Rick Steves - Rick Steves Snapshot Reykjavík

SNAPSHOT

Reykjavk

This Snapshot guide, excerpted from my guidebook Rick Steves Iceland, introduces you to Icelands capital city, Reykjavk. Its colorful, pedestrian-friendly downtown has fine museums, a stroll-worthy harbor, and a dozen thermal swimming pools, perfect for a rejuvenating soak among Icelanders. The capitals restaurants are surprisingly good, and its nightlife scene is legendary.

Reykjavk is also the natural jumping-off point for exploring Icelands dramatic countryside. Its an easy hop from Reykjavk inland to the Golden Circle route, studded with natural and historical attractions (from geysers to thundering waterfalls), or south to the legendary Blue Lagoon thermal baths (on the Reykjanes Peninsula, near the international airport at Keflavk).

Icelands countryside is famously spectacular. While its hard to have a bad time here, its easy to underestimate the famously changeable weather, blow through too much money, or waste time by not making a good plan. But if you equip yourself with good information (this book) and expect to travel smart, you will.

To help you have the best trip possible, Ive included the following topics in this book:

Planning Your Time, with advice on how to make the most of your limited time

Orientation, including tourist information (abbreviated as TI), tips on public transportation, local tour options, and helpful hints

Sights with ratings:

Dont miss

Try hard to see

Worthwhile if you can make it

No ratingWorth knowing about

Sleeping and Eating, with good-value recommendations in every price range

Connections, with tips on buses and driving

Practicalities, near the end of this book, has information on money, staying connected, hotel reservations, transportation, and other helpful hints.

Its my hope that this guide will make your trip more meaningful and rewarding. Traveling like a temporary local, youll get the absolute most out of every mile, minute, and dollar.

Ga fer! Happy travels!

Reykjavk, the tiny capital of a remote island-nation, is unexpectedly cosmopolitan, with an artistic, bohemian flair. It lacks world-class sights, yet manages to surprise and delight even those who use the city mostly as a home base for exploring Icelands natural wonders.

The citys downtown streets are lined with creative restaurants, quirky art galleries, rollicking bars serving everything from craft beer to designer cocktails, and shops selling stuffed puffins, local knitwear, and Gore-Tex parkas. Reykjavk is a colorful enclave in a stark landscape: It seems every wall serves as a canvas for a vibrant street-art mural, and each corner is occupied by a cozy, art-strewn, stay-awhile caf. In the old town center, colorful timber-frame houses clad in corrugated metal sheets huddle together amid a sprinkling of landmarkssuch as the striking Hallgrmskirkja church, which crowns the towns highest point.

Reykjavk, like the rest of the country, has old roots. Viking Age farmers settled here in the ninth century. Until the 1750s, this area remained nothing more than a sprawling farm. As towns started to form in Iceland, Reykjavk emerged as the countrys capital. Today, the capital region is a small city, home to two out of every three Icelandersa population similar to that of Berkeley, California, or Fargo, North Dakota. The northernmost capital city in the worldwhich straddles the European and American hemispheresfeels more New World than Old.

With the recent tourism boom, these days Icelanders tend to work, live, and shop elsewhere, and make fun of Reykjavks downtown core with all its puffin shops selling souvenirs. But that doesnt mean you should avoid downtown: Visitors find just about everything they need in this small, walkable zone. You can take in the vibe of the pithy city in a leisurely two-hour stroll, and its an enjoyable place to simply hang out. While museums arent a priority here, those seeking sights can easily fill a day or two.

Step into Hallgrmskirkjas serene church interior, and ride the elevator up its tower for a view over Reykjavks rooftops. Learn about this little nations proud history at the National Museum, and about the citys humble Viking Age roots at the Settlement Exhibitionbuilt around the surviving walls of a 10th-century longhouse. Art lovers can visit a half-dozen galleries highlighting Icelandic artists (early-20th-century sculptor Einar Jnsson is tops). Naturalists can go on a whale-watching cruise, or ride a ferry to an island getaway. Modern architecture fans can ogle the award-winning Harpa concert hall, then walk along the shoreline to the iconic