Reykjavik at the Odinsve Hotel

When going to Reykjavik, Iceland, you'll notice that pretty much everyone can speak English and the Icelandic people are very friendly. It's in a way surprising since the Icelandic people descend from the Vikings, who were not known as the nicest group of people around.

Make sure you take advantage of the many tours that Reykjavik Excursions offers and see the countryside outside of Reykjavik. There are many nice areas to be explored with waterfalls, geysers, mountains, etc.

Bring lots of money. You’ll need it. The banks really love euros and US dollars.

Quick Tips:

Again, bring a lot of money with you as staying in Iceland is rather expensive. To cut on some dining expenses, bring some snack food with you to nibble on as it will preserve your budget for more fun things.

Make sure to visit the Blue Lagoon. Its water is 104 degrees F and a great place to relax after strolling around Reykjavik all day, or having been on one of the many excursions that are available.

If you have little time to spend in Iceland, do the Golden Circle Tour. It’ll show you some of the nicest, most beautiful places in southwest Iceland.

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxis are relatively inexpensive taken into consideration how expensive things are in Iceland. Your hotel or guesthouse will call a taxi for you and it will literally be there within a few minutes.

For excursions, the best way to get around is with the tour buses of Reykjavik Excursions. To get from the airport to your Reykjavik hotel, it's best to get a ticket on the fly-bus that leaves every 15 minutes or so.

The Odinsve Hotel is a relatively small hotel right in the heart of Reykjavik. It's about 4 blocks away from Laugavegur, which is the main shopping street in Reykjavik. Even though the hotel is so close to the main shopping street, it's located in quite a residential part of town.

The hotel is very clean and rooms are good sized for European standards. Every room in the hotel is decorated differently. The rate includes a free breakfast buffet with cereal, cheeses, pastries, beverages, eggs, yogurt, etc. If you know how expensive food is in Iceland, this breakfast buffet is a real bonus.

The staff is very friendly and extremely helpful. If you need directions, they show you where to go. If you need a taxi, they'll have one for you in minutes, literally.

Next time we'll be in Reykjavik, we will for sure go back to the Odinsve Hotel for our stay.

If you need somewhere to stay in Reykjavik, consider the Odinsve Hotel.

The Geyser Hotel Restaurant is right across the street from the geyser area and is a 2-hour stop on the Golden Circle Tour.

The restaurant serves a buffet of seafood, chicken, mutton, potatoes, soup, cheeses, bread, pastries, desserts, etc., and is pretty tasty.

With a price of 2,300 Icelandic Kronars ($34) it's expensive by US standards, but by Icelandic standards it's not that bad.

When having to make the choice of eating either here or the convenient store across the street, I would recommend eating here and tasting some of the Icelandic food before admiring the geysers.

Gullfoss is absolutely gorgeous. Gullfoss is a stop on the Golden Circle Tour run by Reykjavik Excursions and is known as the most beautiful waterfall in Iceland. Gullfoss is located about an hour's drive east of Reykjavik and the water is very cold.

The fall never freezes over because of the fast running water, but the rocks around the fall are very slippery. There is a path leading down to the waterfall and it's fairly muddy, but well worth the effort walking the path. You can walk right up to the water and touch it, but be careful as there really are no safeguards to prevent you from falling into the water.

Nevertheless, I had to touch the water and I can tell you, it's very cold. In the winter and early spring the mist from the falls actually turns into snow because of the low temperature.

The Great Atlantic Rift, in the Þingvellir National Park, is a very impressive place to be. It's where Europe and North America meet...their tectonic plates that is. The Atlantic rift goes practically from the South to the North Pole, but is only visible in this part of Iceland.

This area shows you where one minute you're walking on the Eurasian tectonic plate and after a 10- to 15-minute hike you're walking on the North American tectonic plate.

In the area in between there are lots of cracks in the earth's crust, which is basically a void filled with magma, which of course has cooled and hardened so you can walk there. In this area it's important to stay on the paths, because a lot of the cracks in the crust are hidden in water or under vegetation and someone could easily fall into these cracks never to be seen again, as some of these are very deep.

It's however a very beautiful place to spend some time and just relax and enjoy the surroundings. I have been in many places in the world, but this one was truly impressive.

This review will show that not all travel reviews are good reviews, but even bad experiences should be reported on.

On the day that we (a party of four) were supposed to leave, we decided to check and look on the Minneapolis/Saint Paul Airport website to see if Iceland Air Flight 656 from MSP to Reykjavik was on time or delayed. At that time, some in our party were already on their way to the airport.

To our surprise, we saw that there was no flight scheduled to Reykjavik from MSP and started calling Iceland Air in Maryland.

After calling back and forth for two and a half hours, we got put on the next day's flight to Reykjavik and we were all upgraded to business class for the flight over, but not the return flight. They said they would also try to upgrade our hotel. Also, they gave us all a free excursion in Iceland called "The Golden Circle Tour" and refunded us a night's stay at the Odinsve Hotel.

Iceland Air told us that there was never a flight planned that day and that we somehow fell through the cracks. Meanwhile, we were not the only ones they sold tickets to, as people were arriving at MSP airport only to find out that they were not going anywhere.

We left the next day and the rest of the trip went a lot better.