48 Hours in Reykjavík | The Perfect Stopover

What’s the best part of going to Europe? You can build in a stopover in Iceland!

OK, getting to your destination and having a blast is also just as great, but you get my point. Icelandair offers a stopover for up to seven days either on the way to your destination or the way back to your home city—and they also had the lowest fares going to and from Germany, which worked out favorably. The airline has been heavily advertising the stopover option on socials, and I was influenced to say the least.

Day 1

I spent almost exactly 48 hours in Reykjavík, the capital city and one of my favorite places I’ve been to. After getting into the city the first morning, I took a walk up to the docks in the Grandi neighborhood. There are smaller boats as well as larger ships along the water, and from some parts, you can get a view of Mount Esja in the background. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was already out and about—very fitting given that it was the first day of Icelandic summer.

The docks were nice, but the truth is, the walk was mostly to kill time before Brikk opens for breakfast. Brikk has some of my favorite pastries (my partner says he dreams about the bakery all the time). We got drip coffees, a croissant, and a citrus custard cruffin. The coffee is really good, and even though a sweet cruffin isn’t the most breakfast-y item it was a lovely balance of sweet and tart, and the pastry was super flakey.

After breakfast, I made my way to the National Gallery of Iceland. It’s a small museum, though admission gets you into their original gallery as well as the newer House of Collections. I browsed through a video piece featuring instances of nature in Iceland among some other exhibitions. This is a small museum, so I got through it within the hour (and I didn’t make it to the House of Collections but definitely will next time). After the museum, I walked around Tjörnin, a small lake in the city center, whose name actually means “the pond.” I love seeing the colorful buildings around the lake, and there’s a good view of Mount Esja from the west side too.

Laugavegur is Reykjavík’s main street and one of the city’s oldest streets. According to Guide to Iceland, the name translates to “the water road” because women used to bring their laundry up and down the area to be washed in the hot pools. Today, the street is lined with restaurants, boutiques, winterwear stores, and great cafes like Sandholt. I took a stroll down Laugavegur and got a chicken sandwich with romesco for lunch, and the sauce and sourdough bread were top notch.

…and then I took a nap break. It had to happen, I was running on a total of six hours of sleep from the previous two nights.

When I woke up, it was time for a long-awaited reservation at Dill. My partner and I had a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite restaurants featuring Icelandic ingredients. It was the perfect way to close out our first night in Iceland and to start a ten-day trip in Europe. And when we walked out of dinner at 9:30pm, the sun was still out and about!

Day 2

Day two in Reykjavík started with a quick jog around Tjörnin. I’m not going to lie, I thought it was going to be only a slightly chilly run once I warmed up. But my god, the wind is so, so cold. Still, it was nice to see the lake again and some other parts of the city nearby, as well as work up an appetite for breakfast.

Then I went to Brikk yet again. In my defense, I tried ostasalat with sourdough instead of a pastry this time around. Ostasalat is a cheese salad with peppers and some other goodies, and it’s a creamy, salty, and tangy topping for bread. The sourdough bread was excellent, however the ostasalat was so surprisingly delicious that I’ve been thinking about it since. You absolutely need to come here; I promise you won’t regret it.

Something you should do if you’re in the Grandi neighborhood is to visit and climb the Þúfa. It’s a bit of a weird walk through what looks like garages, which I believe house some small businesses and makers. You can take a bus too, but I think the walk is part of the experience, and you can stop by the Grandi Food Hall or Omnom Chocolate for some treats on the way. Þúfa is an art piece by Icelandic artist Ólöf Nordal who wanted to create something for serenity and meditation in the city. There’s dried fish hanging in a shed at the top representing fishing’s significance to Iceland. At the top, I got to admire a new perspective of the city and be a little afraid of tumbling down.

Rekjavík is a super walkable city; it took me about 40 minutes to walk from Grandi to Hallgrimskirkja, Iceland’s tallest building and largest church. I’d say this walk was a rapid city tour, walking through Laugavegur again, then up the famous rainbow street, and finally reaching the church.

We then went to Sky Lagoon, a geothermal bath about 15 minutes outside of Reykjavík. No photos from this one, but I highly recommend going to a bath on a stopover to unwind. And yes, you should do the cold plunge before the sauna—when in Iceland, right?

For our last meal in Reykjavík, we headed to Skál! The exclamation point is part of their name of course, and “skál” is the equivalent of “cheers” when drinking. Skál! is located in Hlemmur Mathöll, Reykjavík’s first food hall on the site of an old bus station. They have some seasonal menu items and some mainstays. I had a beautiful raw scallop dish with horseradish cream, basil and hazelnut oils, and red currant granita. If I had to pick one favorite dish of this stopover, the scallops would be it—the flavors were very exciting and I just love raw scallops. My partner and I also split an arctic char dish and a skirt steak plate, both of which were as good as the last time we went to Skál!

Einstök Bar was where we decided to close out our second and last night in Iceland. My partner and I technically bought some stakes in Einstök during their StartEngine investment period. I have no clue where those shares went, and the only evidence I have of the investment was a free quarter zip sweater I got for contributing, but I figured I should go to a brick and mortar location of something I invested in. It’s a very cozy bar compared to all of the breweries I’ve been to, and the craft beers were all quite good, especially the Arctic Berry Ale.

OK, I lied: actual last thing I did was get an Icelandic hot dog at Bæjarins Beztu Pyslur. I got it with everything—it’s the only right way to order one.

The next morning, I was on the bus then on the plane to Germany. I loved this little stopover and even though I’ve been twice, I can’t wait to go to Reykjavík yet again.