How to get the most out of a short stay in the Icelandic capital from the music people who live and work there.
Reykjavík’s hidden charms can often be overlooked by most tourists heading to the Icelandic capital as a jumping off point for some once-in-a-lifetime nature experiences (whales, puffins, geysers, waterfalls, glaciers), or those in town for Iceland Airwaves in November.
Iceland’s boom in visitors at the start of the 2010s has resulted in tourism becoming the country’s largest export sector thanks to its extraordinary beauty and relatively accessible location - roughly equidistant between North America and Europe by plane. Like most of the nordic region, Iceland can be pricey once you’re on the ground but flights still remain respectably affordable. If you’re flying transatlantic to or from the UK to Canada or the US, Icelandair also let you add a stopover in Iceland for no additional cost, and for up to a week.
BEST FIT's been heading over to Reykjavík for more than decade for four days of music and partying at Iceland Airwaves – still our favourite festival anywhere in the world. One thing we’ve learned in that time is while the northern lights are fantastic and the Golden Circle is a joy, the capital’s downtown area can match them both if you just take a second to find your feet, grab a map and talk to the locals. We’ve been doing it for years and it’s led to some of the best sidequests and doing-it-for-the-plot moments that we can’t possibly repeat here.
So ditch the tourist traps and don’t bother with the penis museum - take some advice from our friends in and around the Icelandic music scene and plot out your Reykjavík trip with some of these off-the-beaten track recommendations.
Go to a public swimming pool
Nína Solveig Andersen: I teach all my non-Icelandic friends one Icelandic word and word is sund. S-U-N-D, quite simple. The reason I do this is because no words in other languages describe sund the right way. “I’m going to the public pool” sounds boring; “I’m going to the spa” sounds too fancy, but “I’m going to the local hot tub, water park, main neighborhood meeting point” sounds more correct!
Sund is so many things. Quite simply explained, it is a public, relatively cheap, municipality driven swimming and bathing place. The sund-laugar (swimmingpools) are spread all over the country and are as different as they are many. The reasons people go to the sund varies from person to person. The first guests in the morning are usually the retired people that always sit in the same small hot tub while the whole area is empty, and discuss the recent political scandals. By midday, artists, the unemployed, and daydreamers go there to relax in the warm water, or swim a few lazy meters. Around four o’clock, kids arrive with their parents, splashing in the shallow pools and showing off their progress from school swimming lessons. And after dinner, the teenagers and young adults take over, gossiping in the hot tubs until the lifeguards start ushering them out.
For me, Sund is a place to get a break from the stress and fast pace of everyday life. I (quite recently started to) enjoy swimming while I’m there. I tend to get some of my best ideas for new songs, music videos or any other creative work while I’m there. Sund is also the place I go to catch up with friends, and is also the only place where it’s nice to be outside, no matter the weather. Or as we say “there is always good weather in sund!"
Icelandic artist, songwriter and producer Nína Solveig Andersen makes music as Lúpína and plays Iceland Airwaves this November
Crate dig at one of the city's record stores
Jóhannes Bjarkason: An indelible institution at this point, 12 Tónar has seen a major revitalisation in recent years in part to their recent renovations. Located on Skólavörðustígur since basically forever, the shop boasts an earnest neighbourhood charm fostered by owners Lárus and Einar, who now pride themselves in being able to serve you coffee (or beer) while you flip through the shop’s catalogue. Also operating as a label, 12 Tónar has the honour of supporting acclaimed artists Hildur Guðnadóttir, Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Víkingur Heiðar during their fledgling years. Now a community hub for musicians and creatives alike, they emphasise hosting events, ranging from an energetic punk show to ambient DJ sets. Maybe even in the same night.
Another legendary instutition, Smekkleysa is integral to the history of Sykurmolarnir [The Sugarcubes], Björk, and Purrkur Pillnikk — to name a few. Having jumped around town, this record store has now found a permanent location (hopefully) in the newly renewed Hjartagarðurinn. Similarly to 12 Tónar, Smekkleysa’s upper floor serves as a café, while their downstairs area holds their record collection and doubles as a concert venue. Fans of Björk keep their eyes peeled for Smekkleysa’s rare Mánakvöld, where the artist usually ends up performing alongside a smattering of local artists.
Perhaps the pioneer of the vinyl renaissance in Iceland, Lucky Records started as a booth in the quintessential Kolaportið before becoming a hole-in-the-wall somewhere on Hverfisgata. A few sold copies later, they moved into a bigger (and brighter) storefront just by the bustling Hlemmur. Unlike 12 Tónar and Smekkleysa, Lucky Records is not a café. But if you ask nicely, one of the long-standing record dealers might let you gander near the coffee machine while they advise you on which albums to buy.
Reykjavík Record Shop is a relatively new addition to the Reykjavík record store fauna and boasts a small storefront. Don’t let the size fool you — as a label, they represents some of the most cutting-edge artists in town. Recently changing ownership, RRS offers a diverse selection of Icelandic music in addition to their consignment service.
Alda Music is a a subsidiary of Universal Music Group and Iceland’s biggest label company. Founded by musicians Ólafur Arnalds and Sölvi Blöndal, they opened a record store in conjunction to their label operations. Found in Reykjavík’s Grandi neighbourhood, Alda Music sells anything from Icelandic indie to American hip-hop.
Jóhannes Bjarkason plays with post-punk band Skoffín and is music editor at Icelandic newspaper The Grapevine
Lunch at the Nordic House
Jófríður Ákadóttir: The Nordic House is a library and institution for Nordic culture, and it serves to promote Nordic culture in any shape. It's surrounded by the Vatnsmýrin Nature Reserve and there's a lot of birds that live there. You're not really allowed to go into the swampy land around it so they've built paths where you can actually walk over those areas.
The architecture is gorgeous and it's designed by Alvar Aalto. The furniture is also amazing and there's this vegan cafe called Plantan where you can site and look out through big windows over the pond and into the distance where there's an iconic outline of the city. It's worth the walk or bus ride out there just to go and sit in that spot.
After co-founding Samaris and Pascal Pinon, Jófríður Ákadóttir now makes music solo as JFDR, with a trio of albums behind her. She plays at Iceland Airwaves in November.
A stroll round the west of Reykjavík
Rakel Leifsdottir: Vesturbær – the west town of Reykjavik - is a wonderful neighbourhood, but you sort of have to know it to navigate it. I have a life in Hackney, and then I have a life in Vesturbæjar and I love that I can jump between the two. And when I come to Vesturbær, I have a routine that I call the Holy Trinity.
The first part is when you wake up in the morning and go to Vesturbæjarlaug, which is the local pool. If you're lucky, you can get a changing room in the sauna – this sounds very sexy, but it's not – it’s just different types of changing rooms, either the outdoor or the sauna one. If you go to the sauna changing rooms or the hot tubs, people are very chatty but you can be by yourself if you want to… and then when you leave, you feel fresh, like a newborn.
Then you go and do the next party of the trinity, which is Melabúðin, a wonderful family-run store. A lot of the stores here in Reykjavik are chains and we don't have many corner shops – it’s not really a thing here anymore, sadly. Melabúðin is one of the few non-chains, it’s a bit like a delicatesson. You go there for your special items you can’t get everywhere else – your Club Mate, your dulse seaweed, your lamb… and you bump into so many people there too, which is really nice.
And then it’s Kaffivest (Kaffihús Vesturbæjar) where you can sit down here and journal and just enjoy being here. As a bonus you can head down the street from Kaffivest to Ægisíða. It's really special - this coastline where you can walk up next to the sea, away from the cars, and there's all these benches, there's a little swing, you can just sit there and look and stare at the beautiful sea. And it's quite nice to do that when the volcanoes are going off – which they keep on doing every few months - you can go to Ægisíða and watch it from there.
Reykjavík-born Rakel Leifsdottir spent her childhood living in California and now splits her time between the UK and Iceland as one third of Dream Wife.
Visit the Hafnar.haus artist community
José Luis Anderson: The idea of Hafnar.haus is to offer artists access to a creative community and the possibility of a workspace or a studio space that’s much more affordable than in the rest of the city. So when my friends come to Reykjavík – especially artist friends – I like taking them here. When I first came to this country from Mexico, I would have loved to have known about a place like this that can give you the possibility of meeting lots of new people who are active on the scene and make friends.
It’s located above the Reykjavík Art Museum. My studio is there and I do most of my work as Andervel there – and there are other musicians too as well as videographers, mixers, painters and writers – and you just pay per square metre. It’s a big part of the creative scene here in Reykjavik, and there’s people doing all sorts of things – it's a little bit like being in school too because there’s a cafeteria and very nice vegan lunches – you all go there at 12.30 and everyone sits together to eat.
It also gives you the chance to try out new ideas with all these people. We started a video podcast called Litla Gróðurhúsa Familia for artists to showcase their work and to contribute to the process of cultural adaptation for new Icelanders, like myself, and it was all because we were all close to each other in the “Haus”: there was a videographer there and then another friend who is a visual designer and another one who works as a project manager for the library. You just get together with people and do something that maybe you would never have done if you didn’t have that space.
Andervel is the music project of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist José Luis Anderson. Born and raised in Mexico he moved to Iceland in 2018 and makes folk music combining lyrics in Spanish, English and Icelandic. He plays at Iceland Airwaves in November.
Eat your way around Reykjavik like a local
Rakel Sigurðardóttir: Iceland isn't that old of a country and the restaurant scene is pretty young as well, so I'm always trying to find something that's older, and that can be quite hard as there's always new things happening. And Icelandic people are very much always trying new things but I like places that are a little bit quirky and kitschy.
When I'm running late – maybe on the way to studio – and I need to grab something quick, there's bakery called BakaBaka. It’s a restaurant too, and they have this ham and cheese croissant thing - and every time I have it, I'm like oh my god! I have a physical reaction to it because it's so good – it has crispy cheese on top and it's so soft and nice when you're in a hurry and you don't get the flakes all over you like on a normal croissant!
Þrír frakkar is a place just up the street from where I live and it’s one of the oldest places in town; I think it’s been there since 1989. On Thursdays they have this special lunch: breaded lamb cutlets – they’re fried and a little crispy – and served with sugared potatoes and canned peas, canned red cabbage with this brown sauce, and rhubarb jam. We just love to eat sweet things here because everything's really salty – and we love how the salty and sweet go together. There are men in suits at Þrír frakkar that have been going there for years, always talking politics or whatever. It’s a very special experience in Reykjavík for me but I don't go every Thursday because it's not maybe the healthiest, but once in a while I like to treat myself.
My favourite restaurant used to be a cafe back in the days called Tíu Dropar but they closed that right about the time I moved from Akureyri to Reykjavík. Then this new place opened called Tíu Sopar (‘Ten Sips’) and they just have really good food there. My favourite dish is the smoked mackerel, and they serve it on top of potatoes and caramelised onions. It's very simple and it's so good. It’s very casual and laid back, with good wines and good food and good service.
Jómfrúin is a place that serves Danish Smørrebrød - open sandwiches. A lot of what we have in Iceland, it turns out, is actually Danish! This is one of the oldest places in town, and I like to go there alone or with a friend and have a beer or snaps and some Smørrebrød. The staff are super nice and they’ve been doing it for so long so it feels friendly and homey. People like to go in big groups too and it’s a big thing at Christmas – they have a special Christmas menu and when people go to a Christmas concert or something, they often go there first. A lot of what they serve is what we’ve adopted as Christmas food in Iceland - things like the warm pate, with jam and gravy. People book to go there at Christmas way in advance!
Skál! used to be up at Hlemmer in the food court, but they opened their own place on this cute corner on Njálsgata. They have really good food using Icelandic ingredients but I actually like to go there and have a martini. They serve half-martinis, in case you don’t want a whole one, and it always stays cold. They have different types - I had a tomato-infused one the other day. They have a good bar to sit at but the high chairs are a bit uncomfortable, so you don't want to stay for too long on those!
We don’t have a lot of roaster coffee in Reykjavík. It’s hard to to find good coffee and it is expensive, no matter where you buy it but I go to Reykjavík Roasters for mine. They have three spots around town and I like to go to Ásmundarsalur, which is a gallery on Freyjugata, and they have a spot on the first floor with an outside area which is nice to sit on. They also have one on Kárastígur and another up near Hlemmur. We also have a Starbucks in Iceland but please don’t go there! There’s only tourists in there drinking frapuccinnos!
I love liquorice and in Iceland my favourite is Sambó Lakkris who make these bars in yellow packets. They also have these rolled up marzipan and licorice wheels that are really good. And here we love to mix licorice with chocolate. Some people hate it and I really don’t understand that. Everyone in Iceland loves liquorice!
Singer-songwriter RAKEL makes music that draws on memory, atmosphere, and personal reflection, shaped by her upbringing between Akureyri and her family’s farm in Hrútafjörður. Her album A Place To Be is released via the Ólafur Arnalds-founded OPIA Community on 17 October and she plays Iceland Airwaves this November.
Visit the Recycled House
Sunna Margrét Þórisdóttir: Before I moved to Switzerland, I was living on Snorrabraut in Reykjavík, which is really close to Hlemmur - the old bus terminal that’s now now a food court – and a from there it’s really quick to walk to the sea. I would very often go and walk by the sea, because it's really nice to feel the fresh air in you face, and I would cross paths with tourists who would tell me they weren’t sure what to do in Reykjavík. And I would say: hey, I'm walking over to this crazy house, come with me! And they would be like: mind blown, because this place isn’t in any of the booklets, nobody really speaks about it.
So if you head north, a bit towards the towards the outskirts of the city, you will eventually arrive at this house on Laugarnestangi. It’s the home of the filmmaker Hrafn Gunnlaugsson, who did a very famous movie called Hrafninn Flýgur (When the Raven Flies).
I first stumbled upon it by accident and thought What the hell is going on here? because it looked like a place of witchcraft, somewhere you should definitely not enter, and full of danger! But I just went and looked around and as I understand it, he built this place out of the same material they used for Nissen huts during the Second World War. He also used a lot of things that washed ashore and made this crazy world there; in English it’s called ‘The Recycled House’.
I guess it’s been known for a while in Iceland but quite recently it’s become a tourist attraction too. They actually do tours there and it’s not that expensive. I read that the actor Ezra Miller tried to buy it off him – he just came to the house one day and knocked on the door and offered him something like two million US dollars - but he declined!
Sunna Margret makes experimental electronic art-pop drawing from influences such as CAN, Suzanne Ciani and PJ Harvey. The Iceland born and Switzerland-based artist plays Iceland Airwaves this November.
Party with the Icelandic rap scene at cafe/venue Prikið
Kolfreyja Bogadóttir: Prikið is the oldest coffee shop in Iceland and has played a big part in my story and in my music career. It’s been just a really huge part of underground Icelandic culture since 2015 and it’s an amazing place: the graffiti, the art, the music, the fashion and the people that go there. A lot of kids here – most of my friends – we call ourselves Prikið babies. I started going to Prikið when I was 16, and partying there, and I spent most of my younger years there and still do! This is the place where we grew up!
I don’t know what it is about the energy in Prikið but there’s a community here and it’s been revived again after Covid, when everything got very low in Reykjavík. They do these shows each month called “Ís í brauðformi” – which means “icecream in a cone” - and put on underground and new artists alongside bigger ones. They pull these artists from all around and they just support them. So many people in the rap scene here like Gisli Palmi, Joey Christ and Alvia Islandia - they all got huge in Prikið.
I’m not in a in a record deal or anything but when I came out with my album 222 earlier this year, Geoff (Geoffrey Þór Huntingdon-Williams, manager and co-owner of Prikið and its spin off label Sticky Records) funded everything. He’s worked here since he was young – he just took Prikið and he was like: this is my home, which I think a lot of people in Iceland do. He's like the protector of us all, and he really loves art and culture. It’s such an amazing opportunity to have this trust in someone, to believe in someone like that.
As Alaska1867, Kolfreyja Bogadóttir started releasing music on SoundCloud in 2019 and released her debut album 222 at the start of 2025. She plays at Iceland Airwaves this November.
Where to end the night
Daníel Jón: What to do after 20 shows and 20 beers? I’m afraid there’s an incoming hangover and they say grabbing a bite after a night out helps with that.
But where to go? It’s so easy to stumble into the wrong place and become “matsár”, which could be translated to “food bummer”. This is an indulgent meal and when you drunkenly decide to go all in, it better be good.
If you want to keep it basic and the weather is good (fat chance), you could check out the hot dog stand, Bæjarins Beztu. It’s a tourist favorite so there might be a queue, but it’s always good. I recommend getting at least two hot dogs and if you’re feeling frisky, a chocolate milk (Kókómjólk) to drink. I take mine only with ketchup which offends people, so you might want to play it safe and get one with everything, or just say “eina með öllu”.
Unfortunately, there’s not much of a kebab culture in Iceland, but I feel like we’re slowly getting there. There’s a new-ish late night kebab shop on Ingólfsstræti called Kebab House 101. You can eat inside and it’s open until 6 A.M. on weekends. It’s always comforting to shove your face into a kebab after a sinful night.
We do love our shawarmas and there’s always an “it” shawarma place in Reykjavik. These days it’s Arabian Taste and rightfully so. It’s really good and perfect if you’re staying more uptown, closer to Hlemmur. To be honest, sometimes the people who work in those places can be a bit rude, but not at Arabian Taste! Delightful people who work there.
If you really hate yourself at the end of the night, you might want to go to Hlöllabátar. It’s at Ingólfstorg and you can sit inside, though it’s not really spacious. It’s a good place to watch drunk people and maybe feel better about yourself. They have greasy subs which I have only consumed while drunk. It always works under the influence and it’s a safe bet.
But on to my favorite: Devitos Pizza. It’s quite hidden these days due to construction near Hlemmur, but if you find it, have a slice from the turning heat box thing. It’s an absolute must.
It’s a risk though. Sometimes it’s just closed out of the blue and sometimes the slices have been in there for a tad too long. But when it all goes right, it’s sublime and worth the risk. Sbarro at the convenience store 10-11 is been surprisingly good as well. It’s a 24/7 place, so there’s no hurry. You can also buy some greasy food and a Powerade to have ready in the morning. But don’t be tempted to buy a frozen pizza to make at home. You will forget it in the oven and it will burn to a crisp.
Remember: a hangover is a state of mind. Eat well, push through, have a morning after drink and have a good time. Ekki vera fáviti!
Daníel Jón is singer/songwriter and guitarist in Iceland indie bans Superserious who play Airwaves this November.
Tickets for Iceland Airwaves 2025 are available to purchase now, including package travel and festival tickets in partnership with Icelandair from icelandairwaves.is
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