beer on tap.

A guesthouse on a farm serving delicious locally made ice cream sourced from the attached dairy.

A decent deal for lunch, especially if you’re in the center of downtown Reykjavik. The burgers are very well priced.

The Settlement Exhibition details the history of Iceland’s settlement through multimedia and surrounds the foundations of a Viking-aged farmhouse dating to the tenth century.

A short walk from downtown Akureyri, this garden is one of the most northern botanical gardens in the world. It’s a beautiful display of thousands of different types of plants, well organized by region.

On the way between Laugar and Akureyri, this is a beautiful horseshoe-shaped waterfall in north Iceland. It’s also where Christianity became Iceland’s official religion (pick up a guide book to learn more). Walk the paths to check out the various viewpoints.

Visit this site of the original geyser, accounts of which date to 1294. Geysir is rarely active, but Strokkur, a nearby geyser, erupts with a 30 meter spout every five to ten minutes.

This museum in Borgarnes is split into two parts. The first uses multimedia to explore the Settlement period of Iceland. The second explores Egill’s Saga. There is an attached restaurant with good reviews.

A farmhouse has stood on this site since around 900 CE. It currently hosts the preserved historical farm, a large complex of turf-roofed rooms, the oldest of which date to the 18th century and the most recent of which were built in the late 19th century. The museum is a fascinating look at how Icelanders lived between 100 and 300 years ago.

Krafla volcano is a mountain in north Iceland which has been intermittently errupting for the past 3,000 years. The Viti crater is filled with a beautiful, clear lake. You can drive there to check out the lake, and there’s a hiking trail around the crater if you want even more scenic views.

About a 40 minute drive from Borgarnes, the hamlet of Reykholt was where Snorri Sturluson, Iceland’s most famous thirteenth century Icelandic chieftain, scholar, and saga writer lived. If you’re in Iceland, you’ll hear about Snorri. It features Snorralaug, a hot spring where Snorri once bathed, and Snorrastofa, a cultural center with exhibits regarding Snorri.

A complex of three museums: an outdoor museum featuring farmhouses from different eras of Iceland’s history; a folk museum showing off artifacts from daily life, and a technology museum. Interesting to get a feeling what life in southern Iceland was like.

Two waterfalls in western Iceland near Reykholt. Hraunfossar is a beautiful series of falls streaming over the side of a long ridge. Barnafoss gushes down a gully and has an interesting history of association with Icelandic folktales.

A beautiful modern concert hall made of glass cubes that illuminate with light shows in the winter months. Visit to see a show, or enter for free to check out the architecture and beautiful views of surrounding Reykjavik.

On the Ringroad towards Vik, this is a black sand beach on Iceland’s southern coast. Three jutting rocks offshore are known as the Troll Rocks. There’s also a cliff of hexagonal basalt columns that you can climb. A neat stop if you’re in the area and have the time, but nothing you have to see.

A beautiful cave near Myvatn containing a hot spring. You can’t swim in the water, but the cobalt pool is picturesque, and a scene from Game of Thrones was filmed here if you’re a fan.

Hverir is a large geothermal area near Myvatn. A wasteland full of pools of boiling water and mud and smoking fumaroles, it’s surrounded by red soil. It also has a heavy scent of sulphur, but gives a decent understanding of what powers the whole country: geothermal energy from volcanoes and springs. Evidently, it’s the closest you can get to the feel of Mars on Earth.

A church on Iceland’s north coast in the city of Akureyri.

Geothermal energy provides about a quarter of Iceland’s energy. Krafla power plant is a living, working power plant in north Iceland. It’s free to visit, and it has a quick and neat exhibit on geothermal power.

The F550 is a 40 km scenic drive through some of western Iceland’s beautiful mountains. While it a four-wheel-drive vehicle is not legally required to drive it, many rental companies won’t allow a two-wheel-drive vehicle on this route, so check ahead of time.

Spend a morning or an afternoon exploring the incredible glaciers of Skaftafell National Park. If you’re lucky, you might also get to visit an ice cave! Tours with this company span from 2 hours to a few days.

Zip through a glacial lake filled with icebergs while your guide tells you about the area and its history.Our boat did not take us particularly close the glacier which was the most disappointing part. It’s a fun way to spend a morning, but not a must-do on your trip to Iceland.

Along the Goldenroad you will come upon the town of Fludir, which is unremarkable aside from the Secret Lagoon. A geothermal pool surrounded by subalpine meadows, the Secret Lagoon is a great place to relax with a drink. Not nearly as expensive as the Blue Lagoon, it’s a more natural feel and a nice stop on your tour of the Golden Circle.

While it’s one of Iceland’s iconic tourist attractions, it’s probably not a must-see, especially on a repeat trip to Iceland. However, it’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime price tag experiences that, as the most well known activity in the country, gives you a shared experience with every other tourist that visits the country and does offer iconic blue photos. Entirely man-made you can explore the pool with a drink in your hand (part of the admission price).