Enjoy the brand new Hveragerði 2.0

The beautiful little town of Hveragerði has just gotten an upgrade. The Hveragerði 2.0 now sports a great new hotel, a food hall, and a brewery that doubles as a gourmet pizza place. I am afraid, however, that Hveragerði often gets overlooked. When I recently planned a surprise birthday for my wife, I booked a disappointing hotel near Hella because I didn’t look at Hveragerði. On our way back to Reykjavik, we stopped for coffee at Hveragerði and came upon the new attractive hotel, The Greenhouse Hotel (Gróðurhúsið). I kicked myself for missing it in the birthday planning but having something nice planned for the weekend was great.

Planning a weekend at Hveragerði

When we stopped there, we were delighted that we could get coffee from Te og Kaffi and noticed the food hall on the ground floor. We decided to check if rooms were available for the Icelandic Shopkeepers Weekend. It is Iceland’s biggest travel weekend, and everybody but people working in services and shops gets Monday off. As it turned out, a room was available, and we planned a weekend in Hveragerði.

Hiking Hveragerði to Reykjadalur

The main event was to hike up to Reykjadalur valley and soak in the hot stream. The hiking trail is some 3-4 KM (2.2 miles) and should be suitable for most people. Just note that it gets a bit steep in some parts. The trail starts at a parking lot by a café where you need the EasyPark app to park. Install the app and set it up before you get to the parking lot; you have parked automatically when you enter it.

Bathe in Reykjadalur hot stream

The attraction of Reykjadalur is a warm geothermal stream that you can bathe in. Of course, that warm water results from Iceland’s fiery geology. Reykjadalur is part of the Hengill mountain range that is highly geologically active. The name Hveragerði translates to hot spring wall, and Reykjadalur means steamy valley from all the hot water and hot springs releasing steam. On the hiking trail, you might meet horses; the course seems to be on the route of horseback riding tours; watch out for the released “payload” from the horses! On the way, you will also see large mud pools and hot springs—approach with care.

Rustic bathing might be difficult for the shy.

There is a lovely photogenic waterfall in a canyon by the hiking trail called Djúpagilsfoss. After some 45 minutes of hiking, you will come to the hot river at Reykjadalur. It is very rustic up there. The changing facilities are essential, so if you are shy, you might have difficulty changing.

Champagne makes rustic Reykjadalur even better.

The river is just that, a clear warm stream in a sandy and rocky riverbed. My wife knows how to make life pleasant; in this case, she brought two mini-bottles of champagne and glasses. So there lounged and soaked, sipping champagne. Since it was the Shopkeeper’s weekend, we sang a few songs appropriate for that weekend. It became clear that we were the only Icelanders there since nobody joined in. People probably thought we were pretty deep in the champagne!

When we got to the hotel, we freshened up and had dinner at the food hall at Gróðurhúsið. We had spied the new brewery, Ölverk, which also has nice pizzaz. We didn’t get to the pizzas, but the beer there was delightful. And that was the night, great food and drink and lovely company.

The day after we had a really nice lunch at the Matkráin which offers Danish style Smorrebrod. It was delicious and a perfect cure for the night before. Just perfect.

Soar like a bird with MegaZipline

There is a new addition to the fun in Hveragerdi. I am of course talking about the MegaZ ipline which offers incredible thrills and spills. Sign up for the Stuck in Iceland newsletter to receive a discount code that gives you 10% off their rides on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays all year round.

How to find Hveragerði

Drive on highway 1 to the direction to Vík for 45 kilometers (28 miles).