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EDEN Luxury Travel, The Steamill, Steamill Street, Chester, Cheshire CH3 5AN
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01244 567000 / 0207 1580997
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Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm
Saturday 9.30am -to 3.00pm
Our Travel Boutique
27 King Street, Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6DW
Telephone
01565 656000
Opening Times
Our travel boutique embraces a flexible work environment.
Visit us in-person Monday to Thursday, 9:30am - 5:00pm.
Our dedicated team also works remotely on Fridays,
ensuring seamless support throughout the week.
The world’s northernmost capital, where geothermal energy heats the pavements in winter, steaming outdoor pools function as the city’s primary social infrastructure and the light behaves unlike anywhere else in Europe.
Settled by Norse Vikings in the 9th century, Reykjavik – one of the youngest, most remote capital cities in the world – feels less like a conventional capital and more like a small coastal community that gradually became one. Colourful corrugated iron houses sit beneath snow-covered mountains and the Atlantic weather changes by the hour. Even in the centre, the landscape is never far away.
In summer, daylight barely disappears, the sky staying bright well past midnight and giving the city an unusual energy that keeps cafés, bars and swimming pools busy long after the usual bedtimes. In winter, the darkness arrives early and stays long, with the Northern Lights appearing overhead on clearer evenings and the streets emptying between bursts of activity. And whatever the season, those steaming swimming pools keep waist-deep conversations flowing, regardless of the temperature outside.
Despite Iceland’s international profile, Reykjavik itself is surprisingly walkable – the old town, the principal museums and the harbour all within easy reach of each other, with cafés, contemporary art galleries, record shops and bars clustered around Laugavegur and the streets surrounding Hallgrímskirkja. Some of those bars occupy repurposed shipping containers, which tells you something about the city’s instinct for making things work with whatever’s available.
What takes longer to understand is how much is happening within that relatively small geography: a music scene that has produced a disproportionate number of internationally recognised artists, a restaurant culture that has developed serious ambition in a short time, and the Blue Lagoon – the vast geothermal spa set in a lava field 40 minutes from the city – still drawing visitors from all over the world to waters that Icelanders themselves treat as entirely ordinary.
Start your morning at Hallgrímskirkja as soon as it opens. The tower is the quickest way to get your bearings in a city of this scale, the view taking in the rooftops and harbour, particularly on brighter mornings when the mountains beyond the city seem unusually close.
Time for lunch at Icelandic Fish & Chips, which keeps things simple but distinctly local – fresh cod, haddock and Arctic char served with organic spelt batter and skyr-based sauces in a relaxed café near the harbour.
This afternoon takes place around Harpa and the Old Harbour, where fishing boats, seafood restaurants, whale-watching tours and converted industrial spaces all sit side-by-side along the waterfront. The weather and light change quickly here, and Harpa’s glass façade often looks completely different by the time you walk back past it later in the day.
As evening falls, Vesturbæjarlaug is the closest thermal pool to the harbour and one of the city’s more authentically local ones. An hour in the hot pots in the company of Reykjavik residents going about their Tuesday evening is as good an introduction to daily Icelandic life as anything else on the itinerary.
Dinner awaits at Grillið on the eighth floor of the Radisson BLU Saga Hotel – one of Reykjavik’s most established fine dining addresses for over 50 years, with panoramic views across the city and Faxaflói Bay and a menu developed around Icelandic ingredients. Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur – the small harbour-side hot dog stand that Icelanders and visitors queue for equally enthusiastically late into the evening – operates at the opposite end of the spectrum. Trading since 1937, it’s one of those Reykjavik experiences worth doing, regardless of where else you eat.
Begin your morning en-route to the Golden Circle, where lava fields, geothermal vents, waterfalls and mountain roads quickly replace the tight street grid of the capital. The route covers around 186 miles, changing radically depending on the season – long summer daylight stretching the landscape almost indefinitely; winter snow and ice make the scenery feel significantly harsher and more exposed. But it flows as smoothly as the landscape allows – Þingvellir first, then Geysir, then Gullfoss – and can be done comfortably in a day without being rushed.
Lunchtime beckons at Friðheimar greenhouse, located between Geysir and Gullfoss, and a natural stop for lunch. A working tomato farm serving lunch inside the greenhouses, its menu is constructed almost entirely around what’s growing in the vicinity. It’s a very Icelandic concept and much more appealing than it sounds.
Your afternoon moves between erupting geysers, volcanic terrain and glacier-fed rivers before slowing down at the Blue Lagoon, an easy final stop on the return towards Reykjavik. Back in the city by early evening, the summer light will still be going strong – time enough for a walk along the harbour or a drink somewhere on Laugavegur before dinner.
For dinner, Fiskfélagið, in a restored 1884 building near the harbour, brings Icelandic ingredients and more experimental Nordic cooking together. Each dish on the menu is named after a different country, and the local catch is treated with techniques and flavours from well beyond the North Atlantic. Café Loki, directly opposite Hallgrímskirkja, is a far more traditional alternative: lamb soup, mashed fish on rye bread, rye bread ice cream and, for the particularly curious, fermented shark with a shot of brennivín.
Your final morning takes you to Reykjavik’s museums before the city becomes busier, particularly around the harbour and central shopping streets. The National Museum and Saga Museum complement each other well – one grounded in historical objects and social history, the other leaning into the storytelling traditions and drama of Iceland’s medieval sagas.
A special lunch at Kopar, overlooking the harbour, where fishing boats move in and out throughout the day and Icelandic seafood dominates the menu. It’s popular enough with locals that it’s a good idea to book ahead.
Afternoon adventures allow for a slow wander through Laugavegur and the surrounding streets, dipping in and out of bookstores, record shops, bakeries, bars and small design studios. Later, head up to Perlan for one final panoramic view across the city as the light begins changing again – its hilltop position makes it one of the best places to understand how close Reykjavik is to the surrounding landscape.
For your farewell dinner, Matur og Drykkur reinterprets older Icelandic recipes and preservation techniques inside a converted salt-fish factory near the harbour. Messinn keeps things much simpler: large pans of butter-baked Arctic char, cod and potatoes arriving at crowded tables that fill quickly with both locals and visitors.
Afterwards, Reykjavik’s pocket-sized centre makes a final late-night ramble extremely easy – whether that means visiting the bars around Laugavegur, taking one last geothermal swim or simply walking the harbour beneath skies that, depending on the season, may never become fully dark.
