Laugardalur & the Eastern Valleys
The green half of Reykjavík, and the half that most visitors never see. A wide valley of playing fields, botanical gardens, a zoo and the country's largest swimming pool, on the exact spot where the city's hot springs are — then further east, a salmon river running through a wooded gorge, and a village of relocated turf houses standing in for the Iceland that existed before all of this.
Who it's for: Families, unambiguously — the zoo, the botanical garden and Laugardalslaug are all within a five-minute walk of each other and will absorb a whole day. Anyone staying more than three nights. People who want the geothermal pool ritual done properly at the biggest and best-equipped pool in the country. And anyone who wants to understand what Iceland looked like before 1950, which is what Árbær is for.
Things to know
- Laugardalslaug is the biggest pool in Iceland: a 50-metre outdoor pool, an indoor pool, hot tubs at graded temperatures, a steam bath, a cold tub and waterslides. Adult entry is 1,500 ISK on the city's May 2026 fee schedule, children 10–17 pay 400 ISK, and under-10s with a guardian are free.
- Shower thoroughly, naked and without a swimsuit, in the communal room before entering any Icelandic pool. Attendants enforce it. Phones stay out of the changing rooms.
- The Botanical Garden (Grasagarðurinn) is FREE and open year round, with over 3,000 plant species — it sits directly between the pool and the zoo, and a lot of people walk past without realising it costs nothing.
- Reykjavík Park & Zoo won the Grapevine's Best Place To Take The Kids in 2026. It is a domestic-animal zoo — Icelandic horses, goats, sheep, plus seals, arctic foxes and reindeer — with a fairground area attached, and it is ticketed separately from everything else.
- Árbær Open Air Museum is 2,450 ISK for adults, free under 17 and over 67, and runs a free daily guided tour in English at 13:00 all year. In winter (September–May) the museum is ONLY open 13:00–17:00, so the 13:00 tour is effectively the reason to come.
- Árbær is about 6 km east of downtown — take bus 5 or 12, or drive. It is not walkable from the Laugardalur cluster despite being in the same broad district.
- Ásmundarsafn's outdoor sculpture garden is free, unfenced and open at any hour, even when the museum is closed. The building is worth seeing on its own.
- One Reykjavík Art Museum ticket at 2,550 ISK covers Ásmundarsafn, Hafnarhús downtown and Kjarvalsstaðir, valid 24 hours — so pair Ásmundarsafn with a downtown gallery on the same day.
- Þvottalaugarnar, the original geothermal washing pools, are preserved dry with interpretation boards in the valley. They take five minutes and they explain the entire country.
- This district is spread out. Buses 2, 5, 12, 14 and 17 serve various parts of it, but distances between sites are 1–6 km. Plan around one cluster rather than trying to see everything in a day on foot.