Explore all 42 countries

Ósvör is an open-air maritime museum just outside Bolungarvík, a reconstruction of a 19th-century fishing station opened in 1988 on the ruins of old fishing huts. Visitors see a turf-and-stone crew hut, a salt house, a fish-drying hut and the rowing boat Ölver, and in summer a guide in sheepskin fishing clothes explains how the fishermen lived.

Sky Lagoon is a geothermal spa at Kársnes harbour in Kópavogur, opened in 2021 a few kilometres south of central Reykjavík. Its open-air pool of geothermal water at around 38–40 °C ends in an edge facing the sea, and a bathing ritual leads through a cold plunge, a sauna with sea-view windows, a cold mist, a body scrub and a steam room.

The National Museum of Iceland, founded in 1863, has occupied its building on Suðurgata in Reykjavík since 1950. Its permanent exhibition, Making of a Nation, traces Icelandic history from the settlement to the present with about 2,000 objects, among them the carved medieval church door from Valþjófsstaður.

Whales of Iceland is a natural history museum in the Grandi harbour district of Reykjavík, opened in 2015. Its hall holds life-size models of 23 whale, dolphin and porpoise species recorded in Icelandic waters, alongside skeletons, baleen, interactive displays on whale biology and a small cinema.

Reykjavík City Hall stands on the north shore of Tjörnin pond, a concrete and glass building by Studio Granda inaugurated in 1992 that houses the city council and the mayor's office. Its ground-floor public hall, Tjarnarsalur, is open to visitors and holds a 76 m² relief model of Iceland, alongside exhibitions and events.

The Settlement Exhibition lies beneath Aðalstræti 16 in central Reykjavík and is part of Reykjavík City Museum. At its centre is the excavated ruin of a Viking Age hall, found in 2001 and lived in around 930–1000, beside a wall dated to about 871. Finds from digs in the city are shown, and a passage leads on to Aðalstræti 10.

The Westfjords Heritage Museum is the local history museum of the Westfjords, housed in Neðstikaupstaður in Ísafjörður, a group of timber trading houses from the second half of the 18th century. Its main exhibition in Turnhúsið, opened in 1988, covers fishing and coastal life, with a collection of accordions and old wooden boats kept seaworthy.

The National Gallery of Iceland holds the national collection of Icelandic art. Founded in Copenhagen in 1884, it has occupied since 1987 a former cold-storage building of 1916 by Guðjón Samúelsson at Fríkirkjuvegur 7, beside Tjörnin pond, where four halls on two floors show its collection and changing exhibitions.

Alþingishúsið is the parliament house on Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, built in 1880–1881 of hewn Icelandic dolerite to a design by the Danish architect Ferdinand Meldahl. It holds the debating chamber of the Alþingi, and reliefs over four upper windows show Iceland's guardian spirits. Visitors see the building from the outside.

Hafnarhús is the harbourside branch of the Reykjavík Art Museum, in a former office and warehouse of the Port of Reykjavík built in 1933–39 to designs by Sigurður Guðmundsson. Converted by Studio Granda in 1998–2000, it shows changing exhibitions of contemporary art and a permanent display of works by the pop artist Erró.

Reykjavík Cathedral is the Lutheran cathedral on Austurvöllur square, built in 1787–1796 to a neoclassical design by Andreas Kirkerup and enlarged by Winstrup in 1847–1848. It is the seat of the Bishop of Iceland, and every session of parliament opens with a service here before members walk to the parliament house next door.

Harpa is the concert hall and conference centre on the old harbour in Reykjavík, opened in May 2011 and home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Henning Larsen Architects designed it with the artist Olafur Eliasson, whose facade of geometric glass panels recalls basalt columns. Its foyers, shops and restaurants are open outside concerts.

Hallgrímskirkja is the Lutheran parish church on the Skólavörðuholt hill in Reykjavík, designed by state architect Guðjón Samúelsson and built between 1945 and 1986. Its 74.5-metre concrete tower, modelled on basalt columns, has a lift to a viewing deck, and a statue of Leif Erikson stands in front.

Perlan is a glass dome set on six hot-water storage tanks on Öskjuhlíð hill in Reykjavík, designed by architect Ingimundur Sveinsson and opened in 1991. It houses a nature museum with a man-made ice cave, a planetarium show about the northern lights and a replica of the Látrabjarg bird cliff, and an observation deck runs around the dome.

Höfði is a white timber house by the shore in Reykjavík, prefabricated in Norway and put up in 1909 for the French consul. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met here at the 1986 Reykjavík Summit. The city uses it for official receptions, so visitors see it from the outside.

Raufarhólshellir is a lava tube more than 1,300 metres long beside the Þrengsli road between Reykjavík and Þorlákshöfn, the fourth-longest in Iceland. After a clean-up in 2016 it reopened in 2017 with lighting and a walkway, and visitors enter it only on guided tours run by the operator, The Lava Tunnel.

The Geothermal Exhibition is the visitor centre of Hellisheiði Power Station, Iceland's largest geothermal plant, run by ON Power by Mount Hengill about 25 km east of Reykjavík. A self-guided audio tour explains how steam from deep boreholes produces electricity and hot water for the capital area, with views into the turbine hall and models of the plant.

Reykjadalur is a geothermal valley about three kilometres long in Ölfus, north of Hveragerði, crossed by the warm stream Reykjadalsá. A hiking trail climbs from above the town past steam vents and mud pots to the stream, where visitors bathe in the warm water along a stretch fitted with wooden boardwalks.

Glymur is a waterfall of about 198 m at the head of Hvalfjörður, about 43 km north-east of Reykjavík in a straight line. The river Botnsá drops beside the mountain Hvalfell into a narrow canyon. It was long held to be Iceland's tallest waterfall until Morsárfoss was measured in 2011. Marked paths from the car park lead to viewpoints on the canyon rim.

Þingvellir National Park lies in a rift valley on the boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates, beside Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest natural lake. The Alþing, Iceland's general assembly, met here in the open air from around 930 until 1798. The park was founded in 1930 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004.