Reykjavík

Vesturbær & Seltjarnarnes

The residential west end, and the closest thing Reykjavík has to a neighbourhood you could imagine living in. Low streets of painted timber and pebbledash between the university and the sea, a swimming pool that functions as the local parliament, an ice cream shop with a permanent queue, and then the land narrows to a spit and ends at a lighthouse with nothing beyond it but the Atlantic.

Who it's for: Second-visit travellers, and anyone who has had enough of Laugavegur after two days. Museum people, since the National Museum and the Nordic House are both here. Aurora hunters, because Grótta at the end of the peninsula is the local dark spot. And anyone who wants to see how Icelanders actually live, which mostly means going to the pool.

Things to know

  • Grótta lighthouse sits on a tidal island. The causeway floods at high tide and people get stranded every year — check the tide times before you walk out, and if the water is over the path, do not cross.
  • The Grótta nature reserve is CLOSED for the arctic tern nesting season, roughly 1 May to 15 July. The shore path and the Kvika foot-bath stay open; the island itself does not. Terns dive-bomb intruders and they mean it.
  • Kvika, the small stone foot-bath beside the Grótta path, is free, always open, and runs at about 39°C. It is a foot bath, not a hot tub — you sit on the edge and put your feet in.
  • Vesturbæjarlaug is the pool locals rate above the big one in Laugardalur: three saunas, hot tubs, and the oldest hot tub in Reykjavík now serving as a cold plunge. Adult entry is 1,500 ISK on the city's May 2026 fee schedule.
  • Pool rules are enforced everywhere: shower thoroughly, naked and without a swimsuit, in the communal room before entering the water. Phones stay out of the changing rooms.
  • The National Museum is 3,300 ISK for adults and free for under-18s, open daily 10:00–17:00. It is the single best two hours of context you can get for the rest of the country, and it is worth doing early in a trip rather than late.
  • There are almost no restaurants here and nothing open late. Eat downtown, or use the handful of places listed — most of which close by early evening.
  • Seltjarnarnes is a separate municipality from Reykjavík, so it has its own pool, its own council and its own bus stops. It makes no practical difference except that some city passes behave differently — check before you rely on one at Seltjarnarneslaug.
  • The whole district is exposed to the sea on three sides. The wind at Grótta in winter is genuinely dangerous for balance, and the shore path is unlit in places.
  • Buses 11 and 13 run out toward Seltjarnarnes if you don't want the forty-minute walk, but service is thin at weekends. A taxi from downtown is about ten minutes.