Europe Travel Guides

Points of interest

Reykjavík Botanic Gardens

These botanic gardens contain around 65% of naturally occurring Icelandic plant species. There are walking trails and water features, and a small cafe in the greenhouse serves coffee and waffles during summer. There is also a popular children's park and zoo on the the grounds.

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National Museum

If you need more Viking in your Iceland, the National Museum has a huge collection of artefacts from Norse and Icelandic history. Among the more interesting items here are the Valþjófsstaður church door, which dates from around 1200 and is carved with Norse battle scenes, and a beautiful little bronze model of the god Þór.

The museum was founded 140 years ago and shifted to its current location - across the large roundabout from Tjörn - in 1950. The museum's main exhibits are religious artefacts and tools from the Age of Settlement (late 9th to early 10th centuries) and later-era agricultural and nautical implements (both originals and well-worked models).

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Culture House

Housed in a grand, old, stark-white stone building, the Þjóðmenningarhús (Culture House) has exhibits on Viking myths and an impressive display of Icelandic saga manuscripts, plus changing exhibitions about Iceland's cultural heritage. Guided tours can be organised in English and Danish as well as Icelandic.

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Reykjavík Art Museum: Hafnarhús

Housed in a very stylish steel and concrete warehouse conversion, is a modern art gallery that's worth a look just for the building. Within the modernist, industrial interior are changing displays of painting, sculpture and installations, and a permanent exhibition of giant comic-book paintings by the political Icelandic painter Erró (Guðmundur Guðmundsson).

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Hallgrímskirkja

Looming over Reykjavík like a set from a Norse opera, the 75m-high (246ft) steeple is flanked by concrete representations of volcanic basalt columns - you can see it from 20km (13mi) away. The church took an incredible 34 years to be completed, starting in 1940 and finally opening in 1974. The view from the top of the tower is spectacular.

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Hverfisbarinn

This trendy bar and club attracts a stylish, studenty crowd, with long queues at weekends. It's done out in a cool, modern-Scandinavian style, which adds to the spacious feel. There's often live music on Thursdays, and always DJs on Fridays and Saturdays.

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NASA

The biggest nightclub in Reykjavík, NASA is a stripped-pine affair filled with Prada-clad crowds. It plays chart music and club anthems, and is also a venue for live bands - email them for upcoming music.

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Café Victor

There's a menu of sandwiches, salads, seafood and grills during the day, but it's at night that Victor really lets its hair down. Thursday evenings are cheap-beer night and there's no admission fee to the nightclub.

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Thorvaldsen Bar

This understated modernist bar is ultraposh, from the fusion-style food to the clientele. There are DJs from Thursday to Saturday - dress up well or you won't get in, and after midnight be prepared to queue... and queue. There's a tiny dance floor, and 'theme nights' on Caribbean Wednesday, Mojito Thursday and Sushi Sunday.

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Café Paris

Huge glass windows line three sides of this French-style café-bar. They look out on to the central square, Austurvöllur, and the bustling pavements of Reykjavík 101. Although there's a selection of light meals - sandwiches, crêpes, tacos - people come here for coffee, cakes, chatter, and to check out the crowds.

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Austur Indía Félagið

The northernmost Indian restaurant in the world is an upmarket experience and a true taste sensation. The chef whips up sublime spicy creations (may we heartily recommend the salmon tikka), the atmosphere is relaxed and the service friendly.

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Grænn Kostur

This friendly tucked-away cafe serves a changing daily special, along with lighter meals like pizza, pies, veggie burgers and salads. It's all organic and non-dairy, so it's good for the vegan in your life. Bargain-hunters should visit for the Sunday afternoon two-for-one special.

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Events

The Christian Lent celebrations that precede Easter are undertaken in Reykjavík in traditional Icelandic style, with Sprengidagur (Shrove Tuesday) marked by the loud slurping of pea soup and salted mutton. Food also dominates February's Þorrablót: originally a Norse feast, today it gives Icelanders an excuse to make like Vikings and snack on the more gruesome traditional dishes (boiled sheep's eyeballs, anyone?).

The first day of summer is officially at the start of June, but the citizens of Reykjavík let their anticipation get the better of them and stage a carnival to celebrate Sumardagurinn Fyrsti well ahead of schedule in late April. When Sjómannadagurinn (Sailors' Day) rolls around in the first week of June, every pair of sea legs in the country gets to take a day off to toast themselves with a glass or two of brennivín (burnt wine), a schnapps-style drink also known as svarti dauði or 'black death'.

Independence Day, a commemoration of when Iceland wriggled out from beneath the regal Danish thumb on June 17 1944, sparks the country's biggest festival, with lots of parades, outdoor concerts, dancing and old-fashioned costumes on display. More partying takes place on the nightless Midsummer Night on June 24, as well as in early August when people flock to camping grounds around the island to fire up barbecues and sing boozy renditions of folk songs for Verslunarmannahelgi.

Other big events on the calendar are Gay Pride in late August, which draws the second-highest attendance of all the city's celebrations, and Menningarnott (Culture Night), an evening of cultural events, with musicians and drunks on every street corner, and a massive fireworks display to round it all off.

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